The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Product Description

Part melodrama and part parable, Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven weaves together three stories, all told about the same man: 83-year-old Eddie, the head maintenance person at Ruby Point Amusement Park. As the novel opens, readers are told that Eddie, unsuspecting, is only minutes away from death as he goes about his typical business at the park. Albom then traces Eddie's world through his tragic final moments, his funeral, and the ensuing days as friends clean out his apartment and adjust to life without him. In alternating sections, Albom flashes back to Eddie's birthdays, telling his life story as a kind of progress report over candles and cake each year. And in the third and last thread of the novel, Albom follows Eddie into heaven where the maintenance man sequentially encounters five pivotal figures from his life (a la A Christmas Carol). Each person has been waiting for him in heaven, and, as Albom reveals, each life (and death) was woven into Eddie's own in ways he never suspected. Each soul has a story to tell, a secret to reveal, and a lesson to share. Through them Eddie understands the meaning of his own life even as his arrival brings closure to theirs. Albom takes a big risk with the novel; such a story can easily veer into the saccharine and preachy, and this one does in moments. But, for the most part, Albom's telling remains poignant and is occasionally profound. Even with its flaws, The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a small, pure, and simple book that will find good company on a shelf next to It's A Wonderful Life. --Patrick O'Kelley
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #1485 in Books
* Published on: 2003-09
* Released on: 2003-09-23
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 198 pages

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Part melodrama and part parable, Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven weaves together three stories, all told about the same man: 83-year-old Eddie, the head maintenance person at Ruby Point Amusement Park. As the novel opens, readers are told that Eddie, unsuspecting, is only minutes away from death as he goes about his typical business at the park. Albom then traces Eddie's world through his tragic final moments, his funeral, and the ensuing days as friends clean out his apartment and adjust to life without him. In alternating sections, Albom flashes back to Eddie's birthdays, telling his life story as a kind of progress report over candles and cake each year. And in the third and last thread of the novel, Albom follows Eddie into heaven where the maintenance man sequentially encounters five pivotal figures from his life (a la A Christmas Carol). Each person has been waiting for him in heaven, and, as Albom reveals, each life (and death) was woven into Eddie's own in ways he never suspected. Each soul has a story to tell, a secret to reveal, and a lesson to share. Through them Eddie understands the meaning of his own life even as his arrival brings closure to theirs.

Albom takes a big risk with the novel; such a story can easily veer into the saccharine and preachy, and this one does in moments. But, for the most part, Albom's telling remains poignant and is occasionally profound. Even with its flaws, The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a small, pure, and simple book that will find good company on a shelf next to It's A Wonderful Life. --Patrick O'Kelley

From Publishers Weekly
"At the time of his death, Eddie was an old man with a barrel chest and a torso as squat as a soup can," writes Albom, author of the bestselling phenomenon Tuesdays with Morrie, in a brief first novel that is going to make a huge impact on many hearts and minds. Wearing a work shirt with a patch on the chest that reads "Eddie" over "Maintenance," limping around with a cane thanks to an old war injury, Eddie was the kind of guy everybody, including Eddie himself, tended to write off as one of life's minor characters, a gruff bit of background color. He spent most of his life maintaining the rides at Ruby Pier, a seaside amusement park, greasing tracks and tightening bolts and listening for strange sounds, "keeping them safe." The children who visited the pier were drawn to Eddie "like cold hands to a fire." Yet Eddie believed that he lived a "nothing" life-gone nowhere he "wasn't shipped to with a rifle," doing work that "required no more brains than washing a dish." On his 83rd birthday, however, Eddie dies trying to save a little girl. He wakes up in heaven, where a succession of five people are waiting to show him the true meaning and value of his life. One by one, these mostly unexpected characters remind him that we all live in a vast web of interconnection with other lives; that all our stories overlap; that acts of sacrifice seemingly small or fruitless do affect others; and that loyalty and love matter to a degree we can never fathom. Simply told, sentimental and profoundly true, this is a contemporary American fable that will be cherished by a vast readership. Bringing into the spotlight the anonymous Eddies of the world, the men and women who get lost in our cultural obsession with fame and fortune, this slim tale, like Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, reminds us of what really matters here on earth, of what our lives are given to us for.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
"I'm especially proud to have an audio version of this book, since it harkens back to the way my first stories came to me--not by the written page, but by other people's voices." That's Mitch Albom himself in his introduction. This writer's commitment to the aural tradition is clearly demonstrated in the sophistication with which his book is presented. Erik Singer's virtuoso performance is set off with musical interludes and background noises that are diverting but never distracting. The teaching parable is built around an 83-year-old war vet turned maintenance man who dies trying to save the life of a little girl. This is at the Ruby Point Amusement Park. "All endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time..." B.H.C. 2004 Audie Award Finalist © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Customer Reviews

