The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom Eighty three year old Eddie leads a miserable

life. He lost the love of his life; he works as a maintenance worker at an amusement park; and in the opening of Mitch Alboms The Five People You Meet In Heaven, he is about to die. Albom deftly shifts from the success of Tuesdays with Morrie to this fictional tale. Instead of falling into the trap of telling this story in a tacky and sappy manner, Albom manages to tactfully craft a moving and thoughtful piece. The book revolves around the idea that There are no random acts. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from a wind. Before and after his death, Eddie thinks his life was pointless, as he repeatedly says I had a nothing life, see? Finally, when he dies while pushing a young girl out of the way of a malfunctioning ride described similarly to the Demon Drop, he starts to understand the purpose of his life and to see if it was a failure or a success. Eddie awakens as a young boy, rejuvenated, free of pain and scars of war. This is when he meets his first person in heaven. The book rides on the premise that Eddie must talk to five different people in heaven, each of whom will explain the purpose of Eddies life. The five people may be some you know, maybe some you didnt. But they all crossed your path before they died. And they altered it forever. Somehow, each of the five people are interconnected with Eddie, some very intimately, some just by a chance occurrence. The book follows a pattern of introducing each chapter with an anecdote from one of Eddies Birthdays in italics. Eddie then physically, but not mentally, reverts back to whatever age he was in the anecdote, and proceeds to meet one of his five people in heaven. A key event linking Eddie and his person in heaven occured at that age, and it is at this point Eddie finally finds out the meaning of that connection. I enjoyed this quick read mainly because Alboms insertion of startling, but believable, surprises never allows the readers mind to wander. Although this book wasnt as emotionally straining as Tuesday with Morrie, it left me pondering the meaning of my own life and how my story interweaves with others. Alboms tact in exploring the meaning of life in The Five People You Meet In Heaven makes this book suitable for those of any age. Julia Kiberd