The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Rating:
Summary: Really makes you stop to think
Review: This book makes you step back and examine your own life which is somewhat uncommon in today's literary world. How you may have impacted the life of someone else without even knowing it... how our lives all interwine with one another. A short and quick read with a long-lasting impact. I enjoyed this so much that I went out and bought several copies to give as Christmas presents. Definitely a tear-jerker.

Rating:
Summary: You Have To Read This Book
Review: I fell in love with Tuesdays With Morrie and knew that I was going to enjoy readnig Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet In Heaven. The book is an easy read, read the entire thing in two days- I couldn't put it down. The book really makes you think about your life, and also gives you an interesting perspective on what happens to you after death. I recommended the book to my grandmother who said after reading it that it changed her life. Anyone who enjoys a feel-good book needs to read The Five Pepople You Meet In Heaven.

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Summary: This no "Lovely Bones" !
Review: I was wondering what all the hype was about - weeks on the best seller lists so I picked up a copy. Like "The Da Vinci Code" the book is no where near as good as the hype and ratings.

A small, thin book not worth the retail price (but Amazon has a nice discount) and it is a quick read.

Like or poor man's "It's a Wonderful Life", nothing really that new or exiting.

Pick it up at the library, or better still borrow from a friend - SOMEONE you know must have purchased a copy, they have sold millions of them.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping Story tellsing
Review: The Five People you Meet in Heaven is superb story telling. I couldn't put the book down until I finished it. Albom's interpretation of the afterlife and necessary lessons to be taken from this world to the next is inspiring. Eddie, our hero, is so likable and average. He represents every man/woman. Very moving tale.

Rating:
Summary: Not the Best Guide to Heaven
Review: So much imagination, to be sure. But, if you want more than that, I would suggest picking up a book or two about people who have been there; i.e. 'Near-Death Experiences' such as Tiffany Snow ("Psychic Gifts in the Christian Life"), or the numerous research documents available through IANDS (International Association of Near-Death Studies). Imagination is fine - but this is the information age - getting a group synopsis of heaven through unrelated people with NDEs can get you a better window, without having to stretch it too much.

Rating:
Summary: A Winner
Review: The story concerns Eddie, an 83 year old amusement park worker. As the book begins, Eddie has about an hour to live. Within a chapter or so, Eddie dies and begins a journey meeting five people who tell him what his life was truly about. They point out that we're all connected, that strangers are really family that we haven't met yet. These five people don't seem connected at all to each other. But they each represent important parts of Eddie's life and they help him discover the things that are important to him, and to each of us. Who cares if he died virtually penniless and that he spent his life doing a job he really didn't want to do? The book talks about looking on the bright side and realizing that we are all here for a reason, and making a lot of money isn't one of those reasons. For example, Eddie and his wife did not have children, but Eddie helped so many little children throughout his life by providing them a safe place to ride and giving them animals made out of pipe cleaners to delight them. There are many twists and turns in this book, but they're all enlightening and wonderful. Albom's writing style is excellent, the words literally flow off the page. The words have stayed with me also, as they helped me reexamine the important things in my life. The really important things. True, this is a fable. But it's also one heck of a great story. Two other Amazon Quick Picks I recommend are Tuesdays with Morrie by Albom, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez

Rating:
Summary: ONE MAN'S VIEW OF WHAT MIGHT BE
Review: Great literature invariably draws the reader in and invites him to think, to make comparisons between what he is reading and how it compares to ones own life and thoughts, to weigh in on whether there is agreement or disagreement. Story telling, on the other hand may be as simple as watching the latest brainless sitcom on television.

So where does "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom fall out? After reading the book my opinion--and obviously opinion is as different as fingerprints--is that Albom's book firmly fits the former and not the latter.

The book tells the story of a good man who lives a full life but doesn't know it. He feels shortchanged and, following his death, wonders what it all might of meant. The five people he meets help him to accept life as it was and to find some closure for the future. Some of the five are individuals he remembers some are mere phantoms that passed by without leaving much of an impression on him--or so he believes. Each teaches a lesson (and, yes, each lesson has applicability to every life) and clarifies how his interaction impacted life.

I hesitate to say more because Albom's book is written in such a way as to make it an entirely different statement and experience for each reader. My memories, feelings and experience are markedly different from yours and Albom's story struck chords with me that simply won't be the same for you.

