My favourite Mitch Albom book to date! The descriptions of the characters are incredibly detailed! I would read/share these with my students to help them be better descriptive writers. A book that makes you think!

HEADLINE: FILTHY RICH WRITER CASHES IN ON GEEZERS’ CHRONIC PAIN?

Right, kids?

The world is cut-and-dried SIMPLE - or IS it???

Well, wait till you’re inching painfully towards the Big 8-0, like me.

WHAT! Yet another sentimental old-timer gives this piece of jellied sugar syrup FIVE STARS?

Y'er darned tootin', kids.

Take away the fancy Amazon gift wrap with its shiny veneer and the Good Housekeeping seal of approval (you’re right, from the folks in the seniors' homes of course), and you have… WHAT?

A story of a broken old man who's had an excruciatingly hard life.

And YES - in the Real World people's hard lives CAN break them.

COMPLETELY.

TOTALLY.

UTTERLY.

Their hard lives can:

Wipe the floor with them.

Grind them to dust.

Spit on their ashes!

Oh, but Lucky You - you’re somehow EXEMPT from Hard Fractious Reality?

Such is NOT the case with poor old Eddie, who's just died and finally, thankfully, disappeared from this sorry old world. (You will, too, you know. But, I forgot - you’re Teflon Coated…)

Until his spirit gets a golden chance to redeem itself and get his old, broken life back, MADE BRAND NEW this time - in Heaven.

He's made some BAD mistakes. But NOW he has a chance to be forgiven for them, through some SEARING INSIGHTS into his past.

AND.... to be reunited the love of his life!

So that's the real story. And if you only know it via Put Downs, READ IT anyway.

It’ll elevate your consciousness, and give it a glimpse of BREATHTAKING NEW VISTAS.

And it’ll make your HEART SING! (Have you forgotten when your heart could do that?)

YES - and it’s STILL worth a solid five stars.

I was disappointed with this book. The premise has a lot of potential, but the story didn’t deliver. I’d hoped for something more subtle. I wanted the five people Eddie met to have done something more ordinary that had changed his life. Those everyday little things, that might not even matter that much to one person, but have a huge impact on another. Those people you forgot about or failed to give the credit they deserved in daily life. But every encounter involved someone dying tragically, mostly in an unusual way. It was all very clunky and heavy-handed.

I mean, the book is ok. It’s easy to read, but it didn’t have any impact on me and I didn’t find it uplifting. It felt like it was written by a single man in his thirties who’s not as wise as they think they are. The idea needed to be dealt with in a more thoughtful, delicate, and inventive way.

I think if you want a life-affirming story, which shows you your time on earth meant more than you realised, watch ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, instead.

أحب تلك الروايات التي تعتمد نهج مختلف في الكتابة، أحب الروايات التي تجذبني من يدي منذ أول سطر، لا تجعلني أفكر ولو لثانية فيما إذا كنت سأستكملها أم لا، رواية تمسك بي بقوة حتى النهاية.

نحن هنا أمام رواية تبدأ من النهاية، نعم، لم أكتب خطأ، رواية تعتمد بدايتها على وفاة بطلها، إيدي، في الملاهي حيث عمله، يموت لينقذ فتاة صغيرة من الموت، ولكن هل ينقذها بالفعل؟

بعد ذلك تبدأ الرواية في ثلاث مسارات بشكل ليس متتالي، المسار الأول يروي شذرات من أعياد ميلاد إيدي السابقة، سنوات مختلفة، منذ صغره وحتى مماته.

المسار الثاني إيدي في الجنة، حيث يتقابل مع خمس أشخاص، ارتبط مصيره بهم بشكل غير مباشر وبطريقة هو نفسه لم يكن يعلم بها، فهناك:

الشخص الأول: الرجل الأزرق الذي تصادف موته نتيجة إنقاذه لحياة إيدي بطريقة مفاجئة، حيث تقاطعت مصائرهما بشكل غير مباشر، أو يمكن القول علاقة عكسية، شخص استكمل حياته مقابل شخص فقد عمره.

الشخص الثاني: كابتن عسكري، يجبر إيدي على فقدان ساقه في إحدي المعارك من أجل الفوز بحياته في النهاية، جائزة كبرى مقابل تضحية صغيرة لا تظهر أهميتها إلا بعد فوات الأوان.

الشخص الثالث: امرأة عجوز تسببت في رسم مصير وحياة إيدي قبل مولده بسنوات طوال بشكل غير مباشر، كان لزواجها دور مؤثر في حياة والد إيدي ومن ثم إيدي نفسه حتى بعد ممات والده، ورغم ما يفرق بينهما من سنوات ورغم عدم معرفتهما ببعض، إلا أن حيواتهما تقاطعت في النهاية بطريقة ما.

الشخص الرابع: زوجته مارجريت التي توفيت في سن مبكر، وجعلته يلتاع من الحزن والشوق لها، ولكن كيف لوفاتها أن تشحذ قواه بعد ذلك؟

الشخص الخامس: طفلة صغيرة أثبتت له صدق ما رآه إبان الحرب التي شارك بها، والتي كان لها تأثير غير مباشر بما حدث في علاقته مع الشخص الثاني الذي قابله في الجنة (القائد العسكري) ومن ثم حياته.

