I stumbled upon The Last Lecture a few months ago while I was perusing Amazon’s best sellers list. I briefly read through the synopsis and bought the book immediately. The Last Lecture is quite literally the last lecture given by a brilliant Carnegie Mellon professor named Randy Pausch. The difference between Dr. Pausch’s lecture and every other teacher’s is that Randy is dying. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (which has an absurdly-high mortality rate) and given roughly six months to live. The lecture was given near the end of his life and recorded by a student. Pausch, along with a friend, transcribed and edited it to create The Last Lecture.
I so dearly wanted to be moved by this book. I bought it for that exact reason. I wanted something that made me go “Good God! I need to go live my life to the fullest!” Unfortunately, I felt anything but moved after finishing Pausch’s last words. The Last Lecture is basically a memoir left behind for the loved ones Randy was about to leave. It traces his life from childhood to his present situation.
While Pausch is not a bad writer, much of the text comes across as inarticulate and drab. I would image, however, that if one had attended the actual lecture, it would’ve had a greater impact. There are a few nuggets of wisdom here and there (eg: “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”), but for the most part the story was dull and uninspired. Though I hate myself for doing it, I must say that I believe the popularity of this book is only due to Dr. Pausch’s death. If I were to write a book like this, I guarantee you that it would never touch the best seller’s list, much less achieve national acclaim.
A few moments in the book made me stop and ponder for the briefest of seconds. For instance, Randy talks about how leaving behind his wife, Jai, and their three children (6 yrs, 3 yrs, 18 months). Pausch cries in the shower when he thinks of the future his children will have. I can’t fathom what it must be like to know that you are going to die in three months. To have to see the people you love every day and know that your time with them is swiftly coming to an end.
From what I gathered from the book, Dr. Pausch was a great man and will be sorely missed by hundreds, if not thousands, of people. The legacy he left behind is so grandiose in his field of study that I doubt a lackluster book such as The Last Lecture would do much to stain it. I would recommend this book only if you can get it for a good price (the copy I got was an astronomical $16.95 for 200 pages).
-Chad 2
