Book of the Month
September 2010
Have A Little Faith: A True Story
by Mitch Albom [Author of Tuesdays with Morrie ]
Review by Sister Roberta Houlihan, C.S.J.
This is a true story, as was Tuesdays with Morrie. Mitch Albom has written two other books – fiction – that, for me, did not have the impact his real-life stories had.
The story of Have a Little Faith opens as Mitch’s 82-year-old Rabbi from his hometown asked Mitch to deliver his eulogy.
Mitch is puzzled – Why me? Besides, he had moved to Detroit and hadn’t been in contact with “the Reb”, as he called him, for some years. How could he agree to do this? Nonetheless, Mitch, says he will try, and begins making regular visits, in an attempt to gather some insights. Currently, Mitch’s home is near Detroit, where he also has become involved with a man, a reformed drug dealer and convict, who is now pastor of a large but very poor parish.
These two worlds: “Christian and Jewish, Afro-American and White, well-to-do and impoverished; Mitch finds himself between the two men whose worlds are vastly different, and so, too, the reader becomes engrossed in the ebb and flow, as Mitch goes back and forth trying to juggle the opposites so evident in these two worlds. The religious under-tones are many and fascinating. One thought-provoking question from the Introduction: “What if our beliefs were not what divided us, but what pulled us together?”
The book was lent to me from a friend. It took only a brief time to become wrapped up in the two very fascinating but different life stories. I highly recommend it for the enjoyment and enrichment it will bring to the reader.
