The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom- Book Review

The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom - Book Review

Title: The Five People You Meet In Heaven

Author: Mitch Albom

Publisher: Hachette Books

Publish Date: 2007

Rating: 5/5

Summary: Eddie is a 83-year-old war veteran making his living as a maintenance worker in an old carnival ground called Ruby Pier. He dies in an accident trying to save a little girl from an uncontrollably falling ride, and finds himself in heaven, where five people from his life are waiting to talk to him and impart to him truths that changes the way he sees the world. 

**This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.**

I first came to know this book in an old article from the school newspaper while looking at previous school papers. I already knew about the author Mitch Albom, as I had already read his book Tuesdays with Morrie, and was excited to see what another book from this author held in store for me.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven surpassed my expectations. It's just the kind of story I like best, the kind that digs deep into someone's life and lets you connect emotionally and intimately with the characters, getting to know them as they knew themselves, as others knew them, as a loved one knew them. This book in particular focuses on the connection between people. Mitch Albom directly tells readers in the book that "there are no random acts... we are all connected... you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind".

The Blue Man, the Captain, Ruby, Eddie's wife, and the little girl Tala all give Eddie profound realizations about the nature of life, and this motif of all life being interconnected is the aspect of this book-- using very specific examples-- is what I think is the most insightful lesson to take from this book.

As all humans are destined to live our lives never knowing what's going on in other people's minds and never knowing what really happened, it's extremely pleasing and insight-giving to be able to see the same event from the perspectives of two different people, which is what Mitch Albom consistently does in his books, especially in The Five People You Meet In Heaven. From the man losing his keys to the death of Marguerite, we see an event from both the perspective of the one who caused it and the one who faces the consequences. Linking such seemingly random events and choices together into a cohesive story, into a single episode, into a single memory, and eventually into a single life-- Eddie's life-- is what makes this book so impressive and what gives this book so strong of an afterglow in readers' minds.

All in all, I loved this book and was deeply moved by it. I really enjoyed seeing how everything is connected and people's lives can be altered by the smallest things-- everything that happened in this book all started because some random guy happened to lose his keys on the Ruby Pier ride. 

I would recommend this book to everyone, maybe not too young due to issues such as war and sacrifice in the book. It truly is a must read, and I've recommended it to many of my friends. 

Rating: I would give this book 5/5. Definitely, definitely read it.