Rating: 
Summary: Not for "sophisticated" readers?...
Review: In my mind, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is a fine book for what it is. Regard it, if you want, as a fable of what might happen to some of us after we're dead.You can argue that it's sentimental, emotional and riddled with more cliches on a single page than what's found in director Frank Capra's entire filmography. But people expecting a seismic shift in their lives -- something wise, shattering and "attitude-altering" from anything receiving great word-of-mouth that skyrockets in popularity -- are forever doomed to disappointment. There are few things worse than when so-called "sophisticated readers" (and I include myself in this group), attack a book mercilessly, feeling so let down by high expectations. "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" moves quickly, is never dull and wears its heart with earnestness. Sure, it's cloying in a way that will irritate those used to so-called "fine literature," those paperweight-thick tomes filled with big words and pretentious phrases. But "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is remarkable in its simplicity, and it has all the basic story telling elements down that makes for a good read. I really believe it's the kind of title that will never go out of print. People will still be talking about it fifty years from now. And it will forever polarize readers. I think it's too easy for people, some guilty of overt intellectual snobbery -- to scoff at works like "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" -- at the exclusion and denigration of all that is mainstream and "popular," as if the masses who made this book a success are all wrong and they themselves are sure-headed and right. Just don't believe them. "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is for you if you find other thick and weighty titles a little daunting after a while. It's the perfect "break," a refreshing change of pace for a guy like me used to going through so many books that feel like work, titles filled with depressing themes and sentences as tortuous in construction as they are in their efforts to provide messages that are pseudo-revelatory and profound. I like books for the "masses" just as much as I like prize-winning titles stretching several hundred pages each, some good, some great and some awful. And "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" isn't designed to please critics. It's unfair and just plain mean-spirited to accuse any author of "making money" or "selling out" when it's obvious that he/she has tapped into something that resonates and brings optimism to many people who might otherwise avoid books. There's nothing wrong, in my view, with reaching out to as many people as possible and giving them hope and contentment amidst the turbulence of their everyday lives. I'd like to think "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is a response to fashionable pessimism, the type found at any gathering of intellectuals (I know, I've been to some, and they're awful). But it isn't. Having said this, author Mitch Albom still surprised this old codger (me) with what he reveals on the last page. (Don't cheat -- it has no text -- but it's a doozy.) This made me even more fond of the book. However simplistic, straight-forward and "seemingly" effortless, I won't fault Albom for knocking out something that feels aimed straight from his heart to yours, even if he doesn't always connect. "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" will always generate arguments, pro and con. Yet its fans will always outnumber its critics. This is a book that will refuse to be dismissed. And this is a great thing, you know, people arguing the merits of books. Hence I'm not embarrassed to admit that "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" falls into my category of "guilty pleasures." But I don't feel guilty. And you shouldn't either.
Rating: 
Summary: An Emotional experience about death, and in turn, life
Review: This book has an incredible story line with life learned lessons you conquer in life. Albom captures the feelings with an old, lonely, maintenence man after he dies in the effort to save a girl from a carnival ride accident. He is then on a journey to meet 5 special people in heaven. The 5 people are not the 5 Eddie expects to meet, but people that have touched and played an important role in his life. Each person explains how they know Eddie and teach him his life lesson. In the end, Eddie reflects on his life and finds the perfect heaven. I sincerely enjoyed the various people Eddie met and how they were connected by the tiny bit. The book expresses that everyone is connected to your life somehow and will reflect in the future.
Rating:
Summary: The Five People You Meet in Heaven vs. Tuesdays With Morrie
Review: I thought that both of Mitch Albom's novels, Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven were written extremely well. Both were touching stories, which describe life moving onto death. Morrie was the main character in Tuesdays with Morrie, who gave an enlightenment to death. A true storie, Morrie is diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), a virus that slowly takes over your body, starting with your feet. Mitch Albom was Morrie's college student, who took many of Morrie's courses on "The Meaning of Life" and eventually reconnects with Morrie. The two were out of touch for a while, but Mitch decides to commute from Detroit to Boston every Tuesday, "always their day", to talk with Morrie about life. Morrie has gains many fans along with fanmail and is now a very bust person. When Mitch comes, he records their sessions. Morrie dies later and Mitch gathers all of his notes and audiotapes to write his book that Morrie titled while still living, "Tuesdays With Morrie".
