In For One More Day Albom, who is also the author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, takes us on a sympathetic journey with one Charles “Chick” Benetto, a former baseball player and the story’s protagonist, who arrives at a turning point in his life when his 79-year-old mother experiences a fatal heart attack, while he is playing in an old-timers game, leaving him with enough guilt to haunt him the rest of his life. The scenario of the story is based on Chick being allowed one more day to mend his relationship with his mother and how important it is for humans to realize that life is short and you never know when it may be too late to mend a flawed relationship or just to make sure that you don’t put off letting others know how important they are to you. The novel itself is set in the 1950’s and 1960’s and gives you a very descriptive look into Chick’s flawed life, that begins with his impossible attempt to meet the different expectations set for him by his parents and continues through his abuse of alcohol, his penchant for continually arguing with his wife and daughter and ends with his eventually being left alone and broken. I thought the book was insightful and once again evidenced Albom’s masterful writing providing the reader with several opportunities to reconsider their past experiences in a new light. I guess you can sum this story up with the old adage “hindsight is 20/20″ and if we could change the past, we would certainly do things differently.

Tags: book review, mitch albom, for one more day, philisophical, fiction