Book Reviews: Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People you Meet in Heaven

So I decided to read these two Mitch Albom books back-to-back...

Tuesdays with Morrie
Written by Detroit Sports Columnist Mitch Albom, this book was a manufactured hit, after falling on Oprah’s radar. It follows the true story of Morrie Schwartz, a professor at Brandeis University who suffered from and eventually died of Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). Mitch was one of Morrie’s favourite students, who reconnects with his professor after seeing him on Nightline with Ted Koppel. Mitch then begins a trek of 16 or so Tuesdays where he goes to visit Morrie, where he listens to Morrie tell what he learned from dying. It’s a nice “meaning of life” piece, with a good message… Never regret anything… Love or die… never look to the past… enjoy being a baby again as you get older… Morrie gets to the point where he can’t even wipe his own backside, and even then he is still in a chipper positive mood. It’s such an interesting and refreshing perspective on life. Morrie is passionate to the end, enjoying the touch and closeness of family and friends, even holding his own pre-death-funeral. Morrie’s message are great for any reader and even helped the author connect with his brother. It’s a quick read, but a good one. (8/10).

The Five People you Meet in Heaven
Mitch Albom’s next book was a fictional account of heaven from the perspective of Eddie, an 83 year old Mr. Fixit at the local amusement park, Rudy Park. The first chapter follows Eddie’s last moments on earth, as he attempts to save a young girl from a falling car from a park ride mishap… From there he arrives in heaven. Albom’s version of heaven sees the newly living-impaired, visiting five people who teach you lessons about your life and how everyone and everything is interwoven… He meets various people from his past, including people he never actually met, but who impacted his life, including a man he inadvertently killed, his old Captain from the army in World War II, his wife, and Rudy, the woman who the Park is named after. This was actually made into a TV movie in 2004 starring Jon Voight. This book, while an interesting account of heaven, just seemed to be missing something… It was well written in very readable prose, the plot had some interwoven story lines, but I still didn’t feel very satisfied reading it. I did like the overall message, which was that every little thing we do can affect another life, but don’t get too caught up in it, because things that are meant to happen, will happen, and in the end, things even out. I think the story was a little too predictable, it was fairly clear in my mind who the fifth person would be, as it was heavily eluded to throughout the story. I was probably jaded having read Tuesdays with Morrie first, which was a sweet story, based on true life, whereas Five People is pure fiction, and the writing style didn’t translate as well. Overall, it’s a decent quick read. I’m a little on the fence, but overall I’d say read it, but it’s not as good as Morrie. (6/10).