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27.9%ANMag Issue 27 Entertainment
The Five People You Meet In Heaven
By Shrief Fadl, Staff Writer
Beirut, Lebanon – There are many problems with contemporary literature. Some critics accuse authors of sacrificing the artistic integrity of their work in favor of something that sells. Other critics accuse some authors of writing that is filled with style but void of substance, using words for decorative purposes only. Mitch Albom’s second novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, manages to satisfy both groups of critics, maintaining the balance between an overly commercial book, and an overly artistic one. Although by no means a long book, its brevity seems to add to the impact it has on the reader, recounting age old life lessons in a new way, thus finding a fresh path to the reader’s heart and mind.
Somewhat symbolically, the story begins at the end, with the main character named Eddie, dying in the first chapter. After Eddie dies and consequently goes to heaven, as the title of the book suggests, he meets five people who have affected his life directly or indirectly, some of whom he doesn’t even know. The five people that he meets go on to explain Eddie’s life to him, all of the things that he died without knowing why or how they had happened, every unknown being identified. This perhaps is what made so many people from all over the world relate to this book, Albom uses the universal characteristic that is shared by every human being as the central theme in his novel; death. Albom goes even further than that and draws on the reader’s curiosity of the after life. He also taps into the hope that is shared by so many people from different cultures, the immutable hope that all the mysteries in one’s life, everything that seems to be just out of reach of one’s comprehension, will eventually be revealed.
Like many short novels, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, relies greatly on the ingenuity of its plot and the honesty of its message as opposed to the strength of the language used. This is not to say that Albom’s writing is poor or plain, but it is simple. That in itself can be considered as one of Albom’s strong points. Even Hemingway’s writing was simple, focusing on the story and the characters instead of using overly convoluted words. The simplicity of Albom’s language adds to the almost universal appeal of the novel, or in other words, by using somewhat simplistic language Albom makes it even easier for average “Joes” to relate to the story and its message. Albom essentially goes back to the more basic function of language, as means of communication.
One of the pitfalls that authors can generally succumb to when writing novels that attempt to almost explicitly convey a message is that of preaching, needless to say there is a thin line between trying to communicate meaning and coming off as self- righteous. Albom dangerously flirts with this line throughout the novel, and somewhat surprisingly, especially for an author who got his start as a sports columnist, he still manages to pull it off in the end, but only just. An example of how he fails in doing so is in his first novel, Tuesdays with Morrie, which although has things to say which most people today need to hear, it does so in a way that it ultimately makes the reader wonder why is the author on a soap box and why is he preaching so loudly. Ironically, Tuesdays with Morrie is not a work of fiction; it is in fact a memoir of Albom’s professor who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. It is quite interesting that a work of fiction can be more real than something that actually happened.
In conclusion, Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven is more than just a good read. But it is not much more. The story is filled to the brim with meaning, which is quite an impressive feat on its own, considering that the book is a meager 228 pages long. The books greatest and perhaps only strength lies in the way in which ancient life lessons are communicated to the reader, the originality of the story is what is most striking about it, and everything else comes second. Nevertheless, Albom’s second novel is definitely worth reading even if the messages it conveys are old ones, they are still nonetheless worth reflecting on. Albom skillfully draws the reader to this gem of a book; a gem which, like any other, is not without its flaws.