The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a fairly popular book, but I didn't really have very high expectations. Mainly because I was always told Tuesdays with Morrie was Mitch Albom's best. I loved Tuesdays with Morrie and surprisingly The Five People You Meet in Heaven was every bit as enjoyable. Although both books are focused on death, Tuesdays with Morrie was about dying while The Five People You Meet in Heaven was more centered on the afterlife. I felt it was more character driven, as opposed to the series of homilies Tuesdays with Morrie was composed with. I believe this has a lot to do with The Five People You Meet in Heaven being fictional, not a memoir. The book starts out with an elderly man, named Eddie, who works at a carnival. He dies at the park when one of the rollercoasters breaks down. The book then goes on to describe his experiences in heaven. We've all heard countless different interpretations of heaven, but this one was completely unique from anything I've read before. In heaven he meets five different people (hense the title) who explain to him what his life on earth meant, what made him who he was, why he chose the things he chose, who he loved most and all that jazz. The five Eddie met are be those who directly influenced his life most, and sometimes the characters were a bit of a surprise. With every person comes a neatly wrapped sermon echoing back to Tuesdays with Morrie. The Five People You Meet in Heaven puts meaning into everybody's life. It was sweet, but not cliche or unoriginal--more so creatively sentimental. And even though what Eddie was going through was like nothing I'd experienced before, but I felt right at home in his world. By the way, this book is perfect for vacations or out of town trips. I read it in two days over spring break in Florida between naps and walks. It truely is a beautiful book. Personally, I don't understand how any human could read The Five People You Meet in Heaven (or Tuesdays with Morrie) and not like it.
See more reviews or buy The Five People You Meet in Heaven at Amazon or go check out Mitch Albom's official website.
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