(Book) The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

title: The Five People You Meet in Heaven
author : Mitch Albom
publisher: Hyperion, 2003
pages : 196 pages
rating: 5 stars

it tells the story of an elderly man who died in a crowd in summer. his name is Eddie whose job is maintaining the rides at the Ruby Pier (an amusement park) from years to years to continues his father's job. he never thought the new rides called Freddy's Free Fall would make him killed that day. everything's feel so normal and it suddenly turns into disaster in the blink of an eye. all he want to do was save the little girl that was sprawled upon the ride's metal base. he could feels an exploding impact, sees a blinding flash, feels a little girl's hands in his own, and then nothingness. Eddie then finds himself awake and uninjured. he realizes that he feels young and much more energetic. it's weird but he's happy. he runs and jumps like a kid until someone from his childhood comeback to him.

In those final moments, Eddie seemed to hear the whole world: distant screaming, waves, music, a rush of wind, a low, loud, ugly sound that he realized was his own voice blasting through his chest. The little girl raised her arms. Eddie lunged. His bad leg buckled. He half flew, half stumbled toward her, landing on the metal platform, which ripped through his shirt and split open his skin, just beneath the patch that read EDDIE and MAINTENANCE. He felt two hands in his own, two small hands.

the person from the past tells him that he'll meet with 5 people who has significantly impacted his life, or he had done so to theirs. each person give him a reason about random events in life and tells him that all individual experiences are connected in some way. he continues his journey until he reach the fifth person who make him cries. he feels so awful and ashamed to meet this fifth person. he feels sorry towards her and regret gnawed his fragile bones.

I LOVE THIS BOOK. PERIOD. okay, I've never read any of Mitch Albom works and this book is just so great. I thought this one's going to talk about religious thing or fairy tale but, no. well, not really. It teaches me so much about life and love as well. reading this book make me questions my own self. what did I do to people? am I good enough to them? are they going to remember me when I'm gone? something like that.

the story is actually pretty simple yet so captivating. Albom makes sure that readers won't feel bored reading this, because basically this story's only about Eddie and those five people he meets in heaven. what I love about Eddie is that he loves his wife so much, he can't live without her. the dance, the wedding scene is just lovely.

When he moved his head back, she was 47 again, the web of lines beside her eyes, the thinner hair, the looser skin beneath her chin. She smiled and he smiled, and she was, to him, as beautiful as ever, and he closed his eyes and said for the first time what he'd been feeling from the moment he saw her again: "I don't want to go on. I want to stay here." When he opened his eyes, his arms still held her shape, but she was gone, and so was everything else.

this is such a beautifully written piece. you’ve got the lesson of life, you’ve got the taste of love and what could i ask for more in a single book? I’m going to re-read this book again next year because I’m simply loving it :)

xo, Puspita Sanri