Following Heaven is For Real, I thought this would be a good choice for my next read, especially since it is such a short novel. The aforementioned is a non-fiction (read my last post to see my true feelings on the non-fiction status) and this a work of fiction, but both books surround the idea of what Heaven is.
In this book, the narrator is an old man who dies and meets five different people from his past who help him better understand his life and the lessons he has to learn from his entire life. It was an incredible story and I did not want to put it down at all (but being a mommy prevented me from reading it straight through). The people he encounters aren't who you would expect, some being people who seemed insignificant in his life or whom he never met at all, but they are so perfect and the story makes Heaven feel real.
What I enjoyed most about this book is how much it made me reflect on my own life. If this were truly how things work when you die, who would my five people be? What people in my life did I meet that would have a lesson to teach me? Is there any person I inadvertently caused the death of? Would I meet someone whose choices in life were the reason I had a job or a place to live? Would I meet someone who would explain the actions of another who hurt me? In the book, you learn that the narrator would also have to at some point meet a newly deceased person as one of the five people they meet. It's a cycle. That of course made me wonder about myself and who I might greet and explain heaven to. Would it be a past love or an old coworker? For me the goal of this book was not to tell the story of a man who died, but to make readers ponder about what heaven really was like. It's to make readers reflect on who they are and what things they would be proud or ashamed of when they see what is on the other side of life.
Another thing that I really enjoyed about this book was the lack of religion. I feel that anyone could pick this up, no matter their religious affiliation and get something out of it. As opposed to Heaven is For Real which presented heaven as only a Christian place, this book gave heaven to all people.
The writing style was different, but worked very well. The book started with the character's death. Then, there would be a series of chapters that went though the five people he met in heaven as well as back stories from his life. The author did a great job of keeping the flow even though the tense of the story went back and forth from chapter to chapter.
My final opinion- get your hands on a copy!
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