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American Morning

Mitch Albom Trying a New Pitch

Aired October 13, 2003 - 07:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Now, his last book became an international phenomenon. Now the author, Mitch Albom, is trying a new pitch. Six years ago, "Tuesdays With Morrie" was one of the best selling non-fiction books ever. Now Albom has written his first novel, called, "The Five People You Meet In Heaven."
Mitch is here this morning live in New York to talk about it.

Great to see you again.

Good morning to you.

MITCH ALBOM, AUTHOR, "THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN": Good to see you, Bill.

HEMMER: The character in the book is 83 years old. His name is Eddie. He dies. What happens then?

ALBOM: Well, he's based on an old uncle of mine, a grizzled, kind of WWII vet. He dies in the book trying to save a little girl from an accident in an amusement park pier where he works. He doesn't know if he saves her or not. He wakes up in heaven and finds out that heaven is actually this place where you meet five people who were in your life, some of whom you might have known very well, some of whom might only, almost been strangers, and each one, one from his childhood, one from his war years, one from his love life, sort of walks him through moments that he didn't realize were significant on earth that changed their lives and his.

And by the time he reaches the end, he not only gets to find out if he saved this little girl or not, but that this insignificant blue collar kind of life that he thought he led actually was enormously significant.

HEMMER: So it changes his own reflection on his own life, right?

ALBOM: Right. Which until that point was kind of why am I here, what am I doing, I never did anything, I never went anywhere, which was kind of like (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

HEMMER: Why does Eddie have to die to learn the importance and the meaning of his own life? 

ALBOM: Well, we're all going to die. He doesn't have to. But my hope is that, you know, people don't realize here on earth how much they touch people. We live in a society that sort of values the beautiful, the sexy, the famous, and if you're not any of those things -- I've met a lot of people over the last six years who kind of feel like I'm not doing anything, I'm not accomplishing anything.

I wanted to write a story that shows that you may not realize how many people you're touching and what you're accomplishing while you're here. And if you don't, well, maybe you find out there.

HEMMER: You had one review in the "Columbus Dispatch" back in Ohio. I wanted to read it to our viewers. "Both books" -- referring to "Tuesdays With Morrie" and your latest one -- "both books gently instruct readers about the eternity of love and the timeless confluence of people and events."

The confluence of people and events. Do you agree with that statement?

ALBOM: Yes. You know, I'm living proof of it. I mean if I didn't happen to turn on a television and see my old professor, Morrie Schwartz, talk about what it was like to die, I didn't have to go back and visit him, if he didn't happen to spend time with me, I didn't happen to write a book to pay his medical bills and all these people read it, I wouldn't be sitting here with you. That's a confluence of events.

HEMMER: What did you learn after "Tuesdays With Morrie" came out? I have to think you've gotten tremendous reaction from that.

ALBOM: Oh, yes. Well, my life sort of changed. Before that I was just a sports writer and then all of a sudden I was hearing people tell me stories about people's lives and deaths and the people who they loved. And I learned a lot of things, including one that I worked in the book, where Eddie gets to meet his wife again in heaven. His wife died young and he says to her I never stopped loving you. And she says I know, I felt he. And he says here? She says, even here.

And, you know, that I learned specifically from all the last six years of people who have lost people and want to believe that the love that they still have for them doesn't just disappear into the ether. It goes somewhere.

And so I took a lot of the stories from people that I've met after "Tuesdays With Morrie" and sort of worked them into the five people.

HEMMER: That's a great, warm theme, a lot of hope in that book.

You're a sportswriter first.

ALBOM: Well, that's the best part of it.

HEMMER: Let's talk about the Yankees and Red Sox.

ALBOM: All right.

HEMMER: What do you make of what we're seeing right now, not just on the field with Martinez and Don Zimmer, but this little talked about brawl that happened in the bullpen between the Yanks and a member of the grounds crew for the Boston Red Sox?

ALBOM: Well, Bill, as a general rule, whenever baseball players start acting like football players, it's a bad thing, OK? I've seen it many times before.

HEMMER: Yes?

ALBOM: This is a lot of machismo that really is going nowhere. Pedro Martinez started it. A couple other guys continued it and it was all wrong and they all be embarrassed. And they should have been injected.

HEMMER: You think they needed the night off last night?

ALBOM: I think the rain might have pulled them down a little bit.

HEMMER: Yes, I must say. So it cooled things down a little bit?

ALBOM: Yes.

HEMMER: Quickly, Cubs and Marlins, they'll play tomorrow night. Is this the Cubs' version of Eddie in your book? Hope springs eternal in the afterlife?

ALBOM: Well, I can tell you this...

HEMMER: Do they go to the World Series?

ALBOM: If the Cubs make the World Series, everyone in Chicago is going to feel like heaven already happened here on earth.

HEMMER: Yes, that's true, too.

ALBOM: Yes.

HEMMER: Great to see you, Mitch.

The book, "The Five People You Meet In Heaven," pick it up now, number one right now in the "New York Times."

Great to see you.

ALBOM: Thank you.

