The Five People You Meet In Heaven, was written by Mitch Albom. It isn’t a long book, (208 pages), and I read it in a few days.
My Review
The Book is about Eddie, who is 83 years old, and a war veteran. He is a big man, and uses a cane to walk. As an adult he does the same things, day after day.
The book begins in a Theme Park, where Eddie, (the maintenance man at the Ruby Pier), is dying.
On his 88rd birthday, he tried to save a girl, (who was playing near a ride called Freddy’s Free Fall), who was about to have an accident.
Eddie saves her but he dies and goes to heaven.
The first five people he meets are five people who were important in his life. They were all freaks, from a Carnival show, when Eddie was a child.
It’s like a life reading, when you first arrive in the World To Come.
Each on the people/souls he meets have something to teach him.
Two of the souls he meets are the Captain of Eddie’s platoon and then a women from the Theme Park. The last one he meets ties it all together.
The book is also about the special events in his life. Eddie begins to understand the meaning of his life, (this is very important but I won’t tell you why), but more important, as each secret is revealed, it brings closure to these 5 souls.
Some Quotes I liked
If you are surrounded by people who say, I want everything now, you’ll end up with a few people who have everything, and keep poor people from getting anything.
Sacrifices, we all make them, both big ones and small ones. But you were angry over yours. You kept thinking about what you lost. Sacrifice is part of life. It’s not something to regret, it’s something to aspire to. A mother works so her son can go to school. A daughter moves home to take care of her sick father.
What I thought
This story is very sad. Albom creates characters with real depth and it was well structured..
It made me remember the troubles I’ve had, and the problems everyone in the world had.
I remembered that I had judged people without thinking, and was cruel to others.
Despite all of this is wasn’t depressing, and I enjoyed it very much. If you have a bad hair day, this is the time to read this book. It will make you feel better!
It’s almost like reading a fable, and you can learn a lot from reading them. You can learn a lot from reading this book too.
Other books that were written by Mitch Albom: Live Albom I, II and III, BO, Fab Five and Tusday With Morrie.
Other information
The book was published by Hyperion Books in September of 2003.
The book cover was drawn by Ashwini M. Jambotkar.
I paid $12.00 CAD for the paperback.
ISBN 0-7515-3682-2
Thanks for reading my review.
©LL2005