The Five People You Meet In Heaven (2003) - Plot & Excerpts
Joelle Huertasttttttttt 904ttttttttW.A.t Book Review On The Five People You Meet In HeavenThe Five People You Meet In HeavenBy Mitch Albom208pp Passaic, New JerseyISBN-13: 9781401308582Hyperion $10.80 This book was so amazing that it remained on the New York Best Seller List for 95 weeks. If the book wasn’t that marvelous why would it have remained there? Mitch Albom’s book The Five People You Meet In Heaven is an extraordinary book. You might think it’s a religious book because the title itself, but it isn’t. It is a captivating book that deals with fait, death, and how everything you do affects someone else. I found myself comparing little choices or decisions I made to the ones Eddie, the main character made. I’m not into books about heaven or death but I found myself loving every minute of it. I found myself gasping, crying, and laughing with the characters because of the way Mitch Albom portrays Eddie is so moving. If you want a good fiction book, this is a MUST read!tEddie is a character who is alone in life, no family, no friends, just his job at the amusement park as janitor. It breaks your heart how alone he is. It’s so poignant the way it is written that it makes you want to befriend the aged lonely man.t The way the book starts is like the saying the end is only a new beginning. The beginning is the tragic, horrifying death of Eddie, and the death, or end, is only the beginning to his afterlife and the entry to heaven. The book puts such new perspectives on life to you and gives you knowledge of how to live life to the fullest.tSo many quotes can apply to your life, or help you out. For example Ruby, one of the five people Eddie meets in heaven, says to Eddie “Holding anger is a poison...It eats you from inside...We think that by hating someone we hurt them...But hatred is a curved blade...and the harm we do to others...we also do to ourselves...” I personally love that quote because it help me let go of things because I was filled with anger. I learned to let go, appreciate what you have and to have faith. The book is like having a mentor or role model who teaches you how to deal.tWhile reading the book you find yourself astound on how every little thing one does can alter someone’s life. Take Eddie for example. He is playing ball in the street, when the blue man is in a car. Eddie drops the ball, and chases it into the street where the blue man suddenly has a heart attack due to the scare he is facing of hitting this little boy in the street.tEddie goes through so much in the book. With deaths of every one he loves, to his own death in the very first chapter. He has to learn to accept death, fait, letting go, there are no random acts in life, and that love always wins! The way he learns is so amazing because he is so realistic, he’s a kind, old, and he would sacrifice himself for others. The way Albom shows this it makes you feel like you know him, to me I felt as if he was my grandfather. tEssentially this book is a must read whether you believe in heaven or not. I guarantee you will be moved by this book. There is even a movie too! One thing you will wonder after you finish reading this book is who will be your five people you meet in heaven?
First of all i owe a huge thanks to the person that recommended me to read this book... and in general to start reading Mitch Albom's novels. I find it first of all original that he's dealing with a unique kind of subject,how can heaven really be like. It's remarkable how he's managed in not so many pages to mention so many things... "5 people you meet in heaven" is an hymn to some very fundamental values of life, the writer being a sport's journalist himself seems to be aware that it takes no complicated or sophisticated words to pass some messages to his readers... the more simple words and phrases he uses the more will really understand the true meaning... nothing is hidden behind symbolisms, you don't even need to sharpen your brain to find out where's he is guiding you to...it's just there in front of you,so no matter if you have graduated from english literature university or just entered junior high school you still feel the catharsis inside you...the one that Eddie feels meeting each one of the five persons in his after life experience.Some people may say that this book is very "christian" but there are very few times that God is mentioned, almost nowhere the church is involved... it's all about values, Albom is spreading the whole world that nobody's life is as simple as we think it is, we -the whole world- are somehow connected, everything we do, every single action interacts to others and changes their life... People say that when the time approaches to leave this world we settle with everything try to forgive the ones that we think that harmed us and ask to be forgiven by the ones we did something wrong... well in this book there is a whole different perspective of how easy it is for this to happen, if heaven is indeed like that it clears out every possible problem that might have bothered all of us during our whole life... it's not a place that makes you forget everything, it's not a paradise like "Eden" for instance... it's a place that you really enjoy all the good things that happened to your life...all the good things you did and their consequences to others who may not be persons that you know but still they got benefit from that... It seems that sometimes you don't have to change your life to become a better person, you just have to reconsider who you are and what to do to acknowledge that not only you are a really nice one but also a really important one to the whole world... Well i am looking forward to his next book, if the first one seemed like that i will ask permit to use a 6th stars in the ones following hehe :)P.S I also watched the film right after having read the book...it was a very loyal "transfer" not so much changed that it mostly happens, and despite its length it was impossible not to skip some certain parts of the book... for a tv production it was very good, Jon Voight was an excellent choice for the main role, in case you like movies don't miss it...
