There are two fundamental questions have intrigued us since the beginnings of time: What is the meaning of life? and, What happens after we die? The Monty Pythons made a profane and hilarious movie in answer to these questions, Albert Brook's afterlife involved defending your life in court with Meryl Streep, and sci-fi author Philip Jose Farmer's deceased characters all washed up on an enormous riverbank being force fed by aliens.
American author Mitch Albom also has a crack at this universal theme with his
The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Cynical readers may be tempted to think that reading a novel with such a blatantly smaltzy title could possibly be an alternative to using an emetic. After all, the title does tend to imply religious propaganda or diabetes-inducing sentimentality. Thankfully, the book is nowhere near as preachy or as sentimental as expected, although 'literary' critics have dismissed it as trivial and not worth reading.
In fact,
The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a pleasant, often surprising read with a fascinating premise. The novel begins at 'the end' with the death of its principal character. Eddie, the novel's protagonist, is an octogenarian maintenance worker who feels his life has no purpose. He doesn't have to worry about this for long, however, as in the first chapter he's rather gruesomely killed as he attempts to save a small girl from being crushed to death by a runaway roller-coaster cart. The opening chapter promises much; the countdown to Eddie's death makes for riveting and unputdownable writing.
Eddie then 'awakens' to find himself in his own personal heaven. There, he spends time with five individuals, some he knew during his life, others he had never met but who influenced the course of his life in some way. The theme of 'interconnectedness' is neither new nor original, but Eddie's five individuals 'fill in' the gaps he has felt in his life, and the most revealing of all - the last meeting - helps him realise that his life was anything but meaningless.
The meetings with the five enigmatic characters is interspersed with a fairly rigid storyline structure which contains snippets of real life 'after Eddie' as well as a retrospective glimpse at several of his birthdays, all of which helped map and alter the course of his life.
The clarity of the writing is an exercise in excellent story-telling and this is only slightly marred by the few simplistic self-help statements that Albom pops ito the mouths of his heavenly characters, such as: 'what happens on earth is only the beginning'.
A sports writer, Mitch Albom shot to literary fame with the publication of
Tuesdays with Morrie, a moving true-life story of the time he spent with a dying former professor and how the experience helped him change his life for the better.
Tuesdays with Morrie has been acclaimed as a truely 'life-changing' book; certainly it changed both Albom's career and outlook.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven has recently been made into a televsion movie starring Ellen Burstyn and Jon Voight, but it's highly recommended that the book be read before seeing the movie (which hasn't been well received).
THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN is a wonderfully moving fable
that addresses the meaning of life, and life after death, in the
poignant way that made TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE such an astonishing
book. The novel's protagonist is an elderly amusement park
maintenance worker named Eddie who, while operating a ride called
the 'Free Fall', dies while trying to save a young girl who gets in
the way of a falling cart that hurtles to earth. Eddie goes to
heaven, where he meets five people who were unexpectedly
instrumental in some way in his life. While each guide takes him
through heaven, Eddie learns a little bit more about what his time
on earth meant, what he was supposed to have learned, and what his
true purpose on earth was. Throughout there are dramatic flashbacks
where we see scenes from his troubled childhood, his years in the
army in the Philippines jungle, and with his first and only love,
his wife Marguerite. THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN is the
perfect book to follow TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE. Its compellingly
affecting themes and lyrical writing will fascinate Mitch Albom's
huge readership.
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