Five People You Meet in Heaven Review

by Mitch Albom

Overall 4.82 of 5 view all 11 reviews

vivasuzi
Livonia, MI

Very interesting view of heaven!

an avid reader, a dreamer

Pros

Interesting, Opens your mind to possibilities, Moving experience, Quick read, Great feeling

JAN

2008

Five People You Meet in Heaven —

"This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun." This is how Mitch Albom's book begins. This sentance alone leads to much intrigue. Who is Eddie? How did he die? Why is Eddie so important? This filled me with curiosity and definitely puts you in the right mindset to read this book.

For the first few chapters of the book, the author describes, in vivid detail, the very last hour of Eddie's Life. Although he is only describing one hour of his entire life, I felt like I knew Eddie immediately. I understood more of where he came from, who he was now, and his basic personality. To keep it simple, Eddie is a mechanic who works on Rollar Coasters at Ruby Pier. The author does incorporate some flashbacks to Eddie's life to allow the reader to know exactly what this guy is about.

'Today is Eddie's Birthday' is the general theme of the entire book. This is the title of all the flashback chapters. It is very interesting to see what happened on Eddie's Birthday during various times of his life. I feel this was meant to show what his life meant over the years. It is not done in a boring way in which every birthday is described. Instead, only milestone birthday's are described. Only birthday's that relate to what is happening in the book. This ties together all the flashbacks instead of just throwing you into the past and then jumping back into the present. I've never seen this done before in any other book, and I liked the way it was done.

As you can tell from the first sentence of the book, Eddie dies. The book continues with Eddie waking up in 'Heaven'. But where he actually finds himself is in Ruby Pier, but it is a very different Ruby Pier. It turns out to be just like the Ruby Pier he grew up in. His journey starts here. Eddie meets the first person that is waiting for him in heaven. He is told how he will meet a total of 5 people in heaven, and they will help him to unravel his life. Each one will be someone from his past who had an impact on his life, even if he didn't know it at the time.

I'm not going to tell you all the people he meets on his journey. You can see that when you read this book. These 5 people help Eddie sort of translate what his life meant, but Eddie is also very focused on something that happened during his last hour of life. Will he find out what happened? Will he learn that his life was worthwhile and good? You can find that out for yourself.

From here on I will not discuss the plot of the book, I think I've said enough to spark your interest! I found it extremely interesting and thought provoking. I began to wonder if there are people waiting for you in your afterlife, and who would be waiting for me. This book doesn't focus on Eddie's religion or even his race. It is a book for everyone, regardless of what you believe is up in heaven. Even if you don't believe in an afterlife, maybe you will after reading this book. In 198 pages, you will at the very least start to think about the possibilities.

For those of you who are still on the fence, consider that this book was written by Mitch Albom, the author of the bestseller 'Tuesday's with Maury'. Obviously this book is not a true story, but it has elements that make it seem real, and touching as in Albom's other book.

Although the story is about an older man, this book appeals to the young and old. I know at least 5 different people who have read this (ages range from 21 to 50) and they all wanted to read it again. There was also a TV movie made based on this book. I haven't seen it but I plan to rent it sometime. I'm interested to see how they portrayed everything in the movie, but I suggest you read the book first and form your own images.

That is everything I can think of to say about this book! If I haven't convinced you to read this, then you probably won't be convinced. It's short enough that it's worth a try even if you don't think it's your type of book. This is not a book I would have normally read, but I still liked it a lot. Enjoy!!