"The Stranger in the Lifeboat"

 

Before I get into what I thought of this latest best seller from Mitch Albom, please allow me to engage in a bit of self therapy.

If you know me, or if you have read this blog with any degree of regularity over the years, you know that I love to read.  It is not unusual for me to read over fifty books in a calendar year.  In 2021, I read 34 books, but I didn't read a single book, or at least I hadn't finished one, since last October, which is when my wife, Marilyn, died.  Not being able to focus on a single task at a time has been one of my struggles in this Grief Journey that I am on.  Reorganizing the home files, getting a budget that is "Bob-friendly" on paper, getting the Christmas decorations up, getting the Christmas decorations down, and, yes, blocking off time to sit down and read a book have all been things that I have found difficult over these past four months.   I know that this is not untypical for people in these circumstances, so I have been rolling with it, and, slowly, getting things on track.

A month or so ago, Tony Kornheiser had Mitch Albom on his Podcast for full one hour interview.  It was great show, every entertaining, and Albom is definitely an interesting and entertaining fellow.  He talked about his latest book of his, a novel, and I decided that this would be the book that I would start AND finish and get back on my normal reading track once again.   I will come back to the self-therapy at the end of this monograph, but first, the book.

A group of survivors who abandoned a luxury yacht that exploded in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa find themselves in a lifeboat.  Some are the rich and famous who were aboard the vessel, and some were members of the crew.  Mysteriously, they pull a young man out of the water, a man who was not on board the ship, who proclaims "I am the Lord.  I will save you all if you all believe that I am who I say I am."

In his review of this book back in November, the Washington Post's Ron Charles calls it "Albom's latest inspirational melodrama", and comes up with this brilliant line:  "Think of it as Tuesdays with Yahweh."

Charles didn't think too much of the book, and you can read his snarkily brilliant review of it HERE.   I have to say that I pretty much agree with Mr. Charles on this one.  "Melodramatic" is probably the best way to describe it.  Lots of implausible and cliched assumptions, and lots of treacly dialogue make up the story.  I wasn't crazy about the book, and at times l felt like I had to force myself to finish it, but finish it I did, and I am glad that I did, and that leads me back to the self-therapy that began this post.

On page 241 of this 267 page book, this bit of dialogue takes place as The Lord talks to Benji, the protagonist of the whole novel:

"When someone passes, Benjamin, people always ask, 'Why did God take them?' A better question would be 'Why did God give them to us?' What did we do to deserve their love, their joy, the sweet moments we shared?  Didn't you have such moments with Annabelle?"

"Every day," I rasped.

"Those moments are a gift.  But their end is not a punishment....

"Beginnings and endings are earthly ideas.  I go on.  Feeling loss is a part of why you are on Earth.  Through it, you appreciate the brief gift of human existence, and you learn to cherish the world I created for you.

"I know the tears you shed, Benjamin.  When people leave this Earth, their loved ones always weep. But I promise you, those who leave do not."

As I continue to come to grips with the death of my wife, I believe that this book is the one that I was meant to read first after her death, and of all the words on all the pages of Albom's novel,  I believe that those words quoted above were the words that I was meant to read.