I really enjoyed this book because there were many lessons and theories that Morrie told Mitch that should be learned. For example, "Here's what I mean by building your own subculture...The little things, I can obey. But the big things--how we think, what we value--those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone--or any society--determine those for you." Morrie is an inspirational character with a heart of gold, and a powerful mind. He gives up many things in the course of his death, but does not complain at all. Morrie gets to the point where he can't move his arms, eat food, and even breath on his own, but he still takes everything in with a positive attitude. Mitch's perspective of life is drastically changed when he reunites with Morrie. He realizes that he really doesn't lkike where his life is going right now, and Morrie helps him change for the better. Morrie is very motivating person and has many great lessons to be shared.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a fictional story about a man named Eddie. The novel starts out with the ending. Thatis, the ending of Eddie's life. It is Eddie's last hour alive, yet he doesn't know it. Eddie works as a maintenance man at Ruby Pier, an oceanside amusement park. He is in his early eighties and dies in a tragic accident: trying to save a little girl from a broken ride, and the ride crushes him. Eddie wakes up in Heaven and is told that he will meet five people there, they might be a complete stanger to him, or a very familiar person, but every one had an impact on his life. The first person he meets is a blue man. Eddie learns that he actually killed this man (indirectly and unknowingly) on accident as a little boy. The next person Eddie sees is his Captain from the Vietnam War. Here, Eddie discovers that one night in the Phillipines, when he and his group were POW's and they escape, Captain shot Eddie. This was because as the men were escaping, Eddie was in a trance, walking into a fire. Eddie's captain shot his leg in a final effort to stop him, which saved Eddie's life. Eddie never knew how he got shot, because he was unconsious for several days. Captain tells him that he shot him and why. Eddie is very confused, but then calms down and Captain disappears. The reason why Eddie is so mad is that his leg was permanently damaged, and he couldn't do many things afterward.
When Eddie started off in heaven, he was a little boy: young, active, and free of pain, but as he meets these five people, he grows older, and has more pain, and relives events of his life.
The third person Eddie meets is an older woman named Ruby. She walks out of a diner where Eddie's dad is and she starts talking to him. Eddie had never met her before, she was never a part of his generation. The purpose of Eddie meeting her is so he can get a better understanding of his father. Eddie's father was a maintenance man at Ruby Pier before Eddie, and Ruby is the person Ruby Pier was named after. She shows him stories about his father, showing his kind and loyal side. Eddie had not talked to his father for years before he died and finally gained more of an understanding of him.
The two other people Eddie meets in Heaven are his wife, who died at the young age of fourty-seven, and a little girl from the Phillipines. This girl was the person he saw in the fire, while his troop was escaping and Eddie was in a trance. When Eddie was shot, he never got to save Tala. She was burned to death and in Heaven, she lets Eddie know what really happened. Now that Eddie has met his five people, he is cleansed and can move on in the afterlife.
Although I really enjoyed both books, they are both MUST-READS, I enjoyed The Five People You Meet in Heaven a little more. I think that it was a very creative concept, an author talking about something he had never experienced, making everything up completely. It was very interesting reading about a character's life and afterlife in a different perspective. Most people imagine Heaven as a beautiful garden or clouds with angels, but Mitch Albom gave a totally different description of Heaven. I like that a person can take a completely imagined, but stereotyped, place and give it a different feeling to make people think. The author's theme is that you must be able to release all anger, understand why we ever felt it, and why we no longer need to feel it. This is how we cleanse ourselves when we get to Heaven, and how we move on into the afterlife. It was very well-written and deserves five stars for such a brilliant theory.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put this book down.
Review: I just got this book today when someone recommended it to me and when I started reading it I couldn't put it down. I skipped dinner and didn't do my homework but it was just that good. It leaves you wondering if you ever made a difference in someone's life here on earth. Then it makes you wonder who the five people you will meet in heaven are. This book was truly inspirational. It makes you want to go out into the world and try and make as big as impact on people's lives. I recommend anyone to read this book whether you believe in heaven or not. It's an absolutely amazing book.
