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Five People You Meet in Heaven
This book was terribly boring. I should have known after attempting to read Tuesday with Morrie and not finishing it twice. It is a quick read though for those of you that like to accomplish something in a day.
Five People You Meet in Heaven
What a waste of an evening. This book can be judged on several levels - all of them bad. It is poorly written, philosophically shallow, theologically trite, and only mildly amuseing. Mercifully, I got through it quickly. I would give it 0 stars if the option were available.
Five People You Meet in Heaven
A friend gave me this book as a gift and several people recommended I read it seeing that they thought it was the best book they have ever read. I guess it does have some appeal if you are looking for a fuzzy feel-good read on a rainy Sunday afternoon, but if you are looking for depth, do look elsewhere. The organization of the story, going back and forth between the main protagonist's experiences in "heaven" and episodic flashbacks to his life before death would make for an interesting read, had the "lessons" that are - apparently - to be learnt in heaven not already been trodden out by other new-agey novels of questionable value or daytime shows on Lifetime. Derivative and tedious.
Five People You Meet in Heaven
Never have I written a book review. I am a fan of Mitch's written work and his appearances on television. He seems genuine and draws from his experiences that enrich the sencerity of his material. This book however is in a word ridiculous. Some of the imagery that he used is borrowed from other material. The war sequence in the book reads like a very bad version of Acopcalypse Now or Platoon. The imagery of Heaven he uses is borrowed from the Robin William's misadventure, What Dreams May Come. It would be nice if an author derives his inspiration from other sources than the clearance aisle at Blockbuster. His characters are as matured and developed as a tadpole that has just been hatched. Additionally,his drunk Irish sterotyped character was really compelling. Way to push the envelope using a broken down sterotype that won't offend. The deepest insight into life offered by this book is that that sacrifice to others is necessary to live a full life. Albom, Socrates, Plato Aristotle, they all belong in the same breath. I think that Mitch was probably surprised by the amount of money that can be made by his excellent book Tuesdays with Morrie and decided to float this nonsensical half baked pseudo philosphoical book to the general population and push his retirement up another five years. Go back to covering hoops.
Five People You Meet in Heaven
Mitch was brave to write this book. I'm so glad that he did. He's given us a glimpse of what our arrival in heaven might be like and he's invoking such strong reactions from readers...love it...hate it. Interesting that most of the reviews reveal more about the reviewer than the writing itself. Reading this book challenges you to look at life from a different vantage point. Maybe some people just don't like the view. I will remember the five simple truths this book describes and I'll be happier each time I can realize one in my life.
Five People You Meet in Heaven
I'll come out and be honest here, I didn't like the book. Not at all. I read it because it was left behind on a bookshelf of an apartment I was renting. I wouldn't have bought it for myself unless it was in a discount bin. (Which incidentally, was where the previous owner bought this copy from.)First of all a practical issue about the book: if you meet 5 people in heaven who give you information about the meaning of your life, before you can move on to the next stage of the afterlife, in order to balance up the numbers, you'd have to give your story to 5 more people. Not one, which the book implies. There'd be a huge imbalance in the numbers. But that's just a little niggling thing before I get to the meat of why I think this book is a pile of meaningless dribble.So, it's a pile of Western, feel good, white, middle class, Christian dribble. It gives you the message to put up with the problems in your life because that's what God wants of you. It's all about building character and so on. Your role in life is to sit down, be quiet and take what's given to you. For the main character, Eddie, that might be appropriate. But I think that's where a lot of people miss the message of this book. It's the 5 people that Eddie meets that are appropriate for him. And the message they give him, is just that, it's for him. Not you. Not me. Like the Chicken Soup for the Soul books (also dribble), you might read it and have 5 minutes of warm fuzzy feelings to make you feel better. But once it fades, you've still got bills to pay, children to feed and a stressful job to go to. There's no point waiting until Heaven to see if it was all worth it. If you have problems now, then deal with them now. Don't think it's all just a test from God and that's your place in the world. The meaning of life is what you make of it now. Not later. Go read something else. I suggest Mark Rowlands' The Philosopher at the End of the Universe.