May 6th, 2009 
Linda R. Moore The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a deceptively simple little spiritual book that starts with a man dying. And that, as the author says, is just the beginning.
Eddie has been a maintenance guy at a fairground all his life. He had aspirations, but things happened, and that’s where he grew up and eventually died. His own opinion of himself is that he never mattered, and that he didn’t deserve to be in heaven…which is where he wakes up.
Albom’s vision of heaven has nothing to do with clouds, angel wings and harps. In fact, it reminds me more of the pagan concept of the Summerland, where you rest between lifetimes and learn about your
| life and what it meant to your soul. In this case, though, the lifetimes are different stages of heaven; in the first stage, you meet five people whose presence in your life changed it in ways you only understand as you hear them out.
I found the book strangely comforting. It makes sense to me that after death is a time to recap and learn, and thus progress to the next thing. It makes sense to me on some deep gut level that death is only an end to life as we know it, and that even the smallest ripples made by a person whose life touches us makes a difference. We are interconnected, but we don’t always see the way these connections string together. |
I recommend this sweet, simple book to anybody who has ever lost a loved one, or has ever asked a question about what comes next.
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Oh! I thought it was gonna be one of those jokes…You know, guy goes to heaven, and… :) Just kidding. It’s a lovely book. And the movie based on the book wasn’t bad either.
I really didn’t like the movie. But the book was really what I needed to be reading at that time. :)