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halthemonarch 's review for:
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
by Mitch Albom
challenging
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I would say the flaw of the main character embodies that dictates the book is that he believes his life is meaningless.
This one was a short bite. I don’t rock with the military as an institution, but I have empathy for the troops individually; that being said it was a nice story but being led to sympathize with Eddie and his captain, and later the young girl they both inadvertently killed gave me whiplash. How sad, but also we totally shouldn’t have been in Vietnam to begin with. The captain wounds Eddie to stop him from saving the girl he saw in the fire they set, and then dies himself. Two lives ended and one ruined until his perspective is shifted in death, and that’s just a snapshot of what the tragedy of war could look like. Going to war and being in the crosshairs is terrible, it’s all awful. I don’t know, John Lennon said it best: Imagine all the people living life in peace. Wouldn’t that be nice? Also, I wish the threat of assault wasn’t everywhere, when it came up in the book it was a jump scare fr.
A carnival ride mechanic dies when one of the machines malfunction. It’s his 83rd birthday. In heaven he’s tormented by the thought, “Did I save that girl? Did my worthless life amount to anything after all?” This is a powerful fable about how everyone is here for a reason, loved by someone, and how relationships are complicated; how often two opposing feelings can coexist, and how love is permanent in that it doesn’t go away when the object of one’s affections dies or leaves; that love is just transformed into something else-- remembrance, grief, and an intangible feeling of longing, but love nevertheless.
Eddie, our protagonist, begins to see people in different heavens who guide him to the philosophy that every life affects others and is precious in the grand scheme of things. Eddie, the protagonist, sees a man with blue skin who he inadvertently caused to die and he forgives Eddie because how could he have known? He was just a child running into the street for his toy; how could he have guessed the driving stranger who swerved to avoid him would have had a medical event shortly after? Eddie sees Ruby for which the pier he works gets its name “Ruby Pier” and she shares with him that sometimes, she too wishes the pier had never been built, but also reflects on the joy people got from it and her own time spent with her loving husband. Eddie thinks about his father, the old lead mechanic who was cold and unreachable when he was alive, and then meets his military captain. The captain admits that he shot Eddie in the leg when Eddie went half mad chasing a shape in the flames of a village that the squad of survivors endeavored to burn down after liberating themselves from torture. The captain waited in heaven for Eddie’s forgiveness and is able to move on when Eddie finally does, after learning being sent home with a bad leg is nothing to being blown up by a land mine like the captain was.
Eddie then meets his late wife in heaven, eternally attending weddings to see the joy on a variety of new couple’s faces. He doesn’t want to move on from his wife, whom he is still deeply in love with, learning melancholically that love doesn’t die it transforms. Somewhere in all the previous heavens, he was treated to flashbacks of his father and mother, and their life when he was young. How his father was a hard man from protecting his family and never forgave those who put them in jeopardy; a man who loved deeply and quietly. He had never forgiven the man who had tried to assault his wife, but he didn’t let him die when he had the chance, either. I don’t know if I would have done the same.
Finally, Eddie meets the shadow in the flames. A girl from a village in Vietnam was told to hide in abandoned buildings and then burned alive during the American troops’ insurgency. She’s playing in a river with other children in her heaven when Eddie appears, and despite the language barrier, it’s communicated what he had done to her, how he indeed had seen something, and how he let her die. She is too young, or innocent, or perhaps has been in heaven too long to hold a grudge and speaks to Eddie with gentle matter-of-factness. She becomes blistered and burned and asks him to wash her clean. Eddie does and she is healed. She tells him that it was her hands Eddie was feeling, pulling him into heaven. When he was alive, he had pushed a girl out of harm's way. The young girl clarifies this to Eddie and the two of them move on.
This one was a short bite. I don’t rock with the military as an institution, but I have empathy for the troops individually; that being said it was a nice story but being led to sympathize with Eddie and his captain, and later the young girl they both inadvertently killed gave me whiplash. How sad, but also we totally shouldn’t have been in Vietnam to begin with. The captain wounds Eddie to stop him from saving the girl he saw in the fire they set, and then dies himself. Two lives ended and one ruined until his perspective is shifted in death, and that’s just a snapshot of what the tragedy of war could look like. Going to war and being in the crosshairs is terrible, it’s all awful. I don’t know, John Lennon said it best: Imagine all the people living life in peace. Wouldn’t that be nice? Also, I wish the threat of assault wasn’t everywhere, when it came up in the book it was a jump scare fr.
A carnival ride mechanic dies when one of the machines malfunction. It’s his 83rd birthday. In heaven he’s tormented by the thought, “Did I save that girl? Did my worthless life amount to anything after all?” This is a powerful fable about how everyone is here for a reason, loved by someone, and how relationships are complicated; how often two opposing feelings can coexist, and how love is permanent in that it doesn’t go away when the object of one’s affections dies or leaves; that love is just transformed into something else-- remembrance, grief, and an intangible feeling of longing, but love nevertheless.
Eddie, our protagonist, begins to see people in different heavens who guide him to the philosophy that every life affects others and is precious in the grand scheme of things.
Eddie then meets his late wife in heaven, eternally attending weddings to see the joy on a variety of new couple’s faces. He doesn’t want to move on from his wife, whom he is still deeply in love with, learning melancholically that love doesn’t die it transforms. Somewhere in all the previous heavens, he was treated to flashbacks of his father and mother, and their life when he was young. How his father was a hard man from protecting his family and never forgave those who put them in jeopardy; a man who loved deeply and quietly. He had never forgiven the man who had tried to assault his wife, but he didn’t let him die when he had the chance, either. I don’t know if I would have done the same.
Finally, Eddie meets the shadow in the flames. A girl from a village in Vietnam was told to hide in abandoned buildings and then burned alive during the American troops’ insurgency. She’s playing in a river with other children in her heaven when Eddie appears, and despite the language barrier, it’s communicated what he had done to her, how he indeed had seen something, and how he let her die. She is too young, or innocent, or perhaps has been in heaven too long to hold a grudge and speaks to Eddie with gentle matter-of-factness. She becomes blistered and burned and asks him to wash her clean. Eddie does and she is healed. She tells him that it was her hands Eddie was feeling, pulling him into heaven. When he was alive, he had pushed a girl out of harm's way. The young girl clarifies this to Eddie and the two of them move on.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault, Violence, War