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The Five People You Meet in Heaven | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: Hyperion
Category: EBooks
List Price: $9.00
Buy New: $7.20
You Save: $1.80 (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  1606 reviews
Sales Rank: 424
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 198
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
ASIN: B000PLXEU2
Publication Date: September 23, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Part melodrama and part parable, Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven weaves together three stories, all told about the same man: 83-year-old Eddie, the head maintenance person at Ruby Point Amusement Park. As the novel opens, readers are told that Eddie, unsuspecting, is only minutes away from death as he goes about his typical business at the park. Albom then traces Eddie's world through his tragic final moments, his funeral, and the ensuing days as friends clean out his apartment and adjust to life without him. In alternating sections, Albom flashes back to Eddie's birthdays, telling his life story as a kind of progress report over candles and cake each year. And in the third and last thread of the novel, Albom follows Eddie into heaven where the maintenance man sequentially encounters five pivotal figures from his life (a la A Christmas Carol). Each person has been waiting for him in heaven, and, as Albom reveals, each life (and death) was woven into Eddie's own in ways he never suspected. Each soul has a story to tell, a secret to reveal, and a lesson to share. Through them Eddie understands the meaning of his own life even as his arrival brings closure to theirs. Albom takes a big risk with the novel; such a story can easily veer into the saccharine and preachy, and this one does in moments. But, for the most part, Albom's telling remains poignant and is occasionally profound. Even with its flaws, The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a small, pure, and simple book that will find good company on a shelf next to It's A Wonderful Life. --Patrick O'Kelley
Product Description
Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret. Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.
One by one, Eddie's five people illuminate the unseen connections of his earthly life. As the story builds to its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown last act of his life: Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure? The answer, which comes from the most unlikely of sources, is as inspirational as a glimpse of heaven itself. In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom gives us an astoundingly original story that will change everything you-ve ever thought about the afterlife -- and the meaning of our lives here on earth. With a timeless tale, appealing to all, this is a book that readers of fine fiction will treasure.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1601 more reviews...
 Wonderful October 7, 2008
I knew this would be good, and it was great. If you have extra time, read it.
 Good Story October 7, 2008
This book followed Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie, and is "only a guess, a wish," of his view of heaven. READ CAREFULLY: Albom is not saying this story is what heaven will be like. It is only a story, a way to convey his view that all people are important and affect everyone they meet in some way.
As far as the literary content goes, this book is fair. The writing isn't generic, but it won't wow you, either. The story moves along nicely, and Albom is careful not to reveal the characters himself, but rather allow them to tell their stories. I appreciated that aspect.
If you are looking for any theological content about heaven in this book, please turn elsewhere. That was not Albom's intention, and there is a lot of New Age rhetoric in this book. But if you keep in mind that this is just a story, then it's a good way to pass time when you're not seeking too much intellectual stimulation. (That's a compliment, I promise)
Lessons for life October 3, 2008
The lessons from this book can help us to live our life with more connection to self and others. We don't have to wait until we die to recognize that we can live with meaning in the here and now.
Your destiny fulfilled September 25, 2008
Why you SHOULD read this book:
- Sense of harmony and balance with life and death
- The acknowledgment that you have a God-given purpose
- Simple and quick read
- The flashback to the past references keeps you entertained and cleverly unfolds the present
- Mental picture is easy to orchestrate
- The epilogue!
Why you SHOULD NOT read this book:
- If you cannot let go of your own view of heaven
- You can't read in pictures
- Or you over-analyse
**This is the first story-telling book I've read in about 10 years! This isn't a book about death, nor is it a book about heaven; this is a book about LIFE here...right this very moment! I couldn't have been happier with reading this. If you don't get teary-eyed, you don't have a pulse! It's good enough for Oprah!**
Sidenote to those criticizing:
Shut up.
Overly sweet, but who cares? September 25, 2008
So I guess I'm a sucker for the cheesy. The fact is that this book made an emotional impact on me with the idea that we are all connected in ways we will never fully understand, for good and for bad.
An elderly man is killed in a tragic fairgrounds accident. When he reaches the other side, he learns that before he can be fully at peace he must meet five different people who have either affected his life or visa versa. It's touching and powerful and an intriguing idea.
Some people might gag at the symbolism and obvious heartstrings, but the right sentimental crowd will appreciate the great lessons.
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