May BOTM 1: For One More Day

"It's nice that you spend a day with your mother," she said. "Children should do it more often."

For One More Day
Mitch Albom

Description:

"Every family is a ghost story..."

For One More Day is the story of a mother and a son, and a relationship that covers 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 "Chick" Benetto was told by his father, "You can be a mama's boy or a daddy's boy, but you can't be both." So he chooses his father, only to see the man disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence.

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 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 ever happened..

What follows is the one "ordinary" day so many of us yearn for, a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain the 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 crumbled pieces of his life back together.

Rating: ★★★⋆ (3.5)

but I rate it as 4★ in Goodreads.

I reread another Mitch Albom book for one of my book clubs' BOTM, which is also the 2nd book I've read from the author from late 2010 to early 2011.  

Same with my initial rating, I gave it 4 stars again. However, as I write this review, 4 days after reading it, I'm thinking of giving it a personal rating of 3.5.

The book's writing style is simple yet brings a powerful message about loving your parents (moms to be specific) and will make the readers contemplate and think of the loved ones that need to be appreciated while they are still with us, and also, the loved ones that we let down when we're trying to grow up. But because it is direct and simple, it felt like the book is too fast-paced; like there is an element lacking that I can't exactly figure out. There are some points that are totally relatable but overall, it did not emotionally reach me compared to the books I've read from the author - maybe because I love my mom so much that Chick's character does not really connect with me. I like the mini-chapters of not/standing up for each other; it's a very Mitch Albom style wherein he brings the readers to the past and shares a glimpse of the characters' lives. 

I think what Chick experienced is more of a hallucination or a journey between life and death, but her mom guided her to stay in the living to forgive himself and smooth things out for his daughter. Whichever it is, I'm just glad that Chick was able to redeem himself, and got that chance to be with his dead mother for one more day.

And now, I've decided to make my personal rating 3.5, but kept it 4 stars on Goodreads.

This book is very timely for this month in support of the Mothers' Day celebration. I will still recommend it to readers who are looking for a theme and/or genre-specific book with a mother's love and/or redemption story. 

Background image grabbed from Pinterest.