That's it. I'm not going to amusement parks ever again.

"Lost love is still love, Eddie. It just takes a different form, that's all. You can't hold their hand... You can't tousle their hair... But when those senses weaken another one comes to life... Memory... Memory becomes your partner. You hold it... you dance with it... Life has to end, Eddie... Love doesn't."

The book that taught me the idea of death, God and life's never ending unanswered questions.

I vaguely remember when exactly I read this but I remember I read this couple of months before I broke up with my current-boyfriend and it was around the end of the year. Maybe September-October to November. It is significant to know when I read because it is one of the reasons why this book just stays in my mind.

I pictured myself as Eddie. An old man with so many bruises (physically and emotionally) draging the last breath he had to carry before he died and saved a little girl's life. With a cause he died (which for me is amazing!) and the sky went darker like any scene we might see in movies or stories about the long tunnel after we are no longer connected to this life and earth (classic - but I kinda fond of this typical scene). Then he met the five people that bumped into his life for a second and even for a lifetime that he might didn't remember or know them before when he was alive. These five people were there to answer all of his unanswered questions about his life and why God had purposes with him in his life even when he thought that he had no value at all - This too amazes me still; have you EVER wondered why are you here on earth? why God made you so grand that He let you breath-eat-work-smoke-have sex-make decision-go crazy-fall in love-make mistakes-cheat-be bad-curse-etc? doesn't that make you feel so little to know that now?)

And the story evolved from there. And all the classic questions that I believe WE all are facing now are written so nicely by Albom. With jokes, with poems, with simple everyday words. Albom didn't preach within this book which I think it is the risk of writing such subject - and the fact that he didn't preach makes it universal for all races and religions to read. And be spiritually touched.

And so how does this effect on me with the broke-up? Highly emmense. I was angry all the time and didn't understand why I was treated so bad by a man and how I thought I have not a value to go on. Then a friend's death which rolled me back to the time I read this book in the first place reminds me of how life goes on (and how life NEEDS to go on). God has purposes with us, even if it means only to be a bell-boy of a grand hotel, or to be a mistress, or to be a virgin queen or to be an ordinary guy standing on the train station. Little things matter the most.

On the account of this book, I got to know that Albom had written another grand book about life-death-God previously before this book. I haven't read the previous one; Tuesday with Morrie (which led to a movie), so I am really looking forward to read it after reading this. I hope that book will be highly amazing and enlight me like Five People did.

স্বর্গে কী আছে, স্বর্গ কেন আছে তা নিয়ে লেখকদের জল্পনার শেষ নেই। কতো লেখক যে কতো বিচিত্রভাবে স্বর্গকে কল্পনা করেছেন! মিচ এলবম এই উপন্যাসে স্বর্গকে উপস্থাপন করেছেন সম্পূর্ণ ভিন্নভাবে। এখানে স্বর্গ আছে উপভোগ বা আনন্দের জন্য নয়, স্বর্গ আছে জীবনের অর্থ উপলব্ধি করানোর জন্য। আমরা জন্মাই, বড় হই, সংসার করি; তারপর মারা যাই একরাশ অতৃপ্তি নিয়ে। কী পেলাম জীবনে, অন্যকে কী দিলাম জীবনে এ প্রশ্ন আমাদের তাড়িত করে। অনেকেরই মনে হয়, তার জীবন অর্থহীন। পৃথিবীতে তার দ্বারা কারো কোনো উপকার হয় নি, কেউ তাকে মনে রাখবে না। মানুষের আরেকটা অদ্ভুত বৈশিষ্ট্য - সময়ের সাথে সাথে সে ফেলে আসা জীবনের কথা ভুলে যায়।বর্তমানে সে যে অবস্থায় আছে শুধু সেটাই সত্যি বলে মনে হয়। ভুলে যায়, নিজে সে একদিন ছোট ছিলো। তার ছিলো হাসি, আনন্দ, যাতনা, উদ্বেগ; ছিলো একমুঠো স্বপ্ন আর এক পৃথিবী হাহাকার, ছিলো শরীর, প্রেম, ঈর্ষা আর একটা স্পন্দমান হৃদয়।
মিচ এলবমের স্বর্গে মৃত্যুর পর মৃত ব্যক্তির সাথে দেখা হবে পাঁচজন ব্যক্তির যারা তার জীবনে কোনো না কোনো গুরুত্বপূর্ণ ভূমিকা রেখেছিলো।তারা এমন কিছু জানে যা সম্পর্কে সেই মৃত ব্যক্তি অসচেতন। তারা তাকে বোঝাবে পৃথিবীতে তার জীবনের প্রকৃত গুরুত্ব যা শুনে সেই ব্যক্তির অতৃপ্ত আত্মা মুক্তি পাবে অর্থহীনতার বোধ থেকে। প্লট হিসেবে চমৎকার না? এটা যে "feel good" কাহিনি তা তো শুনেই অনুমেয়। সাথে যথেষ্ট উত্তেজনা ও তীব্রতাও ছিলো। কিছুটা সরলীকৃত হলেও খুব ভালো লাগলো পড়তে।

