Search - The Five People You Meet in Heaven

"On his 83rd birthday, Eddie, a lonely war veteran, dies in a tragic accident trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his - and then nothing. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. These people may have been loved ones or distant stranges. Yet each of them changed your path forever."

I thought this was an excellent story about how our lives are affecting those around us without realizing it.

This was my first experience with Mitch Albom's work. I do not follow him on his radio show or sports reporting. And I haven't read Tuesdays with Morrie. I had not read this book before listening to it as an audiobook. I mention this because in talking with friends, I feel like a person's experience with Mitch Albom's work may affect the impression this book leaves on them.

Also, I am not an overly religious person. This book has a very specific view of what heaven is and what happens after a person dies. A few of my friend's with strongly held religious views had philosophical problems with this story. But I did not.

Overall, I thought the story was nice. I was not overly impressed with any part of it, but I was not disappointed or irritated with it either. I walked away with a so-so feeling overall. It was okay, but I don't know that I would rush back to listen to it again.

I did enjoy the introduction by Mitch Albom and the interview at the end. And I thought that together they framed the story very well. I really don't think I would have gotten what I had out of the story without those. So I feel like I would have been less impressed had I read the book versus listening to it. The narrator does a good job of giving different characters different voices, but sometimes the voices did come off as fake.