#92 The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom (Little, Brown)

I had conflicting emotions after turning the last page of Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven. On the one hand, I found the novel, the death of an elderly maintenance man who works at a fairground, overly simple. But it's deceptively effective and, for all that I'm not one for the subject of religion, which is as integral as the title suggests, it was quite moving at times.

In contrast to The Grapes of Wrath, this isn't a book to dwell on, and it's a nice easy read - just what I needed at this stage of the challenge. And while I bridled a bit at the portrait of heaven which was portrayed, there were a number of nice touches.

Some background is probably needed. Eddie dies (don't worry, it's not much of a spoiler) and enters heaven, where he meets five people who have influenced his life, or whose lives he has influenced (hence the title) - whether he was aware of it at the time or not.

It's a clever idea, which doesn't lessen as the book progresses, and speaking (or writing) as someone who's a big fan of the interconnectedness of life, and its holistic nature, I enjoyed the links between each character and the underlying sentiment that although Eddie himself believed he had wasted his life ensuring that the fairground rides were safe, it wasn't until he died that he could appreciate how much joy he had brought to the children through the rides.

That said, I think it's always difficult when authors or directors start to define concepts such as heaven, because it's always more powerful in the imagination - whether you believe in such things or not, and, having finished the book around a week ago, my biggest criticism is that The Five People You Meet in Heaven doesn't make much of a lasting impression.

So, rating time:

#92 The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom (Little, Brown) - 7/10

Next up: The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown)

Click here for the full list of books so far, and their rating