Sat down Friday night and read it straight through....totally engrossed. I didn't especially enjoy the way it skipped around from present to past, but felt it was crucial to what the author was trying to accomplish. Eddie learns lessons from each of the five at the same time the reader learns how his past is connected to those individuals. The impact would not have been as great if the author revealed Eddie's life story in a single timeline narrative.

I was very sympathetic to Eddie. Initially his character comes across as a sour mope. But he is the Everyman (think of Jimmy Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life.") The little kids on the pier bring out his warm side - which is enough to know that there is good below the grouchy surface and win us over right off the bat.

Mitch Albom pulled me deeply into Eddie's afterlife experience. His vivid descriptions of Eddie re-entering his young, uninjured body; of calling out to his Dad at the diner; and of being flooded with grief and guilt over his war crime were wrenching and visceral moments.

Great selection. Very glad I read this one.(Anybody ever read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold? It's another view of The Afterlife.)

barbara | July 26, 2004 10:27 AM

You'll have to forgive me, I finished reading it a couple of weeks ago and had to return it to the library.

I was totally engrossed from page one. As far as the people he meets, the Blue Man was the most uninteresting. I guess I failed to see the relevance in telling his complete story when the point was to show that we're all of our lives are intertwined. It showed that our actions, even if unknown to us, can have a profound effect on others in the world. I thought the best meetings were of the Captain, the little girl, and his wife.

I'm left a little torn about the relationship with his father. I think we're supposed to be touched that his father died trying to get to his family. I believe that anyone can be sorry for something when caught, or facing death, but you should really be judged as a person by how you live your life. I had no sympathy for his father.

I became very angry when Ruby was telling of the father's friend trying to take advantage of his mother. I felt his actions were being excused because of his loosing his job, and his drinking.

Concerning the little girl he saved, I didn't expect for Eddie to meet her in heaven. I would however expect him to be one of her 5 people, probably the very first, that she meets in heaven. I liked the theme that we're all intertwined, part of every other person.

manda | July 26, 2004 1:02 PM

Hello, this is my first participation in the book club. So please be kind to me. I wish that any other book could have been my first book to announce myself. So here I go cringing…

I have to say that I hated this book. If you knew me you would say, “but Nicole, you don’t believe in a afterlife so of course you would not like this book”. That is not the case. I approached this book with the hope that I could learn some valuable lessons that could help me in my life. I liked the first part of the book; I enjoyed the idea of a countdown to an end. As the end of the first person loomed I started to get an uneasy feeling. The author gave no room for intelligence, he told you OK HERE IS THE LESSON YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO LEARN and then after telling you this was the learning chapter he Italicized what it was you were to learn. I found this approach offensive and demeaning. I would have respected the 5 people you meet in heaven more if you met the people and then, based on your own belief system and personal experience, decided for yourself the lesson that fit you best…instead it was a Dr. Phil/Laura Schlessinger this is what I think everyone needs to do, pat answer without any room for variation.

As I was reading and coming to my conclusion about this book, I felt really bad. This is a horrible way to introduce myself. For the most part I am very open-minded and have read most of the books on the list and enjoyed them thoroughly. Thank you all for your patience.

Nicole

Nicole | July 26, 2004 1:02 PM

Nicole,

Welcome! No apologies or cringing necessary. We all get to have our opinions. What kind of lame discussions will we have if we all nod and agree on everything?

And you raised an excellent point. I HATE it when authors (and movie directors) feel compelled to italicize, underline and highlight their themes. It IS insulting. I was vaguely aware that the 5 people were encapuslating their specific lessons (ie: loyalty, sacrifice, etc) and spelling out for Eddie. It's odd that I didn't take offense, now that you mention it.

barbara | July 26, 2004 2:16 PM

Hello everyone.

