Five People You Meet in Heaven - Book review

This week I read The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. So I said I wasn’t going to read another book by Albom after the horrible experience with Tuesdays with Morrie, but I was given this one as a gift. I was told it was better than Tuesdays with Morrie and I should give it a chance. So I did.

And I’ll say this… it was better than Tuesdays with Morrie, how much better I don’t know. A part of me thinks I was just ruined by my experience with Tuesdays. Once again it felt very shallow to me. As another book that’s portrayed as a life changing experience, it falls short. Unless you are some kind of shallow, you will not have a life changing experience after reading this novel. So don’t get your hopes up.

I would strongly disagree with those reviewers who say this is a book for everyone. In reality I think a much better title would be The Five People Eddie Meets in Heaven. I will not be meeting those same five people and the book doesn’t go into detail about the five people I will be meeting. In fact it doesn’t really give me any detail about who will be waiting for me, besides five people who have influenced my life in some way. No deeper thought required, just the way Mitch likes it.

Again, unless you are a new kind of dense I would hope you realize if you’re going to meet someone in heaven it will probably be a person that has touched your life in some way or another. It’s not a stretch. It shouldn’t take someone publishing these simple thoughts for people to realize straightforward concepts about life. Just take five minutes to introspect about yourself and you’d get to the same place. Saves you a few bucks too.