Heavenly values in a bestselling novel

Heavenly values in a bestselling novel
How Mitch Albom deals with empathy and tolerance in his book
“The First Phone Call From Heaven”

Today’s earthly lifestyle may prevent us from feeling things that’ll remain forever, but Mitch Albom’s newest novel, The First Phone Call From Heaven, has come to give us a thought-provoking remembrance of two eternal values that can only be reached way beyond things we can see. 

Set in a small town of Michigan, the story deals with how different types of people react when a group of unrelated individuals, with different beliefs, jobs and backgrounds, begin to receive what seem to be mysterious phone calls from deceased beloved ones that are meant to have passed to a better place. If suddenly people would make such claims today, telling these things to their relatives, shouting them in their congregations or televising them on the news, how would people behave? 

From believers to skeptics, from residents to outsiders, from politicians to businessmen, the author covers the reactions that the mother and the journalist, the avoidant and the communicative, the young and the old, the Christian and the atheist, and people of different creeds and personalities would have in such a situation. In realistic terms, there’s an ingenious criticism of intolerance and a promotion of tolerance that penetrates within the soul of the reader by means of simple terms and every-day language that any English speaker can grasp.

Amidst all, the agnostic Sully Harding, just released from prison, decides to undertake an investigation to find out a reasonable explanation for the phone calls. But, as the plot develops and the climax is approached, bit by bit, we get to know his life story, and we are irresistibly identified with some of his former experiences, dreams and hopes, which went away when sad, tragic events caused him to get resentment, joylessness, sorrow and disillusionment inside. Yet, rather than to judge him and blame him for his attitude, we are placed in Sully’s shoes to understand that his quest is more a journey of self-discovery, than anything else; a journey that could possibly bring hope and forgiveness back to him.

Albom’s style is absolutely clever and the painstakingly-planned structure he uses successfully depicts a scenario in which a message is made clear: whatever the case and whatever the causes behind these enigmatic signals, tolerance and empathy must be found if a paradox like this is ever to be solved.

The fact that, for months, this book has been a New York Times bestseller, reminds us that in this multicultural world we live in, there are still many people interested in both the ‘here’ and the hereafter. But what makes this book delightful is how the author helps us understand that we won’t be able to see the other side of the road without these values of utmost, never-ending importance that are calling from above.