For One More Day by Mitch Albom

For One More Day by Mitch Albom
Publishing Date: 10/6/2006
Publisher: Hyperion
197 Pages

Synopsis 

For One More Day is the story of a mother and a son, and a relationship that lasts a lifetime and beyond. It explores the question: What would you do if you could spend one more day with a lost loved one?

As a child, Charley Bennetto 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 is 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 been 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 the wedding.

And he decides to take his own life.

He makes a midnight right 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 ever happened.

What follows is the one "ordinary" day so many of us year for, a change to make good with a lost parent, to explain family secrets, and to seek forgiveness. Somewhere between this life and the next, Charley learns the astonishing things he never knew about his mother and her sacrifices. And he tries, with her tender guidance, to put the crumbles pieces of his life back together.

My Review

I really enjoy Mitch Albom's books and his writing style. For One More Day was so refreshing and original. The story makes you think about your own life and how you treat others in it. It teaches you to take a couple minutes out of your busy day and appreciate those around you. I think a lot of times kids don't realize the sacrifices their parents make for them. We tend to assume they will do whatever we need from them, and that they'll always be there. This book teaches us that our parents had lives before us, and that they gave up a lot when they chose to have children. They don't regret having children, but this still have lives outside of their kids, and us as children, need to respect that. I really hope that people continue to appreciate those around them and never take their life, or others in their life, for granted.


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