The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

The Five People You Meet in Heaven tells the story of Eddie moments before his death. As an 83 year old maintenance man at the amusement park Ruby Piers, he has no clue what is going to happen. After his death, Eddie finds himself in “heaven”. There he meets 5 important people who review his life and show him how his actions affected those around him as well as himself. Through flashbacks and memories from multiple points of views, Eddie is brought to life for readers even in death. As Eddie begins to understand the meaning of his own life, closure is brought to everyone around him including himself in a novel full of anger, grief, love, forgiveness, curiosity, and bravery.

When I saw The Five People You Meet in Heaven on my school’s summer reading list, I can’t say I was very thrilled. Having very different personal opinions on what happens after death, I expected this book to be rather typically religious when things like “heaven” are mentioned. I couldn’t have been more wrong. While the story does explore “heaven”, it didn’t have anything to do with God, a peaceful wonderland, angels, or anything else most people associate. Instead, “heaven” was about finding yourself to the deepest degree possible. It was displayed as a place to learn about your life from an outside perspective, find closure, and understand why everything happened to you the way it did. As the main character, Eddie, met the 5 people who explained huge parts of his life to him, I felt so connected to this old man. From recalling his memories and the scenarios he faced from three different views, it seemed as if I was really there, knew him, and experienced the same things he did. Mitch Albom gives such a extraordinary depiction of Eddie and I was truly moved and shocked when I found out that it was inspired by his actual uncle. When I reached the last page and saw the picture of the real Eddie, I was left in tears as the man I was looking at was very similar to the images I had imagined while reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I think everyone, no matter what your beliefs are, should take a point of their lives to read this novel. It has completely changed my view of life and I feel it makes every moment you live much more precious and meaningful. Through this experience the expression “everything happens for a reason” is thoroughly proved.