Between the Lines - The Next Person You Meet in Heaven
November’s Pick - The Next Person You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom
Thoughts
The Next Person You Meet in Heaven is the sequel to Mitch Albom’s wildly popular book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, published over 15 years ago. Eddie, the protagonist in the first book dies while saving a little girl’s life in the amusement park where he works as a maintenance man. That little girl is Annie, and The Next Person You Meet in Heaven is Annie’s story. Although the novels are linked and you may enjoy reading both, it isn’t necessary to have read the first book before embarking on this one as the author does a good job of connecting their stories. (This is not a spoiler…) The book opens on Annie’s wedding day, and we know right from the beginning that Annie is going to die in 14 hours. Upon her death, Annie sets out on her own heavenly journey in which she meets her five people. It includes a reunion between Annie and Eddie, who not surprisingly, is one of her five. Albom’s heaven is a place where his characters gain understanding about their lives. In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, he writes, “That's what heaven is. You get to make sense of your yesterdays”. In The Next Person You Meet in Heaven, he continues with that theme and asks his characters, and us by extension, to consider questions about life, loss, love, forgiveness, and heaven itself. His belief in our interconnectedness informs both books. Annie’s first lesson teaches her that “ We forget that “our” time is linked to others’ times. … That’s how a connected universe makes sense.”. That was a fun idea to entertain when I read “The Five”, especially the notion that our five may be people we don’t even know. However, what was a fairly novel idea in the first book feels forced in this second go around. Annie’s lessons aren’t particularly satisfying or fully formed. True, I was moved by the passages on motherhood, but to be fair I am a mom, and at times an embarrassingly sentimental one. Sure I wanted to meet Annie’s “Five” and see the ways in which she would come to understand that her life was not in fact a series of mistakes, ( and the book moves fast enough for you to get there), but in the end, I wanted something more than platitudes. I wanted something profound.
Overall
Mixed - Reading this book is not a huge time investment and if you are a loyal fan of Mitch Albom I would say give it a go. However, and I realize I am going against popular opinion here, I was underwhelmed by the story itself and the writing specifically, which I felt lacked substance and originality.
Kathryn