'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' By Mitch Albom

'The Five People You Meet in  Heaven' By Mitch Albom
Rating: 5/5*


Eddie lives an unremarkable life and, in many ways, an unsatisfying one. He grows up, goes to war, gives up on his dreams and dies with no one to mourn him. But it doesn’t end there. No matter how unimportant you believe yourself, your life has meaning.  


After waking up in the afterlife, Eddie is subjected to accounts of his life as explained by five people who have in some way been affected by him or changed the tract of his life in some way. Through the intertwining snapshots of Eddie’s life, you begin to piece together who he was as a person and his significance to those around him. I closed the book with a real understanding and love for his character.


I have read other people’s reviews on this site, many of who have termed it ‘overly sentimental drivel.’ But right now, I want sentimental. I want something to remind me of the goodness of humanity (however artificially constructed and spliced between the pages of a book). This book is particularly poignant in the uncertain times with which we find ourselves. A time where we watch our loved ones die meaninglessly, our careworkers risk their lives and society as we know it slow to a holt. In relation to this pandemic, just like Eddie, I think it is essential for us to remember our own significance.


As we bemoan our social lives by staying indoors, remember that, “Each affects the other, and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.” Remember the ripple effect of our actions; the capacity to unknowingly pass on illness to strangers, just as Eddie walked into the road as a child and unknowingly caused the death of another. Remember the sacrifices we continue to make each day and remember their necessity. And when we turn on the news and see people dying, remember that, “Life has to end. Love doesn't.”


Words have never been a miracle cure to all of our hurt, but like a bandage, they can prove a comfort. That is how I read The Five People You Meet in Heaven: a great comfort in uncertain times.


But we are all entitles to our opinions, I guess.