Feature Article
Below is a Feature Article, published in the Herald Sun, Weekend. Saturday 12th May 2007.
By Samantha Tidy
Ferris wheels and fairy floss. Last dances with lost loves.
This is the heaven of Mitch Albom’s first novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
As the most successful first hardback novel in US history, Albom’s imagination is selling real estate in paradise.
Readers can relate to the one-size-fits-all character of Eddie. He’s your average Joe. An elderly maintenance worker in an amusement park, who upon death, questions the importance of his own life, and assumes that it all went awry in the blur of war service, lack of opportunity and old age.
The meaning of his life is illuminated by five people.
And what if you could have the answers explained so clearly? Albom lets it happen.
He weaves a heaven of Hollywood proportions, a sweet nostalgic product of our modern imagination, where we can have our cake, eat it too, and order more. Author plays God, and does it very well.
In Albom’s world, you can go back and right some wrongs. You can meet your dead wife. There is no meeting with the Maker. In fact, there are no traditional motifs in Albom’s heaven. Just good, clean, guilt free redemption.
Albom’s stories all concern the afterlife, and it is giving hope to the masses. At his recent book event in Melbourne, the audience spans many faiths – Muslim, Jewish, Christian.
“I don't believe that any one religion has cornered the market on knowing what heaven is,” he says. “There are so many different versions of it. I’m not haughty enough to say one’s right and all the rest are wrong.”
Mitch Albom is best known for his non-fiction book Tuesdays with Morrie. It broke records when it sat on the New York Times Bestseller list for four years.
It is the true story of Albom’s conversations with Morrie Schwartz, his terminally ill college professor, in the days before his death. His story of decanted wisdom ticks every box in the emotional catalogue of reader satisfaction.
Having sold 12 million copies, and now the bestselling memoir of all time, it ticks every box for publisher satisfaction, too.
Dealing with death is a profitable business for Albom. Though his writing tends to deal with death, his charities deal with real life issues. Since the beginning of his success, he has quietly channeled his energy into charity work.
It was the influence of Morrie’s words, in the last days before his death that inspired Albom’s charity work for homeless people in Detroit.
“Time to Help and S.A.Y. Detroit were formed directly as a result of Morrie making me feel guilty about what I should do and he was right," he says.
"One of the things he really admonished me for was, how involved I was or wasn’t with my community. He’d tell me that anyone can write a cheque, but that I had a responsibility because I have a voice in the community.”
Albom has started three charities in the last ten years and for the release of his latest book Just One More Day, Albom ditched the traditional book launch, for a fundraiser instead.
“They always try to put you in New York. Bikinis, ice sculptures and all the rest. I don’t live in New York. I live in Detroit.”
He told his publisher the format, and with help from friends Hank Azaria and Tony Bennett, raised $110,000 instead.
For One More Day is Albom’s third huge success and has Oprah’s coveted tick of approval. The tribute to family and motherhood is a heartfelt novel peddling the power of love.
He gives his character Charley one last day with his dead mother, a chance to question and find answers. What would he do with one more day?
“I’d need a week," Albom says. "I’d want seven days and one of them would be with Morrie. My life has changed so much as a result of my time with him. He died before I wrote a word of that book. I just did it to pay his medical bills."
"I would love to have him with me for a day, and just wander around the earth and say, 'look at how many people were affected because you took the time to spend some time with me.' ”
Critics say that his stories are too unrealistic and full of happy endings. Some even dare to call it self-help.
“I just tell stories for a living, but I can’t deny that they give people hope." Albom says. "I’m not trying to give them hope I’m trying to give myself hope. I write these books, because they comfort me first, but if they’re used to comfort other people as well, I’m alright with that. There are worse things that I could be doing with my life.”