This is a very imaginative look at what heaven may be like for a psychiatrist. The fiction is not that believable but Peck's creativity is amazing. Here's what Publisher's Weekly said about the book:
"True to its title, Peck's second novel for adults (after A Bed by the Window) imagines an afterlife which, through a number of set pieces, dramatizes some of the earthly concerns of his other books, including the perpetual bestseller, The Road Less Traveled. Daniel, a psychiatrist and successful author much like Peck himself, awakens in a small green room to discover that he has survived his physical death. Hovering about, disembodied but alert, he meets a pair of "greeters" who inform him that heaven, hell and purgatory?Judeo-Christian ideas pervade the narrative. Ghosts are governed by a "Principle of Freedom." soul projects what it wishes to experience?though sometimes, as with Daniel's green refuge, projections are created by committees in order to ease the "Adjustment" from life to the formlessness of heaven. Peck's hell is a garbage can in which about 140,000 souls hide under rocks, too terrified to accept their freedom to choose a greater reality. In time, Daniel learns that purgatory has to do with clinging to mental and emotional attachments; to help the souls there, the most attentive and loving psychotherapy imaginable is provided. Several further encounters?with his deceased wife, a son, a seductive woman help Daniel let go of his own attachments until he is ready to join a committee. Though talky and lacking dramatic momentum, this story, more a consoling philosophical vision than a full-bodied novel, should appeal to Peck's readership."
I would agree that the work is more like a novella and a "consoling philosophical vision." Definitely worth the time to read it and gain some insight into the character of a great writer and psychiatrist.
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