I have recently finished reading the novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, written by Mitch Albom. Mitch's portrayal and view of life are shown vicariously through an elderly man, Eddie. The author shows the fragility of life and shows how one small, trivial event can ruin someone's life. Representing the random collisions in life which can affect a person negatively, positively, or neutrally depending on perspective, Eddie meets his first person in heaven. He realized that in his early ages, the ball he had thrown across the road was a distraction for the driving man, which turned his life upside down. The second person he meets teaches him a lesson of the advantage he had earned after his misfortune and the open, greater opportunities resulting from adversity. The prime themes in the book are forgiveness, sacrifice, misunderstanding, perspective, and love. Discovering to release the deep-seated anger which was buried in him from his wife, Ruby, he learned to forgive. I believe that replacing anger and madness with forgiveness and accepting the good and the bad with equanimity is more productive in life. Learning that Eddie's wife overlooked his whole life after she passed away, I learned that death does not abolish love, that love is everlasting. This novel changed my view of life; life shouldn't be full of vengeance and hate, but instead peace and caring for one another. I definitely recommend The Five People You Meet in Heaven due to its tragedies and realizations that the readers can feel with the character throughout the book.