Book Review - What I's gots to say about da novel:
Apparently, after writing Tuesdays with Morrie, Albom still had more to say about death. Here are the 5 lessons I took away from Eddie's Ghosts of "Unresolved-Issues" Past:
1. Everyone's lives intersect and affect every other one, even if we don't realize it. We ought to live, aware of what effect our smallest actions can have on others.
2. Sacrifice is a part of life that we should not be angry about or regret or resent. Take hope in knowing that every time we feel like we are giving something up, someone else is benefiting from it.
3. Anger is a burden that only bares down on one's own back. Lighten your load. Forgive.
4. When we lose the ones we love, that love is not lost. That love can survive in memory. No one who has loved need ever feel lonely.
5. Purpose can be found in, what is thought to be, the most menial or wasted life. Purpose and joy is discovered as we love those in our realm of influence.
8 Memorable (Chronological) Quotes:
"This story is about a man named Eddie, and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun. It might seem strange to start a story with an ending. But all endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time." Narrator, pg. 1
"All the people you meet in [Heaven] have one thing to teach you...that there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze fro the wind." The Blue Man pg. 48
The Captain commenting on the subjects of both Time and possessions: "I figure it's like in the Bible, the Adam and Eve deal? Adam's first night on earth? When he lays down to sleep? He thinks it's all over, right? He doesn't know what sleep is. his eyes are closing and he thinks he's leaving this world, right? Only he isn't. He wakes up the next morning and he has a fresh new world to work with, be he has something else too. he has his yesterday." pg. 92
“'Sacrifice,’ The Captain said. ‘You made one. I made one. We all make them. But you were angry over yours. You kept thinking about what you lost. You didn’t get it. Sacrifice is a part of life. It’s supposed to be. It’s not something to regret. It’s something to aspire to’…. ‘I didn’t die for nothing either. That night, we might have all driven over that land mine. Then the four of us would have been gone'” pg. 93
The Captain, again on Sacrifice: "Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, your not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else." pg. 94
"Ain't you supposed to have peace when you die?" "You have peace," the old woman said, "when you make it with yourself." Ruby, pg. 113
"Learn this from me. Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We thing that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves." "Forgive, Edward. Forgive. Do you remember the lightness you felt when you first arrived in heaven?" Eddie did. "That's because no one is born with anger. And when we die, the soul is freed of it. But now, here in order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did, and why you no longer need to feel it." Ruby of Ruby Pier, pg. 141-2
Marguerite on Love and Memories: "Lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different form, that's all. You can't see their smile or bring the food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it. Life has to end," she said. "Love doesn't." pg. 173
Hmmm. Maybe I should read this book. I have been avoiding because I loved Tuesdays With Morrie so much. If that makes sense. I didn't want to be disappointed. But maybe I'll give it a chance this summer.
ReplyDeleteI liked Tuesdays with Morrie more, but Five People still has some good merit. Most of it you can read right here on this blog however!
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