Unlike the last book I read, this story begins with an end. 83-year-old Eddie meets his demise at the bottom of an amusement park ride, Freddy’s Free Fall. He is quickly whisked away in a blinding flash of light. As the title implies, he meets five people in heaven. Along the way, they help him to rediscover and understand his life’s purpose. The ending tied up the story’s loose ends perfectly and made me enjoy it more than I initially expected. I’ll give it a five.

Joelle Huertasttttttttt
904ttttttttW.A.t
Book Review On The Five People You Meet In Heaven

The Five People You Meet In Heaven
By Mitch Albom
208pp Passaic, New Jersey
ISBN-13: 9781401308582
Hyperion $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?
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Mom and others passionate about this book were right that I’d appreciate it. Without animals, it couldn’t be a tearjerker for me. I wanted to behold Heaven’s final domain but what it entails is memorable. Our own relatives can raise a ruckus discussing the Afterlife. I applaud that this author published his ideas bravely. Genuine spirituality isn’t about a church. It’s about goodness and understanding our worth. Mitch Albom dedicates his book to his blue-collar uncle. We follow a maintenance man who wished his career had surpassed his hometown carnival. Circumstances detained him and when his wife died at age forty-nine, he lacked the zest to strive.

The author’s foreword summarized best: part of Heaven’s purpose is to learn how much we mattered in physical life. It was touching to see the joy, generations of memories, and safety that this maintenance veteran held on his shoulders. I can enjoy a book for what it is, even if it doesn’t cover what I expected. Instead of our eternal rest: “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” is about our orientation into Heaven. To my surprise, you don’t necessarily know the people, or they aren’t the favourites you would choose as greeters and educators. You have a connection in some poignant way, such as the lady for whom ‘Ruby Pier’s Fairground’ was named. Some greeters were linked to Eddie’s death or he to theirs. After these revelations, we retire somewhere blissful.

This was neatly laid out in pivotal moments, usually birthdays, followed by an educator explaining their meaning. I note one misrepresented portion. Eddie wasn’t at fault in the controversial event. It was those who dragged him out. However that day was responsible for his most deeply-suppressed doubt and I see why people cried over it. I will cherish Mitch’s empowering message.

* I take my writing and polishing seriously, for the reward of comments. Please do not leave "like button" clicks, until you are accompanying them with remarks for me. *

If I met this book in Heaven, I would be very disappointed.
And, OK, I only read about fifteen pages, but that was enough.
You don't have to eat 130 bowls of shredded wheat to know that you can't stand it.

And I actually sort of liked his book about the old guy, and I guess his dog book is probably pretty awesome and all, but, oh man, this book, excruciating...
for fifteen pages...but, really, that's a pretty good chunk of this.

I read this at Christmas but frankly after eating too many roasted vegetables, drinking too much merlot and making myself a comfortable nest out of discarded wrapping paper, I was disinclined to write a review. It's now six months later and I think I've finally worked off the last roasted potato so this seems like a timely juncture to write a review of The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

Eddie works at the amusement park on the Ruby Pier. He's 83 and probably due for retirement. On his birthday, our ever benevolent Lord / Fate decides that it's time for Eddie to take permanent retirement and so he is killed off in a freak fairground accident. Eddie's life force is not wasted though, as he spends his last moments attempting to rescue a little girl. And that is most definitely not a spoiler! Come on people, the books is called The Five People You Meet in Heaven which kind of presupposes that the protagonist is going to mostly be dead for a large part of the book. Really, it's not like heaven is the kind of place you go on a day trip unless you're Sam and Dean Winchester in an episode of Supernatural.

So Eddie is now Deaddie and can get on with meeting his five people. I'm not sure why the number five was chosen for this novel... convention has it that six is the magic number in this kind of life-algorithm with the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon having been scientifically proven. Perhaps the sixth person that Eddie was fated to meet was Kevin Bacon... we'll never know.

All five people have come into and out of Eddie's life during formative moments and have been affected by the very act of their meeting. None of the people might have struck Eddie as being particularly significant at the time and perhaps the events did not stand out as times which altered the direction of his existence but ultimately they've all led him to stand beneath that toppling ride car at the age of 83 thereby allowing him to save the life of a child. If I were a deeper thinking mammal I make take the opportunity to consider who the five people I might meet in heaven would be. But I'm not a deep thinking mammal so we'll just pass swiftly over that option for digression.

