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The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

Posted on 24 June 2007

ReviewColumn's rating :
4 stars

I'll admit it, when I first saw the title and thickness of The Five People You Meet In Heaven, I was skeptical of how good it'd be. Surely a book that's about heaven and is this thin should be for kids? However, as it was recommended to me by a friend who kept singing praises about it, I decided to give it a go and I'm not regretting it. I'm almost thankful for it being relatively thin as compared to other novels, as it allowed me to finish reading as soon as possible, so that I didn't have to keep myself in suspense. Once anyone picks up this book and starts reading it, it'll be hard for one to put it down without finishing it.

The book starts off with a pretty unexpected title for the first chapter: "The End". It starts off with Eddie, an 83 year old maintenance worker, dying in an accident at the theme park he works at. It's unusual for a book to kill off the main character right at the beginning, but considering how this book focuses more on what happens after death, I'm glad the book doesn't dwell on his life for very long. After his death, he meets five people in heaven (as expected after one sees the title), all of which teach him a valuable lesson about his life, or about life itself. I won't spoil the book for anyone here, as I believe almost everyone should read this, but essentially the message that the book is trying to get across is this: every single life is intertwined, and the actions of one person will inevitably affect the life of another person. Therefore, no action is too insignificant as it could have major repercussions.

The book is unlike any other book I've ever read before, despite being about the afterlife, it does not overdo it by introducing overly fictitious characters that would threaten to ruin the entire story. There are no fairies or angels in this book, rather, all the characters are people whom have affected Eddie's life in one way or another when he was still alive. This makes for extremely intriguing stories, flashbacks and lessons throughout the entire book as he progresses from meeting one person to another. Every person teaches Eddie, and thus the reader, a valuable lesson about life, one which he never understood when he was alive. The way the book does this is also really smooth, by using flashbacks and extremely appropriate dialogue to get the message across, so that it doesn't seem like the book is completely preaching certain lessons, but rather adding them as a sidenote to a great storyline.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven is an extremely thought provoking one that will definitely cause one to reread the book several times in order to fully understand its story and characters. The lessons in the book are also extremely valuable as they will apply to almost anyone in this world. All in all, a definite must read for everyone.

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