Product Description
Plot Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him, as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "Why was I here?" Personal Details Collection Status In Collection Index 10 Read It Yes Links Amazon US Product Details LoC Classification PS3601.L335F59 2003 Dewey 813/.6
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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
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 to say this book is a waste of time is a kindness ( maxi8849 )
To say this book is a waste of time is a kindness! It was off the mark, barely cohesive. It was badly strung together and certainly not worthy of the author who wrote Tuesdays with Morrie.
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 yech ( maryinbantry )
The publisher review above cautiously uses the terms "saccharine" and "preachy", and tries to make it sound like the book prevails in spite of meeting these descriptions. They are good descriptors for it. Mitch Albom must have sold this soap mainly on the merits of Tuesdays With Morrie. If you're looking for the likes of Tuesdays with Morrie, don't bother. If you like saccharine, go for it.
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 The Five People you will meet in Heaven
This book is fantastic! I am a victim of violent crime (lost brother and sister to murder) and this book gave me lots of insight and made me look inside. I hope to practice a lot of what was awakened by the experience of reading this book. My brother and sister were murdered 30 years ago but are in my heart today and thanks to reading this book, I feel they are watching over me and they are with me. Thank you for listing the book available in Amazon.com.
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 The lesson from this book
This book is about a character Eddie, who worked as a maintenance worker in an amusement park, most of his life. He died while saving a girl and he has to meet five people in haven so that he could understand the purpose of his life. By meet the five people, he learned about important lesson on life.
First lesson: All lives are interconnected directly or indirectly. The Blue Man, a man from circus, died in a car accident in order to avoid hitting young Eddie. The Blue Man who do not know Eddie, died so that Eddie could live.
Second lesson: During the World War II, Eddie was shot in the leg that crippled him for his life. He was shot by his captain in order to prevent him from jumping into a burning hut. Eventually, his captain scarified his life so that his men, including Eddie, were saved. No life is wasted. The captain's life was used in return for his men's lives.
Third lesson: We should forgive the past. We hurt ourselves more when we kept our anger.
Fourth lesson: Life has to end but love doesn't. Although Eddie's wife died earlier, she told Eddie that her love doesn't end.
Fifth lesson: The work Eddie has done seems meaningless, but he doesn't realize that through the mundane job of maintaining the equipment at the amusement park, he kept countless children visiting the park save from accident.
Conclusion:
All lives are interconnected. One person exists for another person and this person may exist for another one and so on. Everyone exists for someone. Everyone had its purpose here even though the things we do seems trivial.
Note: This book is not as good as "Tuesday with Morrie", but the key message from this book is meaningful. I would not read it again since I have extracted the key messages.
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The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Another great book by Mitch Albom! Thought provoking! Which five people from my past will be waiting for me? We all need to do more sacrifice! Loved it!
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