For One More Day: A Book Review

This review contains NO SPOILERS. Enjoy! (:

The book review I have today is for one that has been sitting on my bookshelf for nearly a year now, Mitch Albom's For One More Day. I picked it up at one of Border's sales as their stores were closing up and was almost more attracted to the book because of its discount. I had read Albom's The Five People You Meet In Heaven and enjoyed it so I figured I'd pick this one up as well. Tuesdays With Morrie is still on my to-read list. However, I have a tendency to push myself to avoid reading a single authors work consecutively so it may be a while before I ever get to that one.

(photographed: Mitch Albom's For One More Day)

The inside cover of For One More Day gives a fairly lengthy description:

"As a child, Charley Benetto is told by his father, 'You can be a mama's boy or you can be a daddy's boy, but you can't be both.' So he chooses his father, and he worships him-right up to the day the man disappears. An eleven-year-old Charley must then turn to his mother, who bravely raises him on her own, despite Charley's embarrassment and yearnings for a complete family.

Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has crumbled by alcohol and regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits bottom after discovering his only daughter has shut him out of her wedding.

And he decides to take his own life.

He makes a midnight ride to his small hometown, with plans to do himself in. But upon failing even to do that, he staggers back to his old house, only to make an astonishing discovery. His mother-who died eight years earlier-is still living there, and welcomes him home as if nothing had ever happened."

For One More Day was an easy read that I found went at a decent pace. I never got bored while reading. However, I felt like this novel was almost too similar to The Five People You Meet In Heaven, but fell short. Death or seeking death are what starts off each novel, and adventures and lessons in an unknown realm is what takes place in the majority of the novel. Unlike The Fives People You Meet In Heaven I didn't like Charley as much as Eddie.

Upon finishing it, I kept feeling like it was missing something. There were specific lines that hit home and resonate with me, but there was a certain level of connection missing between Charley and his mother in the present narrative that I thought could have used more development.

Even though I wasn't thrilled with this book from Albom, I am still looking forward to reading Tuesdays With Morrie.While reading this novel I was able to reflect on my relationship with my parents and specifically my mother. I consider myself neither a daddy's girl nor a mommy's girl and this book made me curious how and why people have a tendency towards being either.

For One More Day's ability to make me think outside the context of its narrative made it worthwhile read for me. (: