gracef's Full Review: Mitch Albom - The Five People You Meet in Heaven
From the very first pages of The Five People You Meet in Heaven, the reader knows that the main character is going to die. Eighty-three year old Eddie is a maintenance worker at Ruby Pier amusement park. And the first chapter slowly counts down to the time when Eddie is killed while attempting to save the life of a child in a freak accident. After the first chapter, things get a little more interesting. Eddie goes to Heaven, where he proceeds to meet five people. To each, he poses the question, "Did I save the little girl?" Instead of answering him, the people explain to him the significance of his life even before that final selfless act.
Sounds cheery, doesn't it?
In as much as The Five People You Meet in Heaven should be depressing, it's not. The story switches back and forth between flashbacks to Eddie's past birthdays, glimpses into what happens on Earth in the aftermath of Eddie's death, and discussions between Eddie and the people he meets in Heaven. Eddie is like most folks. He's a common man with scars on the inside and out that he carries with dignity. He's not perfect, but he does have a good heart. And even though he never accomplished all the things that he wanted in life, he did manage to affect lots of people, and the world would be a very different place without him.
So instead of feeling sad, I actually felt hopeful that there will be a tiny corner of Heaven for me, regardless of my flaws and my fairly common life.
This isn't a new concept for a story by any stretch of the imagination. Charles Dickens did it first (and better) with A Christmas Carol. If you can get past the "woe is me" factor in the movie It's a Wonderful Life, that's also a good tale of a man who learns the interconnectivity of people's lives.
But Mitch Albom, the author of The Five People You Meet in Heaven, still brings something to the story that makes it well worth reading. I've heard it said that anyone can write, and that may be true. But Albom is a real writer, one whose words virtually sing and whose thoughts venture deeper than surface level. And even when the thoughts aren't especially fresh, he has a way of expressing them that is special.
All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair.
Paragraphs like this are sprinkled throughout The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
They made me pause in my reading and really think. What smudges have I left on my child? At the end of her life, will she have any cracks? While the thought scares me, I like thinking about it, and it renewed my commitment to do as little damage as possible.
Still, I have to admit that a person would be nuts to pay the $20 cover price for The Five People You Meet in Heaven. While the book was enjoyable, it didn't take me all that long to read it. And I doubt that I will read it again. It just didn't touch me deeply enough for me to gain anything more out of additional readings. Books like this are a prime example of the publishing industry charging way more than it should just because it can. The publisher was likely banking on fans of Albom's previous book (Tuesdays With Morrie) being willing to pay any price to get more of the same. And they were right!
If you have a chance to check The Five People You Meet in Heaven out of the library or to borrow it from a friend, by all means, do! It's a relaxing read. Or wait for the paperback (which will hopefully bring the price down to under a buck per person that Eddie meets in Heaven). Unless you're opposed to warm, fuzzy, "feel good" books, you are bound to like it.
The textbook, Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom, available in Hardback. Published by: HarperCollins Publishers. Edition: . ISBN10: 0...More at Textbooks.com
From the author of the number one New York Times bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie comes this long-awaited follow-up, an enchanting, beautifully crafted...More at HotBookSale
Mitch Albom s timeless tale, a book that readers of fine fiction and those who loved his blockbuster Tuesdays With Morrie, will treasure is now availa...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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