CarlAlves

In Mitch Albom's first attempt at fiction, the story weaves its way around Eddie, an 83 year old man that the narrator says is about to die at the beginning of the novel. After dying, Eddie views his funeral and reaction from his friends, and relives parts of his past as five different people take him through the afterlife after his death. Eddie's five guides reveal how he affected their lives in ways he didn't even realize.

Albom used a more experimental method of storytelling in this novel. It was a bit of a different take from a man who was a sports writer and then wrote a massive best-selling memoir. His diverse background lends himself to approaching a novel in a way a traditional novelist probably would not try. There was some good and some bad. The storytelling was light-hearted but a bit sappy at times. There was nothing hard hitting in this story, either from a plot standpoint or an emotional viewpoint. That makes this story an interesting read, but nothing spectacular.

Carl Alves - author of Blood Street