For the record, it's NOT a boy band... (The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom)

Member Name: ryanando

Product:	The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
Date:	14/04/09 (118 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Refreshingly easy to read, thought provoking, heart warming and all that stuff.

Disadvantages: It might make you cry in public.

---Can You Jam?---

My left eye is twitching. It has been twitching for the last four days. Why it is doing this is an utter mystery to me. Too much drink? Doubtful. Too much sugar? Maybe. Stress? Quite possible. Either way, I've been trying to relax tonight and retreated to one of my favourite methods. Making voodoo dolls of people I hate and poking them with sharp knives. After that lost its charm, I decided to sit down and read, hot chocolate in hand.

---If Ya Gettin' Down---

Continuing with my apparent theme of "Five" this week, haven eating about five galaxy cookie crumbles, finally finishing all five of the Hitch Hikers Guide books and taking out my rage on every fifth person I spoke to, I decided to read Mitch Alboms' "The Five People You Meet In Heaven". £7.99 will get you a plain but pretty looking copy of this book, which I would have to suggest you do.

Albom is one of those annoyingly talented Americans who has dabbled in journalism, screen and play writing, radio and television broadcasting and even a chunk of music in there. Throw in the "best seller" books and you have an almost perfectly obnoxious packages that you just really want to hate, but can't. Don't worry though, he's rather ugly, so that makes up for all the talent he's hogging.

---When the Lights Go Out---

We begin just before the main character, Eddie, dies. Eddie works in a fairground as a maintenance man. And this is about as much as we get to know for now. The first twenty pages slowly build to the event we all know is coming. A disaster hits and Eddie dies trying his best to save a little girl.

From this point on we are taken through Eddies life in little snapshots. Each snapshot begins on another of Eddies birthdays and through the course of the book they build Eddie's character into a full and complex being. All the while we are unaware of the fate of the girl he tried to save.

After each snapshot, We return to heaven with Eddie and continue with his journey. The first person Eddie meets explains to him that the first step in heaven is meeting five people who are connected to you in some way (be it closely or tenuously) who will help you understand your life. The next step is being one of the five someone meets. After that I'm assuming you get to just go do what you want.

---Let's Dance---

That's about as much as I am comfortable telling you about this one. Why? Well it would ruin the fun if I told you who the five people were and their reasons for being there, don't you think? I do. I will tell you though, that you get to see each persons version of heaven and it is all very interesting.

I had a slight issue with the book to start with. It mentions god maybe once or twice in it which I feel makes it over religious. Don't worry though, it's not anywhere near being a religious story. I suppose God gets a mention purely because most of the story is set in his little exclusive club called heaven. I soon got over it due to the talent that Albom was waving through each page of this book.

---Slam Dunk Da Funk---

Each person slowly reveals things about Eddies life to himself and the reader and after a few little looks into Eddies past I started hoping that certain people would meet him in heaven or that he would have certain things explained to him. I was mostly completely wrong about who was going to show up and what they were going to tell them. And for this I am glad.

At the start of the book, there isn't an awful lot of connection with Eddie emotionally but Albom keeps the really emotional moments for the last couple of people so as to get you invested in Eddie first. Wise man. I will admit that I was crying like a dirty bitch being told she is ugly by the time Eddie met his fourth person.

A big driving force behind this story is the unknown. Who will Eddie meet? What will their connection be? Will he get to meet who he wants to? Did he save the girl? Will we even find out?? A lot of questions to keep the reader interested even though its such a short book.

---Everybody get up---

Another point I wish to bring to your attention, other than the fact that I'm annoying the flatmate with the boy band that is blaring from my speakers courtesy of YouTube, is that this book is amazingly simple to read. Having spent more than four months on my previous venture into words on pages (also known as the hitch hikers guide) this book, despite being brimming with emotion, is easy to get through. It took me just under two days. Less than four hours if you add the time where I actually got a chance to read it. It felt great. My brain sighed with relief to be presented with a book that is so easily absorbed.

To add to its good points is that it seems to be a bit of a conversation starter. People see "HEAVEN" in big letters on the front of your book and assume that they can discuss what their idea of heaven is, or some religious point of view that they have stored up for a moment just like this. I always enjoy conversations like that, mainly because I like listening to people talking pish. Heartfelt pish, but pish all the same!

---It's the Things You Do---

This is definitely one I would recommend, in fact I have already done so by passing this on to a couple of people in my team at work, my mum, my dad and my dog. All of them agree that it is so simple to pick up and while it's not all blood guts and action or a complete made-for-TV sob story (though I believe a TV movie was made from the book), it has elements that will appeal to most people who count themselves as humans. Even my flatmate enjoyed the book when she read it and she tends not to like books that don't have vampires or magic in them (don't tell her I said that, ok?) My dog, on the other hand, chewed the first couple of pages then told me it just wasn't as meaty as she'd hoped.

---Shoot me now---

So, to recap, the book is very well written, easy to read, filled with emotion and will make even the most bitter, twisted gay cry like a pussy. I can't vouch for the lesbians though, they are tough ones. It is, indeed, the great book everyone I know told me it was. Well done them!

A few more things I have learned in the course of this review? Five often count how much longer they have till the next one gets a shot at saying words, hang round a weirdly circle shaped camera lens, while bouncing ominously towards it to the beat and the one with the blonde hair has really hairy armpits. Listening to Five songs will in fact only serve to make you gayer by the morning and last but not least, I actually took a feeling of happiness and wellbeing away from this book. Well done Albom, you ugly American, you! You have cheered me up just by brutally killing an old man then following him round in the afterlife! You did, however inadvertently, encourage me to listen to Five, for which I will be sending you the bill for the therapy I am about to endure.

Summary: A lovely little book from a horridly talented American.