Enter Eddie. Eddie has 83 years behind him, a cane to help him overcome his leg injury from combat in the Philippines and a burdensome "darkness" that started tailing him a long time ago. Eddie works at Ruby Pier, an old-fashioned theme park, as a ride maintenance man. He doesn't say much and his demeanor is callous, but he still bends pipe cleaners into crude animal forms to entertain children. On his 83rd birthday, an accident on a ride called Freddy's Free Fall occurs. Eddie attempts to save a little girl from a falling rollercoaster car and gives his life as a result. He leaves behind little-some cigarettes, an empty apartment, a hard life filled with loss and estrangement. Upon his entrance to the afterlife, Eddie discovers that paradise isn't the only thing that awaits him.
The first level of Albomian Paradiso fails to include the luxuries and harps that I learned about in Sunday school. In fact, there exists an expectation of hard work, although of a very introspective nature. Eddie gets a little help from five souls that interacted with him in various degrees throughout his life. His ethereal guides include a blue-skinned freak who once worked at Ruby Pier, Eddie's old platoon captain, an elderly woman named Ruby (after whom the park was christened), his wife Marguerite, and … well, let's leave the last one shrouded in mystery (no, it isn't Jesus or Jehovah or any other deity you can think of.)
These people, who are working on the next level of the heavenly occupational progression, have been selected to teach lessons to Eddie. For example, Ruby explains to the ex-maintenance man why he must forgive his father for being abusive emotionally and physically. She does so by showing Eddie previously unknown scenes from his father's life that show the man wasn't as horrible as Eddie thought.
As Eddie continues on his spiritual course, Albom incorporates a few more interesting features into the story. Each person Eddie encounters occurs within his or her individually concocted realm. The blue man liked an earlier version of Ruby Pier, so that is the setting in which he hangs out. Every scene drips of symbolism and almost tacky imagery, but Albom spends more time describing anecdotes from Eddie's life than on the transient nature of heaven's appearance.
Every other chapter of the book generally details a certain birthday (e.g. Eddie turning 24), which supplies more detail to the anecdotes disclosed in Eddie's lessons. More often than not, these chapters discuss what went wrong in Eddie's life and why he appeared so miserable on his final birthday. Occasionally, Albom inserts a chapter dealing with how people on earth respond to the accident. These are generally short and lack genuine emotive energy, but they serve their purpose of showing concurrent events (although, as Eddie learns, time escapes perception in heaven.)
What are some of the lessons that Eddie learns? For one, sacrifice is a necessary part of life. This did not surprise me-Albom drilled altruism and collectivism into my head with "Tuesdays with Morrie." Hate consumes, forgiveness liberates-another patented Disney "truism." Marguerite expends a thought I haven't heard about in a while: "Lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different form … memory becomes your new partner."
I confess that Mitch Albom was on my author blacklist after "Morrie." The gall of that man, to supersaturate a book with Rococo-esque crap and blank shots at the evil institution of secularism! However, The "Five People You Meet in Heaven" removes him from my blacklist. Granted, fluffy morality permeates occasionally, and the writing certainly does not put Camus to shame, but this book is not bad. It has its high points and did not leave me with a bad taste of lovey-doveness in my mouth. I suggest this book for those looking to give Albom another chance, and for those that liked the movie "What Dreams May Come." That is, if anyone saw it.