\u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven<\/a>\u201d is a novel primarily set in the afterlife. Eddie, an amusement park maintenance worker, crosses over attempting to save a young girl from a falling fairground car. What happens next is fairly typical of the genre. We follow Eddie through the afterlife as he meets with five different people he crossed paths with during his lifetime.<\/p>\n Novels such as Alice Sebold\u2019s \u201cThe Lovely Bones\u201d cover similar grounds. But where Sebold\u2019s novel encourages a sense of deep loss and anxiety through the murdered girl\u2019s wish to help her family discover the identity of her murderer, \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven\u201d takes a more leisurely pace through its protagonist\u2019s afterlife.<\/p>\n What is different about Eddie\u2019s story is that he is a particularly ordinary everyman. Unlike some stories within the setting of the afterlife, or heaven, we don\u2019t get the sense of justice or reckoning. Eddie isn\u2019t necessarily being judged for his good or bad deeds. The people he meets are just there to show him how he impacted their lives.<\/p>\n The setting of \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven\u201d is also different from some within the genre. Although the afterlife setting would indicate the novel as speculative, the action is placed more generally in the real world. The people with whom Eddie converses throughout are placed mostly within settings in which Eddie would have originally encountered them.<\/p>\n The biggest strength of Eddie\u2019s journey is that he is a likeable kind of person. Readers can resonate with his weaknesses and occasional bad decisions.<\/p>\n However, some readers may find the story a little too saccharine. The conversations Eddie has with the people from his past sometimes veer into the sentimental. Readers looking for some kind of religious understanding of heaven will also perhaps be disappointed.<\/p>\n Overall, the book would appeal to the general reader who wants to read an emotionally charged story that leaves them feeling uplifted and hopeful. It explores a fictional, imagined afterlife in order to examine philosophical questions about the meaning of one ordinary man\u2019s life.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Five People You Meet in Heaven\u201d tells the story of the sudden death of an 83-year-old man named Eddie, an amusement park maintenance worker, and what happens as he passes into the afterlife.<\/p>\n Eddie dies suddenly after attempting to save the life of a young girl from a falling amusement park ride. The accident is caused by a key getting stuck in the machinery, which Eddie realizes just in time to see the cars crash down toward a young girl. Finding himself crossing into the afterlife, he meets five people who had a significant impact on him whilst he was alive and who explain the meaning of his life to him. He also asks each one of these people whether he managed to save the little girl or not.<\/p>\n Rather than simply the members of his family or friends, however, the people Eddie meets are a peculiar bunch. He initially struggles to see how they could be the most important people for him to be connected with in heaven. But as he continues on his way into the afterlife, he comes to realise that there are no random events in life. He begins to see that these people have affected his life, as he has impacted on theirs.<\/p>\n The five people include a former amusement park worker known as the \u201cBlue Man,\u201d and his former Captain in the army where they were forced to work in a prisoner of war labor camp. He is re-united with his wife, Marguerite. He also meets the woman for whom the amusement park is named. But it is the fifth and final person that Eddie meets in heaven who causes the greatest heartbreak.<\/p>\n The book is a meditation on what it means to live a full life and the impressions and effects we have on the other people we meet.<\/p>\n Editorial Note: Read our list of best books about the afterlife.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> At The Rauch Review<\/a>, we care deeply about being transparent and earning your trust. These articles explain why and how we created our unique methodology for reviewing books and other storytelling mediums.<\/p>\n<\/div> \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven\u201d works across genres and would appeal to a wide-range of readers. Though it explores the afterlife of an elderly American man, the themes it relates to are universal. All of us interact with others throughout our life. We all have an impact on one another. At some point, everyone dies.<\/p>\n The premise of this book sets one example of what \u2018heaven\u2019 might be like. But it isn\u2019t about religion or beliefs or some esoteric idea of what heaven might be. It is far more about the impact our actions have on those around us as we move through life.<\/p>\n Insofar as the book reflects on the afterlife and is mostly based within it, it might be considered a speculative fiction or literary\/high fantasy title. However the mode in which it is written is as a general fiction title. Though we see Eddie as he moves into the afterlife and meets the people he has interacted with during his life, this is written in a way that makes the story feel relatable and realistic.