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।

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

The most boring book ever written.

"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.

This came up in conversation the other day and I searched for my original review from 2018 and cannot believe I gave it 2. Though many people love this book I found it genuinely embarrassing to read, poor writing, and the ideas are just fluffy, no real meaning, just the kind of thing your mum would say to you when you're five years old. Corny.

This book is very imaginative I'll give the author that much at least. I don't know if I liked the story so much as the way it was written. Don't get me wrong, the story was very creative and it made you think, but he wrote so poetically it was hard for the words not to sink into your soul. The story was about a old crippled man named Eddie. Eddie worked at an amusement park called Ruby Pier and he was the head maintenance worker. The book starts on the day of his death. There was this little girl in the amusement park and her mom had left her alone so she could go on the rides with only her boyfriend and not her daughter. There was this ride at Ruby Pier called Freddy's Free Fall and it is one of those rides that you're at the top of a really tall pole and it just let's the cart drop and it's really fast until something catches it and you slow down right at the very end. So anyway, as Eddie is doing his rounds Freddy's Free Fall breaks and the cable is starting to snap (but nobody knows this yet) and there are people at the top and Eddie goes and tells his co-worker to get the people out of the cart and then to let the cart drop. But then as his coworker has gotten everyone out of the cart and preparing to let it drop Eddie realizes that it's the cable and if they let the cart drop, the cable will snap and it will fall off its tracks into the crowd of people that had formed below. Eddie tries to yell to his coworker but he doesn't hear him and so Eddie yells to the crowd to get back. The people listen...all except for the little girl. So as his coworker lets the cart down Eddie runs to save her but as soon as the cart falls on him, he feels two little hands in his. He doesn't know if he saves her. Then he has to go to heaven and meet five people that will explain to him about his life. I think this book was very inspiring. I was surprised at the ending and I thought that is was very good. I just really enjoyed reading Mitch Albom's work mainly I think because of the poetry. It was written in a very captivating style. I think that my favorite phrase that the author used was to describing Eddie. "...this was who he was and who he would always be, a man with sand in his shoes in a world of mechanical laughter and grilled frankfurters." Mechanical laughter and grilled frankfurters. This book should be read by anyone and everyone and although it is not very religious, it really made me think about life and life after death. VERY GOOD READ!

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

إيدي عاش حياة متعِبة
بتحكي الرواية عن إيدي شخص وحيد عنده 83 سنة قضي معظمهم كعامل صيانة في مدينة ملاهي.. حياة روتينية مملة.. مفيش أسرة و لا أولاد.. و لا شغل كويس يجيب فلوس كتير زى أخوه.. شخص عايش على الذكريات.. سواء كانت سعيدة مع رفيقة عمره العزيزة مارغريت.. أو بائسة زى ذكرياته في الحرب و مع أبوه...
الرواية بقي بتبدي من النهاية.. في محاولة إنقاذ بنت صغيرة إيدي بيموت و بيقابل خمس أشخاص أثروا في حياته حتي لو هو ميعرفهمش أصلا...
دايما بحب فكرة النص التاني من الصورة.. الأجزاء اللى مبنشوفهاش ابدا و لا عمرنا هنعرفها..دايما فيه روابط خفية احنا كبشر بقدرتنا المحدودة منقدرش نعرفها و لا نفهمها.. بنحس إننا اذكياء جدا و احنا بنحلل المواقف او بنخطط اللى عايزينه يحصل عشان فجأة يحصل العكس و اللى بيبين قد ايه احنا غلبانين و عمرنا ما هنعرف.. و ده جزء مننا..
و لولا الإيمان و إن الواحد راضي حتي لو مش فاهم فهو راضي عشان متأكد انه ربنا كاتب له الخير و انه بس كإنسان مش عارف الخير فين أو لازم يتحمل ايه عشانه مك��نش حد قدر يعيش..
الفكرة لطيفة جدا و ذكية و طريقة السرد كامت مناسبة تماما و مشوقة و حبيت جدا فكرة أعياد الميلاد و التنقل بين الماضي و الحاضر في الحكي...
في الآخر اما فكرت على نمط الرواية معرفتش أجمع أشخاصي الخمسة و لقيت إن لو فيه مشهد واحد بس احب انى أشوفه و أكرره دايما فهو إني أشوف العيلة و كل اللى بحبهم سوا و فرحانين و بياكلو و يهزروا مرة في البيت و مرة عالبحر و هكذا إلى ما لا نهاية ❤️
في الآخر الرواية جميلة فعلا و يُنصح بها بشدة

My face tightens into a mean spirited frown, I grind my teeth, my head starts to burn, I clench my fists, I begin to tremble; there is a tightness in my stomach. I rip the telephone off the wall and throw it out my nine-story window onto the street; I let out a barbaric, guttural, king-of-the-jungle, ape-like scream. I feel my pulse beating in my neck, a blood vessel snaps in the back of my head. I flip over my couch, CRASH! I kick a hole in the middle of my T.V. I like that my shin is cut, bleeding, and burning. I toss off my clothes, throwing my left shoe through the shattered window. I stomp my bare ass out of my apartment. I do not lock the door, I have no sense of time, I am not coming back. I know I am hideous looking, but I do not care; I’m naked and full of hate. Fuck the goddamn elevator, I’m taking the stairs. On the fourth floor a woman shrieks and covers her child’s eyes. I keep trucking. I am a man on a mission. I make my way out the building’s front door, a cool breeze almost makes me feel less murderous. Out of hate for such a thought I bite my tongue, making it bleed. It doesn’t bleed enough. I begin to run down the street as fast as I can, screaming at the top of my lungs for the homeless man to stab me. He doesn’t. The lake, the lake, I will jump in the lake and fight a swan! I run to the lake and dive in, scraping my head and arms. The lake is not deep; I stand up. I am covered in mud and Chordata feces. I decide to drown myself. Head deep, slipping away, I am pulled up. It is a police officer. This book was on the NY Times best seller list for 95 straight weeks and I have failed.

Not my kind of book but read it for book club. All about the interconnectedness of all people and events in our lives. A bit hokey. Nothing you haven't heard before. Nothing inspirational or thought-provoking.

✔ از دید من یه کتاب فلسفی با ریتم کند و منطقی ه و خوندنش دقت میخواد .

✔ دومین کتابیه که از میچ آلبوم خوندم . اولی

من کتاب رو به صورت صوتی و با صدای آرمان سلطان زاده گوش دادم. فوق العاده بود.
برای من سراسر امید و معنا بود این کتاب و همونطور که حس خوبی درمورد مرگ به آدم میداد درمورد زندگی هم همینطور بود. انگار از یه جایی به بعد، دیگه شخصیت داستان، ادی نبود، خودت جای ادی بودی و داشتی توی بهشت قدم میزدی و.....