This is an easy-to-read story with a well written collection of short stories (vignettes of Eddies life) strung together behind the vehicle of his death (metaphorical not literal). It was gently appealing, perhaps even charming, without being schmaltzy and held my attention for the half day or so it took to read it. At no point did I feel the need to stick my finger in my mouth and make retching noises... always a positive sign. Perhaps not the most uplifting of all potential holiday reads but if it leaves you feeling tearful when you put it down, at least there should be a substantial amount of festive booze around to help bolster your spirits.

Years later, I still count this as the worst novel I've ever had the displeasure to read.

Though frequently recommended, this is an appallingly poor excuse for a novel. IF one is setting out to write a book of speculative philosophy about life death and the hereafter, one had better have a great sophistication of understanding for human experience along with fresh and insightful imagination regarding the human spirit. Albom seems to lack all of this; his philosophy is weak, hackneyed and saccharine, while at the same time his characters are two-dimensional and utterly uncompelling. This book is as empty and superficial as a third rate spiritualist medium, with its cosy, smug, pseudo-enlightenment shpeal heavily on the side of nauseating. The central character Eddie is an aged war veteran with a life almost as boring an unendurable as the novel. One day he is killed whilst on duty as an engineer at the local amusement park, and then things really become uninteresting.

If there is a germ of truth in The Five People You Meet in Heaven, please sign me up for Hell, although I feel like I've already been there for 208 pages.

It was short, easy to read, interesting and unlike anything I've read in a while. It had an unusual structure and a plot I didn't see coming. I really enjoyed it.

Note: it is widely labeled as "religious" and "Christian", but actually it's not about faith or religion at all. It's about Eddie's life like most literature is about human life. Granted, there is the word "heaven" in the title, but the book can be easily read as just a novel with a peculiar structure, and whether or not to bring in the religious connotation is up to you. To me, it was just an easy-read novel. But I guess if faith and/or Christianity play a role in your life, that context and angle will probably emerge by itself.

بسیار داستان تاثیرگذاری بود.
بخصوص اولین و دومین فردی که ملاقات کرد...و البته پنجمین فرد فقط به خاطر یک جمله اش...وقتی که ادی بهش گفت زندگیش بی معنا و پوچ بوده..ولی اون بهش گفت تو زندگی پرباری داشتی چون کارت برای شاد کردن بچه ها بوده....
حیف که وقتی داستانایی اینچنینی میخونیم تحت تاثیر جو قرار میگیریم. یعنی یه جورایی آدم دلش میخواد زندگیشو بهتر کنه ولی متاسفانه باز توی روزمرگی ها و نادانی هاش اسیر میشه...
جایی از کتاب گفته بود بهشت جاییه که میشینی به حوادث زندگیت و کل روندش فکر میکنی و دلایلش برات روشن میشه....به نظرم این میتونه خودش بدترین نوع شکنجه و جهنم هم باشه.
خیلی جالبه این ایده...5 نفر رو آدم در زمان مرگش ملاقات کنه....در حالت کاملا فانتزی و توهمی(!!!!)برای من کیا میتونن باشن و ایا من جزء اون 5 نفر هستم برای آدمای دیگه!!!!!حالا یه سوال اگه من زودتر از اون 5 نفر بمیرم چی میشه؟؟؟همینجور باید معطل بمونم تا اونا هم بمیرن و بیان برام توضیح بدن!!!!
اگه کتاب هیجان قسمت اول و دوم رو حفظ میکرد قطعا بهش 5 میدادم...ولی به نظرم نفر سوم و چهارمی رو که ملاقات کرد زیاد نکته دار! نبود....نمیدونم چرا منتظر بودم برادرش رو ملاقات کنه یا حتی مادرش رو....

و در آخر اینکه:
به نظرم زیباترین جمله رو سروان میگه:پیش از انکه شروع به کشتن یکدیگر کنیم،ارزویم این بود که ببینم دنیای خالی از جنگ، چگونه دنیایی است.

اتمام
۲۰/مرداد/۰۱
01:00

یه کتاب کوتاه و زیبا در مورد اهمیت زندگی و البته بسیار تاثیرگذار و احساسی :)

روایت مردی به نام اِدی هستش که با مرگش داستان شروع می‌شه! و بعد از مرگ همونطور که از اسم کتاب مشخصه، برای رفتن به بهشت خودش باید ۵ نفر رو که در طول زندگی‌ش مستقیم یا غیرمستقیم باعث مرگشون شده رو ملاقات کنه!

اینکه به طور جالبی نشون داد کارایی که تو زندگی میکنیم و اتفاقاتی که از سر میگذرونیم باعث ایجاد چه نوع اتفاقات دیگه‌ای واسه آدمای دیگه میشه پشم ریزون بود