Five People You Meet in Heaven Review

Mitch Albom's novel begins an hour before the death of its main character, an 83-year-old maintenance worker at a boardwalk amusement park named Eddie. Eddie dies trying to rescue a small girl from a falling gondola that breaks loose from a freefall ride in a freak accident.

The story is Mitch Albom's vision of Heaven, a place where the meaning of your life is explained to you by five people whose lives intersected your own, some of them in ways you might not have even noticed.

It's a story of closure and a story of purpose, of making sense out of the twists and injustices of life and of finding meaning in the small interactions that happen every day.

While the main plot of the story takes place in (a rather nondenominational) heaven, the book consists mosly of flashbacks, and it is in these sequences where Albom's writing really shines.

His characters are complex, richly detailed, and full of hidden beauty and intensity. From the blue-skinned sideshow freak to Eddie's abusive father to his commanding officer in the war, each character has their own fascinating story to tell. Albom weaves these seamlessly into the narrative and constructs a wonderfully detailed background for the Ruby Point Amusement Park, which is the main earthly location of the story.

But while Albom's vision of Eddie's life and his friends and family is brilliant, his version of heaven is dull and uninspired by comparison. There are few surprises, few answers beyond the trite "everything happens for a purpose" cliches, and Albom goes out of his way to dodge any kind of controversy. There is barely a mention of God, and certainly no discussion of any particular religious faiths.

To some extent, that fits with Eddie's character. He's not particularly religious, and certainly not religious in a dogmatic way. He's the perfect character to avoid asking questions that might get readers upset and ruin the feel-good message.

And it works for the most part. But Eddie still comes off as frustratingly passive, particularly for a man who was not only aggressively independent, but legitimately heroic during his life. He barely questions the five-person scenario, and noddingly accepts his five lessons, much as the author seems to expect his readers to accept them.

I feel like this story falls short as a philosophical or inspirational work. Fortunately, though, it succeeds on many levels as a story thanks to the richly detailed characters and background, which keep it an enjoyable read.