What do You think about The Five People You Meet In Heaven (2003)?
One of the great things about checking out audiobooks from the public library is that I can take a chance on something I normally wouldn't buy, and I end up loving it. And then, of course, there are the times I take a chance on something I wouldn't normally like and end up really hating it as predicted. See if you can guess which is the case here by the end of this post.The Five People You Meet in Heaven is about Eddie, an amusement park maintenance guy who dies and goes to heaven. Spoiler alert, I guess, though you could probably figure that out from the title. From there he meets five people whose lives touched his and learns why he was such a unique and special little snowflake while on Earth. The book's main shortcoming is that I only get to enjoy seeing something kill Eddie on one occasion. And that was over within the first few pages.Seriously, this thing is so ham-fisted in its moralizing, so infused with cliches, so sentimental, and so naked in its attempts to manipulate emotions that I only finished it because it was blessedly short. The worst part about this last point is that the audiobook brings up violins --VIOLINS!-- in the background at the most supposedly sentimental parts. Which is to say, constantly.Oh, and Albom apparently never heard of the "show, don't tell" rule when it comes to establishing character and showing reactions. I guess everyone in Heaven describes their mental processes in flagrant detail. There's also the issue of proclamations that sound wise at first, but crumble under any amount of thought. For example, there's a line to the effect of "Sometimes, when you sacrifice something you don't lose it. You just give it to someone else." Now, I haven't a dictionary in front of me to help me through this moral morass, but I fail to see the difference off the top of my head.At any rate, I certainly wouldn't recommend this. If you really want to read a good book about the afterlife, pick up Dante's The Divine Comedy, read the first few pages, then throw it down in frustration and decide that there's no good middle ground.
—Jamie
The five people yo meet in heaven starts out with a grumpy old man named Eddie. The reader in unaware of his past and why he is so lonely. Eddie works ar a carnival which has deeper meaning to him than just spinning rides and cotton candy stands. On his 83 birthday he had no idea it would be his last. Saving an innocent girl from a broken carnival ride, he gave his life. Now sent to heaven he meets five people who remind him of his past. They show how he affected the world in a way that was unconcious to him. Through the adventure he realizes his true lifes' meaning. In this eye- opening inspirational novel I have learned to relate to the story. After reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven it made me wonder if I have impacted other peoples' lives as obliviously as Eddie. If I've ever given someone a heart attac, or burnt down a building. Things like this you don't normally think about, but this story goot you to wonder. It composes of 5 people, 5 lessons, and 5 ways to see the silver linning in every situation. The novel left me feeling light- hearted and free, almost. You learn everything happens for a reaso, and this book is perfect for that. It was a pleasure reading and would definitely recomment it to all ages.
—Kimmy
منذ مدة طويييلة لم أقرأ شيئا لامس أعماقي كهذا الكتاب، يجعلني أطرق وأفكر ، أنظر للبعيد الماضي وأتسائل عن القريب المقبل..الكتاب يتحدث عن رجل مات في حادث أثناء تأديته لعمله في مدينة الملاهي ، بعد ذلك ينتقل هذا الرجل "إدي" إلى الجنة ليقابل هناك 5 أشخاص تقاطعوا معه بطريقة أو بأخرى في حياته..كل منهم كان ينتظره ليحكي له قصة كان لها تأثير على حياته وعلى تقرير مصيره في الدنيا، كانوا يساعدونه على فهم وتفسير كثير من الأمور التي لم يكن لها منطق واضح وقتها...القصة مثيرة وترابط الأحداث متقن يظهر كم هي مصائر الناس متقاطعة ومترتبة على بعضها ، حتى لو لم نكن نظن ذلك...جعلني هذا الكتاب أفكر كثيراً في حياتي، في الناس اللذين مروا بي ومررت بهم، في تأثيرهم على حياتي ، في التحول الذي طرأ على مساري بسبب شخص لم يكن يعني أن يكون له أي تأثير..!كم من الناس أود سؤالهم لم فعلوا ذلك؟ كم من التفسيرات أحتاجها لأزيل كثيراً من الغضب أو الحزن أو الخيبة ؟ كم من التغييرات التي أحدثها مروري بشخص ما على حياته، ومسار أحداثها؟كيف تلعب الأقدار دورها في رسم خرائط علاقات الناس وأعمارهم؟....الحياة..الشباب..الحب..التقدم في العمر..الحزن..الغضب..الفرح..الأنا....كل ذلك كان حاضراً بقوة وأنا أقرأ أعياد ميلاد إدي المتعاقبة وأكشف معه أسرار الأشخاص الخمسة في الجنة..!
—أروى
