The Next Person You Meet in Heaven

The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom  224 pages

I admit that I’ve often wondered over the last fifteen years if Mitch Albom would ever write a sequel to “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.” What happened to Annie after the tragic accident at the amusement park when she was just eight years old? Did she carry the scars of Eddie’s death? Did she even remember him? Well, now I know; my wait is over.

Annie is a nurse and a day shy of her thirty-first birthday. Readers get to watch Annie marry Paulo, a childhood friend who had been out of her life for many years. As they embark on their honeymoon, they stop to help a man change a flat tire. That moment of kindness changes Annie and Paulo’s life forever.

Later that night, Annie and Paulo are involved in a horrific accident. Annie goes to heaven to meet the five people who explain her life to her. But that’s not how the story ends, so this wasn’t a spoiler. 

I was a little disappointed in this sequel. I took the title literally, and thought there would be a sixth person. Or something. The structure of the novel follows the same structure in the original story, so that gave it some continuity.  However, I feel as if the title was misleading and that is why  “The Next Person You Meet in Heaven” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom  196 pages

I first read this delightful short novel when it was first published in 2003.  I couldn’t put it down, then, and I couldn’t put it down this time either. I wanted to refresh my memory about Eddie, the 83 year old amusement park maintenance man before I started Mitch Albom’s sequel, “The Next Person You Meet in Heaven.”

The story starts at the end, with Eddie dying on his eighty-third birthday. Eddie had worked at Ruby Pier in the Maintenance Department all his life. He considered himself a nobody, no one special. But Eddie was very special. Every day he walked through the park. He could hear a problem with one of the rides as acutely as if the park was empty and completely silent. All the regulars knew Eddie and loved him. He even carried yellow pipe cleaners in his shirt pocket to make little animals for the kids.

On that particular day, Eddie was nearby when one of the rides began to fall.  He rushed to the scene, grabbed little Annie by the hands and got her out of the way before one of the ride’s cars plummeted to Earth.

Eddie arrives in heaven. It’s not at all like he expected. There he learns that there are five people, whom you may or may not know, that are connected to your life. They are to answer the question that haunts us all:  why am I here? What is my purpose?

As Eddie advances through heaven, those questions are answered. Eddie soon learns that he wasn’t a nobody, he was important. Very important. Not just the maintenance man at an amusement park, but his real job was to protect the children. 

Eddie’s story has struck with me through the years. Oftentimes I find myself wondering why I am here and what my purpose is. Then I think of this little story and wonder who might my five people be.  This read is just as compelling and appealing as it was the first time I read it. That’s why  “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

UBIK

Ubik  By Philip K. Dick 202 pages

https://slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/307887116

Until recently the only Dick book I’d read was “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?” back in the early 80s when the “Blade Runner” movie came out.  I was a big Blade Runner fan and the book was disappointing to me at the time, because it was so different from the movie.  (I re-read it again recently, and loved it, and the movie no longer holds the same interest for me.)

A few months ago “Flow My Tears The Policeman Said” came across my hands, and I started reading it.  Now I want to read everything Dick has written.  However, his stories are so unique, and his writing is so sharp and intelligent, so personal, that I have to take long breaks between stories in order to digest his numerous, alternate worlds. 

“Flow…” was written after Ubik, but there are some similar themes.  Here is the description from SLPL’s Bibliocommons:
Ubik (1969), with its future world of psychic espionage agents and cryonically frozen patients inhabiting an illusory "half-life," pursues Dick's theme of simulated realities and false perceptions to ever more disturbing conclusions, as time collapses on itself and characters stranded in past eras search desperately for the elusive, constantly shape-shifting panacea Ubik. As with most of Dick's novels, no plot summary can suggest the mesmerizing and constantly surprising texture of these astonishing books.

This book would’ve been better in one sitting, but I had to read it in three sittings.  Each time I had to go back and re-trace a few pages, because the story is so layered, and this world is so complex.  (Warning: there may be some spoilers.)

 An agent of the Runciter Corporation is called to action against the psychics.  One of the psychic agents can alter time and appears to be working for Runciter- but is she?  They go to Mars and an accident occurs, and for the rest of the story you are left wondering who is dead?  The boss Runciter, who seems to be communicating with them as an “inertial”- someone who is dead but can still be communicated with in the after life?  Or are they dead, and is Runciter communicating with them?

And what is this Ubik?  It is everything and everywhere.  I love each chapter’s Ubik advertisement. I loved the many twists in the already twisted plotline.  The end was satisfying but I had to read the last chapter twice, and I am still not sure who lived, and who was only alive in an artificial, inertial, Ubik afterlife. 

I recommend this to anyone who likes mind-benders and alternate realities, with a paranormal, futuristic setting.

I Woke Up Dead At The Mall

I Woke Up Dead AtThe Mall by Judy Sheehan, 278 pages

Sarah wakes up at the Mall of America the day after she is murdered by her stepmother.  Apparently, she is not quite ready to move on and must go through therapy and exercises to prepare herself for the next step.  Unfortunately, Sarah finds herself feeling tied to her old life because of danger to her father and also to her current state of afterlife, due to a cute dead boy, Nick.  If Sarah can’t resolve her issues she may be doomed to walk the mall as a zombie forever.  I thought that the premise of this book was fun and parts were exactly as fun and silly as I thought it would be but there was a little too much teenage jargon thrown in for my taste.  Teens might like it better than I did but I wouldn’t highly recommend it.

Dream of Gerontius

The Dream of Gerontius by Bl John Henry Newman, 94 pages

Bl John Henry Newman wrote the long narrative poem The Dream of Gerontius in 1865.  Combining influences from the Roman liturgy to Cicero's Somnium Scipionis, the story follows Gerontius (an "old man") from his deathbed into the afterlife, where he is greeted by his guardian angel and conducted through the celestial spheres to be presented before the throne of God.  Newman, living in a time when churchmen were expected to be literary men, still unites in a unique way psychological perspicuity, theological wisdom, aesthetic judgement, and a command of the English language.  It is not difficult to agree with Dr Alexander Whyte, "It is a poem that every man should have by heart who has it before him to die."

The Dream of Gerontius was magnificently set to music by Edward Elgar in 1900.  The 1916 edition includes darkly dramatic full page illustrations by Stella Langdale and an extended introduction by Gordon Tidy.

It's a Wonderful Death

It's a Wonderful Death by Sarah J Schmitt
320 Pages

"Seventeen-year-old RJ always gets what she wants. So when her soul is accidentally collected by a distracted Grim Reaper, somebody in the afterlife better figure out a way to send her back from the dead or heads will roll. But in her quest for mortality, she becomes a pawn in a power struggle between an overzealous archangel and Death Himself. The tribunal presents her with two options: she can remain in the lobby, where souls wait to be processed, until her original lifeline expires, or she can replay three moments in her life in an effort to make choices that will result in a future deemed worthy of being saved. It sounds like a no-brainer. She’ll take a walk down memory lane. How hard can changing her future be?"
 

At first it seemed as if the book was going to be a typical young adult novel with a predictable plot but the author throws a few twists into the storyline that prevents it from sliding into mediocrity.