Book Review: Hope and help in Albom’s vision of Heaven
The ultimate question.
The clincher that has defied religions, philosophers, authors and people from every walk of life to answer if they can:
Why are we here?
Oh, and don’t forget that question’s younger sibling: Is there something more after this life?
Taking a somewhat unique view, based on the interconnectedness of humanity (see Donne’s “no man is an island” rhetoric), Mitch Albom tries his pen at an answer that both pleases and provokes.
And, fortunately for us, he does a winning job.
In the first lines of “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”, we learn that it “is a story about a man named Eddie, and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun.”
On his 83rd birthday, bitter and frustrated Eddie, a life-long maintenance worker at Ruby Pier, dies in a freak amusement park accident attempting to save the life of a little girl. Waking up in an oversize teacup, Eddie finds himself at the same pier, except that now it is deserted and looks like it did in the days of Eddie’s childhood.
The mystery is explained by the first person Eddie meets there, a blue man from a freak-show of the era:
“There are five people you meet in heaven,” the blue man explains. “Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth.”
As Eddie continues his journey, he discovers that each human life is connected in ways that can never be understood here. As he uncovers the purposes of his life, replete with apparent failures and silent successes, Eddie begins to find that understanding takes time, but love is eternal.
Sound sappy?
Well, the magic of Albom’s writing, for anyone that has ever read Tuesday’s with Morrie, is that despite the feel-good, life changing lessons he attempts to share, Albom is able to hit the heart without nauseating the stomach.
In simple prose, characteristic for its ability to draw in even the most skeptical of readers, Albom sometimes teeters between the line of poignant and drunkenly sentimental, but always seems to pull the reader back before they emotionally vomit, and instead, often evokes a a few unnoticed tears.
Patterning the main character after his real-life uncle, Edward Beitchmann, Albom expressed the hope that his novel would help add meaning to the lives of people, like his uncle, who had never felt their life had accounted for much.
On his website, www.albomfivepeople.com, Albom wrote, “In The Five People, I sort of explore the idea that we are all connected to each other in ways we don’t even realize, and that perhaps, when your life is over, you may find out all the other ‘waves’ in this big ocean that you affected without even knowing it.”
The Five People You Meet in Heaven, coming in at slightly under 200 pages, is short enough to be read in a solid afternoon. Its ideas, on the other hand, can be digested for days.
A worthy sequel to its bestselling brother, this book rides the line of emotional fantasy and delivers the reader something akin to inspiration. Anything but theological, this book doesn’t attempt definitive answers, only suggestions of what could be – and what would happen if what could be, was.
Note: Watch out for the upcoming movie starring Jon Voight, Ellen Burstyn, Jeff Daniels and Michael Imperioli which will air Dec. 5th, on ABC.
Matt Wright reviews books for the Utah Statesmen. Comments can be sent to mattgo@cc.usu.edu