Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Recommend: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Pat recently picked up Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven. He'd read good reviews on the book, but honestly I hadn't even heard of it. It sounded interesting enough & was a short, easy read, so I sat down & finished it in a day.

Am I ever glad I did! What a thoughtful read!

The gist of it is basically an interpretation of what happens when we die - a question as old as man. Albom's heaven isn't Paradise though, or a lush Garden of Eden. Instead, after dying, we successively meet 5 people who explain the meaning of our earthly life.

In the book, we live the last few moments of Eddie's life - a seemingly insignificant, dead-end existence as a small amusement park mechanic - and then we follow him into his afterlife, meeting the 5 people who explain to Eddie why he was who he was. Some of these people he knew & expected, like his wife, but others he didn't know. Still, they each shed some light on his path & granted him the answers he sought.

The tale is beautifully written & Eddie is a compelling, believable character. The best part was the idea - what if we do meet 5 people in heaven? Who do you think you'd meet?

I have another Albom book in my library - For One More Day - but have yet to read it. I'm looking forward to it though!

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