Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

Tuesdays with Morrie is a true-to-life story about a sports writer, Mitch Albom, (who is also the author of the book), who looks after his old college professor, Morrie Schwartz, after hearing of his illness and soon the relationship between them rekindles after years apart.

The setting of the story is in Morrie's home in West Newton, Massachusetts.

The two main characters of the book are Mitch Albom and Morrie Schwartz. Mitch Albom earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where met and studied under his beloved professor, Morrie Schwartz. In 1982, Albom was awarded a Masters degree from Columbia University in New York. After failed stints as an amateur boxer and nightclub musician, Albom began his career as a sports journalist, writing articles for newspapers such as the The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Detroit Free Press where he was employed from 1985 until his reunion with Morrie in 1995. Albom also has his own nationally syndicated radio show, Monday Sports Albom. In 1995, Albom began gathering notes for his book, Tuesdays With Morrie, which documents his and Morrie's discussions on the meaning of life which they hold each Tuesday of every week in Morrie's home. On the other hand, Morrie Schwartz began teaching sociology in 1959 at Brandeis. It was not until 1995, when he was dying from ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, that Morrie ended his career as a professor. A fatal neuromuscular disease, ALS is characterized by progressive muscle debilitation that ultimately results in paralysis. ALS is commonly known as Lou Gherig's disease, after the famous baseball player who died of the disease in 1941 at the age of forty.

Mitch Albom recalls his graduation from Brandeis University in the spring of 1979. After he has received his diploma, Mitch approaches his favorite professor, Morrie Schwartz, and presents him with a monogrammed briefcase. He promises Morrie, who is crying, that he will keep in touch, though he does not fulfill his promise. Years after Mitch's graduation from Brandeis, Morrie is forced to give up dancing, his favorite hobby, because he has been diagnosed with ALS and his wife, Charlotte, cares for him, though at his insistence, keeps her job as a professor at M.I.T.

Sixteen years after his graduation from Brandeis, Mitch is feeling frustrated with the life he has chosen to live. He abandons his failing career as a musician to become a well-payed journalist for a Detroit newspaper.