The Five People You Meet in Heaven: The Book, and the TV Series

Mitch Albom's novel 'Five People You Meet in Heaven' was a bestseller. The story evolves around the life of Eddie, a maintenance worker at Ruby Pier, an amusement park where he had worked all his life along with his father before him. The story began when Eddie died trying to save a little girl who was sitting under a ride that was falling after the cable had snapped. Eddie goes to Heaven, and meets five people that crossed paths with him in his life and learnt that every life has impact and influence on the other, even if they were strangers to him.

What gets us 'hooked' were the different people Eddie encounters and the situation they put him in. These people were from different parts of his life, and many he did not realize could even impact on the events which formed him as a man. These encounters brings us to experience snapshots of Eddie's life as well as slowly discovering Eddie as a person. We sympathized with Eddie's character, and Mitch Albom created him so he could be any one of us.

The book was an easy read, although its underlying messages about life, death and sacrifices are strong. Mitch Albom's words crafted a Heaven where each of us can imagine, and gets us thinking of the consequences of our situations, leaving us wondering who would be the five people we get to meet in Heaven. Inch by inch, we got to learn about Eddie's life through another person's eyes, and gets to go on this journey to learn about those surrounding Eddie with him, and rediscover his love for his family as well as his Margarit, the love of his life.

The concept of the book requires slow, carefully constructed storyline to bring out the atmosphere of the story. Unfortunately this is something that was harder to achieve in the TV series that was made. Scenes requiring transition between Heavens and people and situations seemed rather forced due to the visual requirements of the series, and simply could not achieve the same emotions experienced by the readers of the book where imagination was essential to understanding Eddie's situation.

The TV series simply did not do justice to the essence of the book.