What Is It?
The follow up book to his best selling “Tuesdays with Morrie.” In this book we follow the last half hour of Eddies life. He is a matince man an amusement park. Then when he is killed in a random ride accident, we go with him to heaven. We find out that in heaven you meet five people (thus the title…) . Still they are not the people you would think of at first, maybe Peter, Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, and C.S. Lewis. It turns out that you meet five people who affected you life (or you affected theirs.) And from each one you learn something about your life. They are each in there own personal heaven and you work your way through to your own.
How Was It?
It was very simplistic and fun in it’s style. Eddie died on his birthday. So between sit downs with the next heavenly host, you get flash backs of eddies birth day through the years. It turns out that they are all very significant and thus look very orchestrate.
Then the people he meets. The first is a Blue Skinned man from the freak show followed by an army general. This sets you up for knowing you can go anywhere with this. Not only do you hear about Eddies life, each time you get a character sketch of the hosts life. This is interesting and further points out the interconnectedness that is at the heart of the book.
Is It Good For Kids?
It would be a fairy easy read for even younger kids. The concept are heady. Still there are a lot of dark situations at time. The end of the book even has a moment of down right gruesome. There is also a fair mount of the Lords name in vain.
How about Spiritual Issues?
You can’t get around spiritual issues in a trip to heaven. This is a fictional account, but it is the type of book that, for some reason, people like to hang on to as fact. Hoping that if they believe it enough then maybe they can will it into there existence.
(Though they can’t even will anything good onto TV, I don’t know how they will create a heaven.)
First of all there is no mention at all of Eddie having a relationship with God, but here he is in heaven. There is also no mention of Jesus. John 14:6 Here, sins are sins of disconcerting from other people (witch can be true) and are resolved by asking forgiveness in heaven.
Then we find that people pick there heaven, from something that they liked a lot on earth. This to me seems like a bum deal. This is HEAVEN and the best you could do is something that was good on earth! I’m disappointed with movies like that… forget the ultimate reward.
We are told in the Bible “However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” 1 Corinthians 2:9
I can see what’s here, and I can hear what’s here. I have a prity wild imagination, so my mind can conceive a lot. (It’s also been bolstered by the imaginations of Tolken, Lewis, M. Knight, and many others.) Further more Jesus said, about 2000+ years ago, “I am going there to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2 So this book would have you believe that the place Jesus was working on for 2000+ years is just a nock-off of this place that he bumped out in under a week!
All this considered, the tragedy of the book is the information Eddie gets in heaven. He finds out what his life was about and how he should live it. This seem “to little to late.” Sure some people may find this inspiring them to be nicer to others (which is always good) but it also seems to be calling for a rash of laziness. You will find out what the point is later so don’t worry about it now. That just seems like you are paving your path with good intentions.
This is a picture of cruel universe where you are expected to live almost a hundred years with out knowing what you are supposed to be doing. Then you get to heaven and find out “you should have been looking at it this way.”
Then, here is the kicker, after you are dead and find out that you were supposed to be doing… that it’s all about relationships with each other; you are put in your own “personal” place where you sit around enjoying you little bit of earth on heaven and wait for other people to kick off so you can pull the same cruel cosmic joke on them.
We are supposed to believe that this life that is to be lead by investing in others, has been set up by a God that remains distant and then puts you in a pretty little cell for all eternity.
What Is Your Recommendation?
I have three (pick the one that is best for you.)
If you know God – You still may want to read it because I think it will influence the society that we live in, you will better understand where people are coming from and the hopelessness that they are being offered as paradise.
If you don’t know God – Read the book of John instead… see God made flesh, invading our reality now, and offering not only meaning to life, but connectedness in relationships, starting with a real relationship with God.
Finally, if you are MITCH ALBOM – How about a re-write with a twist ending. After the fifth person, Eddie realizes that he should have known this a lot earlier. He finds that he doesn’t have the contentedness to people or to God. So where is he…Not Heaven !
Sort of like Alice Coopers song “It’s Much Too Late”
Now it’s much too late
My time has passed away
All my plans and dreams have all ended
Now it’s much too late
To try and plead my case
And I don’t know the God I’ve offended
It’s too late
The Movie “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” was exactly the same.
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