HEMMER: All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 13, 2003 - 07:21   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Now, his last book became an international phenomenon. Now the author, Mitch Albom, is trying a new pitch. Six years ago, "Tuesdays With Morrie" was one of the best selling non-fiction books ever. Now Albom has written his first novel, called, "The Five People You Meet In Heaven."
Mitch is here this morning live in New York to talk about it.

Great to see you again.

Good morning to you.

MITCH ALBOM, AUTHOR, "THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN": Good to see you, Bill.

HEMMER: The character in the book is 83 years old. His name is Eddie. He dies. What happens then?

ALBOM: Well, he's based on an old uncle of mine, a grizzled, kind of WWII vet. He dies in the book trying to save a little girl from an accident in an amusement park pier where he works. He doesn't know if he saves her or not. He wakes up in heaven and finds out that heaven is actually this place where you meet five people who were in your life, some of whom you might have known very well, some of whom might only, almost been strangers, and each one, one from his childhood, one from his war years, one from his love life, sort of walks him through moments that he didn't realize were significant on earth that changed their lives and his.

And by the time he reaches the end, he not only gets to find out if he saved this little girl or not, but that this insignificant blue collar kind of life that he thought he led actually was enormously significant.

HEMMER: So it changes his own reflection on his own life, right?

ALBOM: Right. Which until that point was kind of why am I here, what am I doing, I never did anything, I never went anywhere, which was kind of like (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

HEMMER: Why does Eddie have to die to learn the importance and the meaning of his own life? 

ALBOM: Well, we're all going to die. He doesn't have to. But my hope is that, you know, people don't realize here on earth how much they touch people. We live in a society that sort of values the beautiful, the sexy, the famous, and if you're not any of those things -- I've met a lot of people over the last six years who kind of feel like I'm not doing anything, I'm not accomplishing anything.

I wanted to write a story that shows that you may not realize how many people you're touching and what you're accomplishing while you're here. And if you don't, well, maybe you find out there.

HEMMER: You had one review in the "Columbus Dispatch" back in Ohio. I wanted to read it to our viewers. "Both books" -- referring to "Tuesdays With Morrie" and your latest one -- "both books gently instruct readers about the eternity of love and the timeless confluence of people and events."

The confluence of people and events. Do you agree with that statement?

ALBOM: Yes. You know, I'm living proof of it. I mean if I didn't happen to turn on a television and see my old professor, Morrie Schwartz, talk about what it was like to die, I didn't have to go back and visit him, if he didn't happen to spend time with me, I didn't happen to write a book to pay his medical bills and all these people read it, I wouldn't be sitting here with you. That's a confluence of events.

HEMMER: What did you learn after "Tuesdays With Morrie" came out? I have to think you've gotten tremendous reaction from that.

ALBOM: Oh, yes. Well, my life sort of changed. Before that I was just a sports writer and then all of a sudden I was hearing people tell me stories about people's lives and deaths and the people who they loved. And I learned a lot of things, including one that I worked in the book, where Eddie gets to meet his wife again in heaven. His wife died young and he says to her I never stopped loving you. And she says I know, I felt he. And he says here? She says, even here.

And, you know, that I learned specifically from all the last six years of people who have lost people and want to believe that the love that they still have for them doesn't just disappear into the ether. It goes somewhere.

And so I took a lot of the stories from people that I've met after "Tuesdays With Morrie" and sort of worked them into the five people.

HEMMER: That's a great, warm theme, a lot of hope in that book.

You're a sportswriter first.

ALBOM: Well, that's the best part of it.

HEMMER: Let's talk about the Yankees and Red Sox.

ALBOM: All right.

HEMMER: What do you make of what we're seeing right now, not just on the field with Martinez and Don Zimmer, but this little talked about brawl that happened in the bullpen between the Yanks and a member of the grounds crew for the Boston Red Sox?

ALBOM: Well, Bill, as a general rule, whenever baseball players start acting like football players, it's a bad thing, OK? I've seen it many times before.

HEMMER: Yes?

ALBOM: This is a lot of machismo that really is going nowhere. Pedro Martinez started it. A couple other guys continued it and it was all wrong and they all be embarrassed. And they should have been injected.

HEMMER: You think they needed the night off last night?

ALBOM: I think the rain might have pulled them down a little bit.

HEMMER: Yes, I must say. So it cooled things down a little bit?

ALBOM: Yes.

HEMMER: Quickly, Cubs and Marlins, they'll play tomorrow night. Is this the Cubs' version of Eddie in your book? Hope springs eternal in the afterlife?

ALBOM: Well, I can tell you this...

HEMMER: Do they go to the World Series?

ALBOM: If the Cubs make the World Series, everyone in Chicago is going to feel like heaven already happened here on earth.

HEMMER: Yes, that's true, too.

ALBOM: Yes.

HEMMER: Great to see you, Mitch.

The book, "The Five People You Meet In Heaven," pick it up now, number one right now in the "New York Times."

Great to see you.

ALBOM: Thank you.

HEMMER: All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com