أما المسار الثالث فهو على الأرض وما يحدث بعد وفاة إيدي في الملاهي وكيف سارت الأمور.

تتابع المسارات بشكل سلس وجذاب، بالإضافة إلى الفكرة نفسها، يجعل من الرواية عمل أدبي ممتع لدرجة تمنيت ألا ينتهي سريعًا.

Barely 2 stars (1 extra for originality)

Was this meaningful? No. Could it have been meaningful? Most definitely.

Wow, what a let down. This book really had the potential to be something memorable and beautiful, but it unfortunately fell flat in almost every area (characters, plot, writing). Now, as a Catholic I was excited to read this since I'd heard so many things from people about how it's a "great religious book" and whatnot. However, it really wasn't any of that. If anything, it was just a poorly written book trying to be meaningful and deep.

Honestly, I have nothing to say about this other than it lulled me to sleep from the very first chapter. Usually with books, I notice, if they cannot hook me from the beginning (where the author should be trying to gauge the readers attention) I know I won't love it. Sometimes, however, the book pleasantly surprises me and I'll enjoy it despite its shaky beginning, but that's not the case with this one.

Overall, I'm sad to say I skimmed a lot of this towards the end, but I just couldn't do it. Nope.

This was okay but not as good as either The First Phone Call from Heaven or The Time Keeper. It was a pleasant enough story but it failed to really engross me in the various happenings.
Partly I think I found it an extremely weird idea of what Heaven might be like. The five people seemed a strange collection to me and I could understand if Eddie felt a bit miffed by who he got! I must admit I started thinking who I might want for my five people .........
Putting any criticism aside I read the book straight through and enjoyed it enough not to put it down for other activities!

Barely scraping the surface of anything. I guess the supposed philosophy with all its clichés and saccharine moments in this book is perhaps good in a way of encouraging human connection and seems to have succeeded in giving easy comfort to many people in dealing with our ignorance and our insignificance. Me? I'll take choosing to read this as my own bad decision, and go and read Dante, which I should have done in the first place.

tIt’s interesting seeing how heaven is perceived in someone else’s eyes. I do believe there is an afterlife of some sort, but I don’t know what exactly lies there. I think the concept presented in this book in which you meet five people that in one way or another shaped your life or are interconnected to you is clever. Furthermore, they explain to you about your purpose, destiny, and their involvement in you. This made me think about how it is true, there are many circumstances which affect your life. Every action made affects someone else and vice versa. This would be an ideal “end” (or a new beginning) to someone’s life, especially if the person feels useless or felt as if they lived without a purpose. In my opinion, this would be a pleasant way to receive closure. In addition to that, you may have unanswered questions and it would be great if they would be answered. Sometimes we wonder about certain life events and seek answers, but only to find they aren’t able to be resolved. Hearing someone else’s point of view on why you should feel worthy and loved is very much enlightening.

tThe writing in this novel was structured well and was very direct. I wish more books had this style of writing. I was satisfied by how the life events that occurred in Eddie’s life were explained. You could really feel as if it you were living them alongside of him. At least that is how I felt. Whether if they were tragic or happy moments, they were realistic. Everyone has a life story and in some way we’re interconnected to each other. The life events of everyone may not be as extreme as his (or may be worse), but I think they're just as significant. I can easily say that this is a therapeutic novel that will help a person who is filled with sadness and feelings of unworthiness feel better. It surely made me feel great and refreshed afterwards! This is also a short book which can be read in a small amount of time (depending on the person), so this can easily be one of those “read again” novels. I also heard Mitch Albom’s novel “Tuesdays with Morrie” is another well written book too, so I will be checking that one out sometime. I am highly impressed by this book and author. Every life matters and we are all here for a reason.

So good! I read it once to myself and then out loud to my husband immediately after. Yes, it’s that good, you can read it twice all the way through two days in a row.

This is mind altering, really thought provoking. I wouldn’t classify this as religious AT ALL. Makes one stop to really think about what you’re doing in life and what life after death is like for not only you, but the people you touch.

Highly recommend.

"All endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time..."

First fiction work of Mitch Albom that I've read, yes, long overdue but it was worth it. Though, since I have read his two non-fiction titles, I can say that I was moved more by the stories of Morrie and Chika.

Here, Albom presented Eddie's journey after life. He was 83 years old, same age now with my grandfather, when he died trying to save a little kid in an accident in the amusement park where he works as a maintenance officer. He met with five people from his life, even those he did not know that played a big role while he was still living, the Blue man whose cause of death is his mischief when he was a child, his Captain when he was at war in the Philippines, the woman whom the amusement park was named after, his delightful wife and Tala, the child whom he accidentally killed and burned alive in the war. These people made him realize that all of our lives, absolutely all of our actions have an effect to other people, be it small or enormous. In one way or another, we touch each other's lives.

Mitch Albom is definitey one of my favorite authors. I think I just expected a lot from this book, nonetheless, it made me think about how I am living, particularly about this day. We really don't have random acts, everything we do has an effect to our lives and to other people, we are all connected by this invisible string, each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.

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.