A slice of heaven(4.5 stars)4
I have to agree with the comparisons others have made between 'Five People...' and "It's a Wonderful Life". Both stories follow similar paths, as their main characters are shown that they did in fact make a difference, in spite of their doubts. And both stories progress slowly but steadily from uncertain beginnings to incredibly poignant finishes.
I really wasn't expecting Eddie's meeting with 'Five' to turn out the way it did...but Tala made a good story into a great one!
As with 'Tuesdays with Morrie', I had a few little quibbles with the story, but they really aren't that important. This is a worthwhile follow-up to 'Morrie', and perhaps a sign that Albom can work on fleshing out ideas and characters, and develop a talent for writing prose that can rank with the best of his sports articles.

Stop with this kind of topic, please.2
You know how sometimes Hollywood doesn't seem to know when to stop with all the sequels and trilogies, etc.? That's how I feel about this book. After the absolute masterpiece that is "Tuesdays with Morrie," I really feel that Albom attempts to go back to the well but there is very little water. Although it may not be fair to compare a non-fiction book to a fiction book, Albom sets himself up for this by writing about and reflecting on death again. I'm not against the possibility that all of us affect other humans on a daily basis in ways we can't imagine, I just don't really like how Albom portrays this in this book.

The book is a quick read and has some good thoughts but nothing compared to the incredible lessons that the real-life Morrie bestowed upon us.

What would Morrie think about this garbage?1
First of all, I loved Albom's book "Tuesdays with Morrie". This is a truly inspirational book about lesson on life and death and the struggles of an old man suffering from an incurable disease. An excellent read! However, I absolutely hated the other book "Five People you Meet in Heaven". I thought it would be a great sequel from the same author and purchased it. I got mislead by the many wonderful reviews from others. Big mistake!!! This book truly sucks!! It is distressing, depressing and downright scary beyond imagination. I cannot imagine "heaven" to be a miserable place where you get to relive all the mishaps and bad fortunes of your life. Neither can I imagine that after dying, you have to experience and relive your own decay and sufferings. How come you have to endure a lot more of the same earthly crap in "heaven" after dying? Why did Albom's character, Eddie, have to get continued punishment in "heaven" after having lived a miserable life on earth??? How can some reviewers find that fact inspirational? How can that help you to understand your shortcomings on earth? How can all the extra suffering in the afterlife help you to make sense of your previous life? I had nightmares for several days after reading the book. If that is what awaits us in (Albom's) "heaven", I'd rather stay here!. Fortunately, nobody knows what the afterlife is like. I'm not a religious person, but I imagine or hope, that the after life is a more soothing place. A more confortable place where the newcomers are welcome in compassion and unconditional love for what they ARE (or were), regardless of what they DID or HAD. Not a gigantic courthouse where you get sacked or punished (like in Albom's proposal), but a place where you can find serenity and peace, at last! Yes, this review contains spoilers. Read the book and get to your own conclusions. If you decide not to read it afterall, congratulations! You just saved a buck on a peace of junk.