<\/p>\n The story is told from a third-person omniscient perspective. The action mostly follows Eddie as he moves through the day of the accident that takes his life, through to his experiences in the afterlife.<\/p>\n However, brief scenes feature the people left behind at the amusement park in the aftermath of Eddie\u2019s death, mostly Eddie\u2019s co-worker, Dominguez. The choice by the author to keep most of the action through the experience of Eddie is a good one. The small interludes following the aftermath of Eddie\u2019s death appear just as links to show how life goes on without him. It is only Dominguez who really appears affected by the old man\u2019s death, as Eddie had no family left.<\/p>\n Editorial Note: We believe these three factors are important for evaluating general writing quality across every aspect of the book. Before you get into further analysis, here\u2019s a quick breakdown to clarify how we\u2019re using these words:<\/em><\/p>\n Mitch Albom\u2019s book sets out an endearing story of one ordinary man\u2019s life. Readers can\u2019t fail to wish for Eddie to find some sense of peace after death. As a main character, Eddie appears as a working-class old man who has lived through some difficult times and experiences. His love for his late wife and her early death is heartbreaking. The way Albom portrays Eddie is to underline the very ordinariness of his life story, making him appeal to an everyman mentality. Readers will feel invested in Eddie\u2019s exploration of the afterlife and wonder at who or why these particular people have been sent to guide him. Eddie\u2019s meeting with his old army Captain is particularly emotional, and Albom writes the horrors of war especially well.<\/p>\n The book is written in a clear fashion. Albom uses short interludes between the sections, which are \u2018The First Person Eddie Meets In Heaven\u2019 and so on, in which to interject Eddie\u2019s birthdays throughout the years. These sections help to build a picture of Eddie\u2019s life growing up, his relationship with his father, which is difficult, and his marriage. The interludes also help to fill in the blanks of Eddie\u2019s life, such as the fact that he and his wife couldn\u2019t have children together.<\/p>\n Although the book is set mostly in the afterlife, it is surprisingly easy to follow. Albom writes in a realist fashion, despite the setting. The plot of the book is quite simple to understand: Eddie must meet with the five people who have had the greatest impact on his life, before resting in peace in heaven. Albom also creates tension in Eddie\u2019s repeated questioning of whether he managed to save the little girl in the amusement park. This uncertainty gives the impression to the reader that because Eddie is overwhelmingly disappointed in his life, he feels that if he has saved the little girl, then his death has not also been in vain.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven\u201d is just the right length of story for the plot and experience of Eddie\u2019s life to be explored and resolved. The style of setting out the sections by opening with \u201cThe First Person\u201d…. Worked well for the book. It gave a clear introduction to what was coming up next in the story. The interludes with a couple of pages of details of Eddie\u2019s birthdays past also worked well to link together the turning points in his life.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t feel that Albom wasted words, and neither did the book contain overwritten sentences. The ending provides for a resolution to Eddie\u2019s journey through the afterlife and is as \u201cgood\u201d as an ending can be where the central protagonist is already dead.<\/p>\n Eddie does not feel \u201cunique.\u201d He is not an unusual kind of character. However, he is very likeable. His very ordinariness is what draws a reader to him, in fact. He reflects the lives of many such working-class men who lived during the 20th century. He fought in wars, fell in love, and faced many disappointments.<\/p>\n Sadly, Eddie sees his life as being one of thwarted ambitions. He doesn\u2019t feel he achieved very much and is disappointed that he remained working in the amusement part his whole life. However as readers, we recognize how his simple acts of kindness and hard-working sensibilities have contributed to the lives of others.<\/p>\n The author\u2019s use of very short flashbacks was a useful way to develop empathy for the character of Eddie. In this way, we see the decisions he makes throughout his life, both good and bad.<\/p>\n The supporting characters around Eddie are not as well developed. Though, realistically, this is Eddie\u2019s story. We see enough of his dead wife, Marguerite, in the flashbacks to recognize her as a sympathetic character. Mitch Albom got the idea for the book from the life of his deceased uncle<\/a> who was also a grizzled World War II veteran. Perhaps this explains his skill at rendering such a believable, likeable old man for his main character.<\/p>\n Eddie\u2019s exploration of the afterlife provides an engaging look at the ways in which the people we meet affect our lives. Some scenes are heartbreaking, particularly when referencing the experiences of war. \u201cThe Five People We Meet In Heaven\u201d shows the reality of a life lived by many men during the 20th century. The horrors of war and the ways this affected the behavior and mental health of soldiers is particularly powerful.