I am pleased to see new posts on here.
Welcome Nicole, :)

Okay,

I like what Barbara says about how if the author had revealed Eddie's life all at once. I also agree with the structure of the narration being crucial to how we are supposed to meet and "learn" (in between quotation marks, since Nicole and Barbara feel they were flat-out told the lessons ;))
about Eddie's five people and lesesons. Also...it made it more interesting to find out about his life in bits and pieces, like a puzzle.

About the Blue Man being the most un-interesting, I felt the same way too. I couldn't help thinking about Nightcrawler from the X-Men...heheh
more on Eddie's Five People later.

Okay, the subject to tackle now is how the author ... mmmm ... well no...
This seems like a very good topic, so I will make a separate entry for it later!

I just want to say that I didn't notice or it didn't bother me how the author pointed out the five lessons. I didn't put much thought to it. To be honest, what little I learned from Five People left my brain a week after I read it...back in June :D

In my defense, I'd just like to state that I wasn't expecting to take much away from Five People...reason being that we were reading "light" books for the summer and I didn't want to impose anything "heavy" on everyone. I think that you can take this book on two levels. The level that I took it in was just a damned good story. I wasn't really paying too much attention to the Five Lessons we were supposed to meet.

But, in the level that Nicole and Barbara have taken it, I understand completely what bothers you and I agree. It left no brain work for the reader to try to figure out what the Five Lessons are.

ana | July 26, 2004 5:54 PM

I thoroughly enjoyed this book for the same reasons previously mentioned. It was a nice lesson book, simple and nostalgic, and the in-your-face-this-is-what-you-should-learn narrative didn't bother me at all. I usually get upset when that type of thing happens during movies (like Contact and Vanilla Sky) because, like Nicole, I have a brain. Five People didn't insult my intelligence because the lessons were for Eddie and not necessarily for me to live my own life by.

Like Nicole, I don't believe in an afterlife, but I do see the value the idea. When I'm dead, I pretty much expect to be dead and will be seriously pissed off if I wake up in another plane of existence. For most, though, eternal life, salvation, and heaven are all pretty good motivators to keep honest. If there were no rewards for good behavior here on Earth, chaos would run rampant.

marydell | July 26, 2004 9:47 PM

Mary dear, chaos IS running rampant.

As for the afterlife, my devout Catholic sister believes 100% that heaven is gonnna be this jolly ol' family reunion where she'll be reunited with my Dad and grandparents, etc. (Me - I'm not so sure) I found it very interesting that Eddie is prevented from direct access to his Dad. That was a sensationally dramatic moment in the story. It really brings home their lifelong struggle to communicate without caving into a cloying warm fuzzy resolution.

barbara | July 27, 2004 8:45 AM

Barbara, chaos is not running rampant. Life, I think, is pretty good. There are some bad apples out there spoiling a few things, but all in all I can't complain.

Eddie might have been stopped from communicating with his father because it would have been too traumatic. Getting a lesson about his father from his father could have been very difficult for Albom to pull off well. Ruby was a more objective outside observer, and I liked how she explained that she brought Eddie's father with her so he could be in a happy, safe place.

marydell | July 27, 2004 11:00 AM

I know I'm late in joining this discussion and it has actually been a while since I read the book, so here goes.

I did not like this book at all. I found it hard to read and follow. It did not inspire or uplight me, which was what I was looking for from a book talking about Heaven. I wanted it to be more than it was.

Susan | July 31, 2004 8:52 PM

Ususally when I have high expectations about something I really want to enjoy, I'm almost always disappointed. It happens most often with movies and I've been kind of avoiding The Village because of that. I really liked The Sixth Sense and Signs, but I'm worried that M. Night Shamalamadingdong's (I can never remember his real name) new one won't live up to the trailer.

marydell | August 2, 2004 10:46 AM

I'm with anna, wasn't sure what to expect going in ... by the last person, I was roped in. It's not often that you cry while reading a book (maybe not often that it hits you the right way), but that one really caught me. Glad I read it!

Larry | October 7, 2004 3:00 AM