Rating: 
Summary: Tainted food for thought
Review: What a vile little book this is!! To suggest that when you go to Heaven you are forced to relive all the pain and anguish you went through on earth PLUS find out about the others you killed/hurt that were unknown to you is irresponsible and cruel. After meeting his first person, Eddie feels responsible for his death, then again for the second's, then, to top if off, to his horror, he finds out that he was directly responsible for the death of a child. And he finds that he is responsible for these deaths when death seems like nothing more to him than waiting interminable lengths of time in a limbo where you get a taste of the love you need and then it is yanked away, you must feel anew the rejection, emotional torment and physical pain experienced on earth and are required to forgive before you go on, and you are subjected to horrifying, gruesome experiences not possible on earth, without any additional emotional capacity to handle them than what was available to you on earth. If God is my Father, and his view of me is as his beloved daughter, I refuse to even consider that this could be my fate after death. If I must explain to my sons something of the harsh realities of this world, I do it in an environment of love and support, not uncertainty, anxiety and pain. I am positive that this is the way God will treat me, his daughter.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Mediocre
Review: This book first caught my eye while I was browsing Amazon online. Many people on the site talked about how this book was life-altering and that it showed the real meaning of what life is all about. Sadly, the book was very mediocre to me. The moral of the book (I won't ruin it for anyone) was very cliche - something we've all heard a million times. The book didn't have enough sustenance to keep me very entertained and the storyline got tedious after a while. If someone is truly looking for the real purpose of life, I would not recommend this book as an appropriate read. Save your money and get another book that will be more worthy of your money.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: This is the worst book I have read all year. I was really excited to get the book, but as I started to read it I found the plot very weak and the characters shallow. If this book were any longer I would have thrown it out. I still can't figure out what people see in this book. The message is obvious after the first person you meet in heaven. Furthermore, the message is nothing that has not been said in a hundred other (and far better) books...or films for that matter (think It's a Wonderful Life)
Rating:
Summary: Moving
Review: First of all, I think that Mitch Albom really meant this book to be more "food for thought" than something to be taken literally. Hence some of the other reviewer's disappointment. Yes, he probably did try and make us cry and manipulate us to an extent, but then he's an author--that what they do! Forget the hype surrounding this book and the "other" Mitch Albom book and read it for what it is: a sweet, short, heart-warming little piece of fiction. And I'm not sure I agree with some of the other reviews that this is reminiscent of "Christmas Carol" as it is totally different. Would also recommend another wonderful read: Jackson McCrae's THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD. While nothing like THE FIVE PEOPLE, it is worth checking out.
Rating:
Summary: Listened to unabriged audio and nearly cried in the car
Review: Though there have been hundreds of reviews written for this novel and my review will likely be buried among those reviews never to be seen, I feel compelled to write this review anyway ... I borrowed the unabridged audio version of this book from my local library. It's a short novel told in very few audio cassettes so I thought it would be a quick easy story to listen to on my daily commute to work. Though it was completed in a few days commute, it wasn't so easy - I found myself wanting to sit in the parking lot on arrival to work to listen to more and then looked forward to listening to more of it at the end of the work day on my commute home. If you read this with book in hand, you would never want to put it down. This is the story of Eddie, chief maintenance person at Ruby Pier amusement park. He thinks his life has been a waste, that he hasn't impacted anyone. At the beginning of the story we meet the elderly Eddie, sad, lonely Eddie. He makes the rides safe for everyone, except one day something goes terribly wrong. In one last heroic act in his sad life, Eddie throws himself in front of a runaway roller coaster to save the life of a little girl who becomes caught on the track. But did he save her? Eddie's death is so sudden that he doesn't know if he saved her or not ... and neither do we. Eddie procedes on his path in heaven meeting five key people throughout this engaging, heartwrenching story. It is told in a series of flashbacks through the eyes of those five people. The story is crafted so well and so beautifully that you may wish it was longer. I listened to the last portions of the story of Eddie's life and death with more than a slight glimmer of tears in my eyes. It is such a beautiful story that it will touch your very soul and leave a mark there forever.
Rating:
Summary: Gather the kiddies on your knee
Review: It makes me laugh out loud every time I read some earnest review condemning this book to the trash -- because it's like people complaining that A Christmas Carol or It's A Wonderful Life stink as pieces of philosophy or art. Like these two classics, THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN is a great story to share with the family. The message simple but relevant, the hero an ordinary man who never saw his life was worth anything... and who doesn't feel like that from time to time? If you desperately need a deeper look at the human condition and our place in the universe, then I suggest you check out Peter Hillary's excellent IN THE GHOST COUNTRY which was described recent;y by the esteemed Sydney Morning Herald newspaper as ``a superb dialogue on human frailty.'' Enjoy.
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