<\/p>\n The book feels unique in tone and perspective, though the life of Eddie feels universal. The ending will be satisfying to most readers, although some who are looking for a more religious version of heaven may be disappointed.<\/p>\n Although there are elements of speculative fiction within \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven,\u201d the book falls more in a general, literary or realistic fiction genre. The writing style is pretty typical of a plotty general fiction title.<\/p>\n Albom manages to show us the life of Eddie and the difficulties and traumas he has faced, without telling. It is easy to read between the lines and see the sad truth behind many of his decisions and the outcomes of his choices. He also appears as a man of his time.<\/p>\n The author does not describe the setting of heaven in any particular detail. This scope actually made the reader forget that the book was based outside of the realm of reality. The backdrops to heaven represent the places where Eddie lived or where the characters encountered him. So the Captain features in the Philippines where the prisoner of war camp was, for example. The characters also appear at the age they were when either they knew Eddie, or when their story is based.<\/p>\n The story of \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven\u201d contains very little in the way of details around setting and far more dialogue. As \u2018heaven\u2019 obviously means different things to different people, Albom had represented it as such. Eddie\u2019s late wife, Marguerite, features as a young woman perpetually attending weddings because, as she tells Eddie, this was what she wished for.<\/p>\n This scenery allowed for a separation between the religious beliefs around heaven and the fictional place created by the author. The idea is similar to Alice Sebold<\/a>\u2019s narrative technique in \u201cThe Lovely Bones<\/a>,\u201d which features a young murdered teenager and her idea of the perfect \u2018heaven.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven\u201d is not a highly suggestive book on the idea of heaven or the afterlife. The author does not explore the idea of judgement or forgiveness in any heavy way in this book. Instead Albom allows for an unfolding of the life of one ordinary old man and the ways in which both he and the people he has met have impacted one another\u2019s lives. The story does not attempt to moralize or suggest that there are good or bad people. Instead it explores the decisions made and enacted throughout the entirety of a life.<\/p>\n The author does not appear to wish to engage in any debate about religious beliefs or the need to be one kind of person. He does show, however, that everything we do and everyone we meet can have a significant impact on us and vice versa.<\/p>\n Consumer reviews<\/a> of \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven\u201d are overwhelmingly positive. Many readers describe finding the book \u201ccomforting\u201d as well as \u201cthought-provoking.\u201d Reviewers tend to see the book as providing profound lessons on life and death. Many readers<\/a> find Eddie human and likeable. The book appears to have appealed to both readers and critics alike, spending 95 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list<\/a>.<\/p>\n The book\u2019s cover features a silhouette of a ferris wheel set against a dark blue background. It contains the title of the book and the name of the author, as well as the title of another bestselling book by Mitch Albom, \u201cTuesdays With Morrie<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Having read the book, it is clear that the amusement park at the centre is key to the story. Nonetheless, the cover doesn\u2019t give a good idea of what the book is about. It is a story mostly set in the afterlife, and this fact is not represented here. Although the very title of the book would likely indicate something closer to the themes of the story, the lettering suggests a book more akin to the self-help genre.<\/p>\n A 2004 made-for-TV movie<\/a> was adapted for the small screen by Hallmark Entertainment<\/a>. It stars Jon Voight<\/a> in the role of Eddie and was directed by Lloyd Kramer<\/a>. Though the movie was found to be heartwarming by some viewers, it received somewhat mixed reviews, with some critics citing it as slow-paced<\/a>.<\/p>\n Although I do not hold religious beliefs or ideas around an afterlife, I found myself captivated by \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven.\u201d Mitch Albom creates the story of an everyman that felt real. I could imagine him being a member of my family. For this reason, his experiences in the afterlife were emotional to read. I particularly found the experiences of Eddie and his Captain during the war \u2014 as well as his marriage to Marguerite \u2014 relatable to older family members.<\/p>\n There was a real clarity for me when reading about the decisions and experiences of wartime and the ways in which these can reverberate through the years within a family. I recognized my grandparents in Eddie and Marguerite, and the way WWII affected their marriage and future lives. For this reason, perhaps, I warmed to Eddie. Despite his knack for pessimism and sometimes dubious choices, he felt likeable. His honesty and dedication to his beliefs were heartwarming.<\/p>\n Unusually, there are not any dislikable characters in \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven.\u201d Although, as stated previously, much of the focus is on Eddie and his movement through heaven.<\/p>\n One very brief, lowkey scene that I found particularly emotional was when Dominguez is required to accompany an agent around the former apartment occupied by Eddie throughout his married and widowed life. We know from previous exposition that Eddie and Marguerite moved there to be in the same building as his mother after his father died. After he lost his wife, Eddie never moved on.<\/p>\n Through Dominguez\u2019s eyes, we see a neat and simple home in which Eddie has a permanent view of the amusement park. Through the agent\u2019s eyes, however, the omniscient narrator relates the man\u2019s contempt for what he sees as the pitiful life of the apartment\u2019s former resident. This attitude from the agent resonated deeply in the ways in which outsiders may see a person\u2019s life as small. In contrast, we have learned throughout the rest of the narrative about the ways in which Eddie has impacted others, and we agree it is something to celebrate.<\/p>\n I believe that \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven\u201d works as a book of general fiction. It also contains elements of speculative fiction. It is a heartwarming and emotionally charged story with wholly likeable characters. Albom creates a structure which moves at a fairly fast-pace whilst providing a thought-provoking look at how we impact the people we meet throughout our lives.<\/p>\n I have awarded \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven\u201d five stars because I believe it just works as a feel-good, thought-provoking novel about the meaning of life. As someone without a religious idea of heaven, I enjoyed the way in which Albom presented his version. I found his interpretation of heaven as something that would be comforting to believe in.<\/p>\n Online copies of the book are available on:<\/p>\n The book is also available in many physical stories, mostly of major retailers such as Waterstones and Barnes and Noble and is usually found on the general fiction shelves. The book can also be found in most physical library collections in both the U.S. and the U.K. as well as on the Libby library app. It is unlikely that consumers will need to wait too long for this title as it has wide availability.<\/p>\n Audio versions:<\/p>\n Joseph Rauch\u2019s \u201cTeach Me How To Die\u201d contains similar themes as \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven\u201d and is similarly a realistically delivered story told in a speculative fiction setting.<\/p>\n Walter Klein is a man dying of terminal cancer, for which he has chosen no treatment. A widower who adored his wife, he courts the idea of finally dying and putting an end to his misery. Though he has contemplated suicide, he does not wish to cause suffering to the people in his life after his death. When he does die, he finds himself crossed over to the afterlife where he meets with Vincent, his guide through the next process.<\/p>\n Similar to Eddie, Walter is a man who has lived a fairly uneventful life. He has experienced difficulties, mostly through his estranged relationship with his mother and an unfortunate incident with his mother\u2019s former boyfriend. Walter also shares similarities to Eddie in his love for his wife, who has died.<\/p>\n Similar to \u201cThe Five People You Meet In Heaven,\u201d through the themes of memory, we explore key scenes from Klein\u2019s life as he waits for judgement. \u201cTeach Me How To Die,\u201d however, more fully explores ideas around religion, choice and judgement. It also leans more toward the speculative element in its portrayal of a whole system within the afterlife, with more in depth details of the hierarchy of levels to achieving peace after death.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eddie dies suddenly after attempting to save the life of a young girl from a falling amusement park ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":8745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-8715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-novel-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018The Five People You Meet in Heaven\u2019 Summary: An Afterlife With Some Unexpected Strangers<\/h2>\n
\n
Audience and Genre: Realist Fiction with Speculative Elements<\/h2>\n
Perspective: Eddie\u2019s Experience is Key<\/h2>\n
Three Cs: Compelling, Clear, Concise<\/h2>\n
\n
Compelling: Readers Will Care Deeply About Eddie<\/h3>\n
Clear: The Storytelling is Clear and Fast-Paced<\/h3>\n
Concise: The Story Unfolds Well<\/h3>\n
Character Development: Empathetic Characters<\/h2>\n
Story: Engaging, Heartbreaking, Realistic<\/h2>\n
Prose Style: Typical of Literary and Realistic Fiction<\/h2>\n
Setting: Unique Setting That Felt Strangely Real<\/h2>\n
Rhetoric: Everything In Life Has An Impact<\/h2>\n
Critiquing the Critics: Not Much Criticism of This Book<\/h2>\n
Book Aesthetic: Doesn\u2019t Fit the Content Well<\/h2>\n
\u2018The Five People You Meet In Heaven\u2019: Book vs. Movie<\/h2>\n
Reviewer\u2019s Personal Opinion: A Heartwarming, Life-Affirming Read<\/h2>\n
\u2018The Five People You Meet in Heaven\u2019: A Life-Affirming, Emotional Journey Into The Afterlife<\/h2>\n
Buying and Rental Options<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
Books Like \u2018The Five People You Meet In Heaven\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Teach Me How To Die\u2019 by Joseph Rauch<\/h3>\n