Hehehe, another book from Mitch Albom. Surprisingly, this book was the second book I finished this month. Must be due to the guilt of buying too many books. Normally, I would read more after I spent a lot on books, then the feeling subsided, and the books would be left in somewhere until the next book sales. I tried to read lying on bed, it's really not ergonomic. So, I tried to read face down, it made me feel more tired with sore muscles if I read more than ten minutes. I wondered how other people read on the bed, it's just not for me. If I have my own place, I think I will buy a really comfy reading chair for myself. Hahaha!
Anyway, back to this book. This one came with deckle edge. I have no preferences over deckle or smooth edge. But I tend to get cut by paper. So, sometimes deckle edge is good, no paper cut. In this book, the story alternates between the creation of telephone by Alexander Graham Bell and how the people in the small town got calls from their dead loved one. I was surprised to learn that Alexander Graham Bell's wife was a deaf and it's partly due to her that he invented the telephone. It's quite romantic. I even read up on Alexander Graham Bell on the Wikipedia. I remembered the story of the first phone call in the world, but I never knew the background story to it, it's quite interesting.
In this story, few people in a small town started to get calls from their loved ones. Almost all of them were happy to get the calls, except one man who got calls from one of his former disgruntled employees. Initially, they kept to themselves. However, one person, Katherine who got the calls became too excited and announce it at the church. Initially, others doubted her, but at the same time, another church goer, Elias said that he received calls too. Then, somehow this news was known by a TV producer and a reporter, Amy was sent to the small town to cover the news.
When the news got out, people started to go to the small town to receive the miracle calls themselves. In the mean time, there was a police and his ex wife who got calls from their dead child. And a woman who got calls from her dead mother. The police felt weird because the sentence his dead son kept saying was from a band. However, he couldn't bring himself to stop the calls.
In the small town, there was a widow, Sully whose wife died when he was in prison. His young son believed that his mother would call him and clung to a toy phone. Sully was devastated, he wanted to prove that the calls were frauds. From his job in a local newspaper, he suspected a colleague was the culprit behind all of these. However, it turned out that the colleague was suspicious of him too. So, Sully was back to square one.
Then, as the miracle calls became bigger news, more people went to the small town. That's the funny part, Mitch Albom must be a Samsung lover, one of the phones that received the calls was one Samsung model. So even that model was a sold out in this story and the maker ramped up the production of that particular model to catch the trend. Sully befriended a staff in a phone shop and he got the informations of the people who claimed to receive the calls. All were subscripted to the same provider.
Sully then found Elias (one of the receivers) and Elias agreed to help him. Somehow, although Elias tossed out his phone and got a new one after that, Elias still got calls. Sully was very certain that it's a fraud. The town then decided to benefit financially from all the calls by allowing the TV station to broadcast the calls live. All of them agreed, especially Katherine.
In the mean time, Sully found out that the local funeral home boss was quite suspicious, so he got hold of his address and found the old man in his home. He found all the telecommunications equipments at the compound. Sully was baffled by the actions of the old man. The old man told Sully that it was due to Sully that he chose the small town. He wanted to expose the old man, however, the old man was nowhere to be found after he cut off the electricity of the house. When Sully was driving, he has an accident and he thought he received a call from his dead wife, in his mind, although he suspected that this might be a prank from the old man, he couldn't resist the temptation to talk to his wife again.
Then, after the broadcast. The old man was found to be dead at his home but all the equipments and the body was taken by the Federal agents. But the police whose son called him too managed to keep a letter that's addressed to Sully and gave it to him.
Well, the letter kind of explained everything. The old man was a expert in telecommunications. When he found out that his son gave the wrong informations that led to the collisions of the planes which Sully was the pilot, he erased the data to protect his son. However, somehow his son fled and had an accident with Sully's wife and both died. So, he concocted the "fraud" to make people believe because when people believe in gods, people will behave. I don't really understand this part. But Sully was happy when he found out that his wife call was after the old man death. So, it might really the first call from heaven. For this, I think if the old man could manipulate all the data, he could have set the calls earlier, even though he was not in this world anymore to make amends to Sully for his and his son faults.
Anyway, after the old man died. No people in the small town got any calls any more. So, it returned to normal and all the affected people found some new directions in life. I think that this story was ok, but not really chicken soup for the soul type.
The end.
 |
| The First Phone Call From Heaven (Mitch Albom) |
In this story, few people in a small town started to get calls from their loved ones. Almost all of them were happy to get the calls, except one man who got calls from one of his former disgruntled employees. Initially, they kept to themselves. However, one person, Katherine who got the calls became too excited and announce it at the church. Initially, others doubted her, but at the same time, another church goer, Elias said that he received calls too. Then, somehow this news was known by a TV producer and a reporter, Amy was sent to the small town to cover the news.
When the news got out, people started to go to the small town to receive the miracle calls themselves. In the mean time, there was a police and his ex wife who got calls from their dead child. And a woman who got calls from her dead mother. The police felt weird because the sentence his dead son kept saying was from a band. However, he couldn't bring himself to stop the calls.
In the small town, there was a widow, Sully whose wife died when he was in prison. His young son believed that his mother would call him and clung to a toy phone. Sully was devastated, he wanted to prove that the calls were frauds. From his job in a local newspaper, he suspected a colleague was the culprit behind all of these. However, it turned out that the colleague was suspicious of him too. So, Sully was back to square one.
Then, as the miracle calls became bigger news, more people went to the small town. That's the funny part, Mitch Albom must be a Samsung lover, one of the phones that received the calls was one Samsung model. So even that model was a sold out in this story and the maker ramped up the production of that particular model to catch the trend. Sully befriended a staff in a phone shop and he got the informations of the people who claimed to receive the calls. All were subscripted to the same provider.
Sully then found Elias (one of the receivers) and Elias agreed to help him. Somehow, although Elias tossed out his phone and got a new one after that, Elias still got calls. Sully was very certain that it's a fraud. The town then decided to benefit financially from all the calls by allowing the TV station to broadcast the calls live. All of them agreed, especially Katherine.
In the mean time, Sully found out that the local funeral home boss was quite suspicious, so he got hold of his address and found the old man in his home. He found all the telecommunications equipments at the compound. Sully was baffled by the actions of the old man. The old man told Sully that it was due to Sully that he chose the small town. He wanted to expose the old man, however, the old man was nowhere to be found after he cut off the electricity of the house. When Sully was driving, he has an accident and he thought he received a call from his dead wife, in his mind, although he suspected that this might be a prank from the old man, he couldn't resist the temptation to talk to his wife again.
Then, after the broadcast. The old man was found to be dead at his home but all the equipments and the body was taken by the Federal agents. But the police whose son called him too managed to keep a letter that's addressed to Sully and gave it to him.
Well, the letter kind of explained everything. The old man was a expert in telecommunications. When he found out that his son gave the wrong informations that led to the collisions of the planes which Sully was the pilot, he erased the data to protect his son. However, somehow his son fled and had an accident with Sully's wife and both died. So, he concocted the "fraud" to make people believe because when people believe in gods, people will behave. I don't really understand this part. But Sully was happy when he found out that his wife call was after the old man death. So, it might really the first call from heaven. For this, I think if the old man could manipulate all the data, he could have set the calls earlier, even though he was not in this world anymore to make amends to Sully for his and his son faults.
Anyway, after the old man died. No people in the small town got any calls any more. So, it returned to normal and all the affected people found some new directions in life. I think that this story was ok, but not really chicken soup for the soul type.
The end.
No comments:
Post a Comment