Don't try to compare this one to "A Christmas Carol" (there is no opportunity here as Scrooge had to go back and make amends). Don't compare it to "It's a wonderful Life" (this really isn't a story about how a life made life wonderful for his peers). Some have compared it to Homer's Odyssey. This is a stretch because, again, our hero here is not trying to get back to his former life.

Instead Albom, I believe, in "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" makes a simple statement: one life touches so many others, both known and unknown, in a variety of ways. Often we like to think that we are alone here and that an action today has no impact on anyone else. Instead Albom poses questions about how a boy's simple act of retrieving a ball from the street might result in an ultimate consequence for an unknown passer by.

I did not find Albom's book to be preachy in any sense. Instead the author seems to simply state that a life lived has its wonders and consequences and when it's over it's over. Or is it? "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" does offer the interesting scenario of a newcomer becoming a player in the unfolding drama of Heaven's next arrival.

Don't look for answers about what Heaven might actually be. I don't think Albom in his work was trying to offer anything new to the established canon of accepted Christian scripture. Rather enjoy a very interesting story about one man's view of what might be. And if you're not interested in a thoughtful, introspective ride, there's always Seinfeld reruns.

Douglas McAllister

Rating:
Summary: AN INSPIRED NOVELLA
Review: It is unfair to compare "THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN" to Mitch Albom's nonfiction foray "TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE." Instead I am more inclined to compare "THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN" to books in the league of "MY FRACTURED LIFE" by Rikki Lee Travolta, "THE LOVELY BONES" by Alice Sebold, and "THE LOSERS CLUB" by Richard Perez books that take their inspiration from reality and craftily weave them into novella form. "TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE" is the stories of Albom's reconnection with a former professor in weekly meetings as Morrie gradually gives in to illness and ultimately dies. "THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN" takes place after the death of Eddy, an elderly amusement park repairman killed on the job while rescuing kids. That Eddy's story takes place in the beyond could be attributed to being inspired by Albom being touched by the death of his mentor Morrie, but that is where the comparison ends. Albom has taken that inspiration and woven it into a fiction novella, and a finely crafted piece of fiction at that. Although it is more aptly titled "light fiction," "THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN" is in the same league of impact and merit as "MY FRACTURED LIFE", "THE LOVELY BONES" and "THE DA VINCI CODE."

Rating:
Summary: PEOPLE YOU MEET: the five in Heaven
Review: This is an extraordinary little book that one could easily cover in an evening. It's about a man who lived a rough life, and he felt unimportant for practically his whole existence.
The only brightness in his life was the love of his life; who he managed to make his wife. She is one of the FIVE persons he meets up with in Heaven when it is his time to go.
The other FOUR persons are really circumstances that the man had encountered while living his life on Earth.
They are really metaphors and I have to devote some time to thinking about the meaning behind them.
He didn't really know them like friends while he was alive, but he impacted their lives in tremendous ways.
Or their lives impacted his life with tremendous influence.
The objective of the author, Mitch Albom, is to remind all of us that we are important to many others in this world and we should never, never underestimate this truth.
If you are a mother or a father--- this book is influential.
If you are a brother or a sister -- this book is important.
If you are a child of somebody, this book will help you.
If you leave your house for any job on this planet, remember your role and take it seriously.
Your role that you play does affect many, many people.
It is up to YOU to decide the caliber of your own life's work.
The story is about a man named Eddie,
but really it's a story that's all about us...the reader.
BIRTHDAYS are also treated with respect and importance. I have always valued birthdays and I think they are extremely important in the ongoing validation of people that we know and love.
Never foget a birthday -- at least give the person having a birthday some acknowledgment of their special day.
After all --- the world changes every time there is a birthday (for better or worse.)
It's brilliantly thought out,
the words are simple, well chosen and paint a lovely picture.
I think that the FIVE people I meet in Heaven will be mostly folks that I knew on Earth, but then again, I can be like Eddie and learn about things in the background of my life that I never considered.
One thing this book encourages is
TO DO YOUR ABSOLUTE BEST at whatever role you play in this world.
Be a good parent. Be a good spouse. Be a loving child to your aging parents. Take care of everybody that needs your help or asks for a hand. Share the love that you have in your heart, because one never knows how long we have to live in this beautiful world.
This book has influenced me greatly and I have alot more good to offer this world....it's changed my attitude tremendously.
Perhaps this book will change you too, in ways that can only be described as postive and uplifing.

Rating:
Summary: Reads like an adult fairy tale
Review: This books reads in just a couple of hours. The author had the courage to only keep in the books what's needed to make it a good compelling story. It felt like an adult fairy tale.