The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

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The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

For my book report I chose to read and critique Mitch Albom’s “The Fine People You Meet in Heaven”. Mitch Albom’s story is centered on a character named Eddie. Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels like he has led a nothing to show life, and blames most his problems on his father. Unlike most stories ours begins at the end with Eddie’s death. After dying Eddie goes on a journey through heaven and along the way he meets five people that teach him of the impact of things he has done during his life.

Eddie work for an ocean-side amusement park as the head of maintenance. He seems to have been sucked in and stuck at his job because of certain things that have happened in his life. Injured in World War 2, Eddie now walks with a limp. Eddie is 83 years old when he passes away by trying to save a small child from a cart falling on one of the rides at the park, and when he tries to move the child out of the way the cart falls killing him.

After he dies the next thing Eddie knows is he’s at the pier and no longer has any pain in his body but feels like a young man again. Eddie begins running around and testing this new body of his when he notices someone. The first person Eddie comes in contact with is the Blue Man. The Blue Man used to work as a “freak” at Ruby Pier. The Blue Man tells Eddie that he was responsible for his death, and Eddie denies that he was. Then the Blue Man tells Eddie how what he was younger he ran in front of the Blue Man’s car causing the Blue Man to have a panic attack that later caused him wreck his car and eventually killing him. Eddie apologizes frantically but the Blue Man then teaches Eddie the first lesson that he will learn on his journey. The lesson the Blue Man taught Eddie was that there are no random acts in life, and that all incidents are intertwined in some way. After learning the lesson that the Blue Man gave him Eddie is whisked away to the next part of his journey.

Eddie finds himself back on a war ground, which resembled the area he fought on during WWII.

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