For One More Day by Mitch Albom

Alamak! 2 weeks?! I haven’t penned any book reviews for the past 2 weeks?! Time really flies when you’re saddled with endless tasks!

Well, I am glad to say that though I didn’t actually pen any reviews within that period of time, I managed to finish 4 books... :-) in which I will pen my review on one of them... (I haven’t gotten around scanning and reviewing my “old” read books yet. Too daunting a task... :-S)

What else could be better than re-starting a book review blog by writing about sob stories? :-P

First and foremost, I have to re-assert the statement that I didn’t cry when I read this book but I merely felt emotional and had wet-eyes on certain chapters of the book... on second thought, why re-asserting all these in the first place. Hmmm… don’t mind me, sometimes I contradict myself… :-P

In this book entitled, “For One More Day by Mitch Albom", we get to read about soapy stories ala Chicken Soup for the Soul all over again. However, instead of one or two pages long, it became a full fledge novel.

In this novel, purportedly tells the story of one down and out; former baseball player named Charley “Chick” Benetto and his chance encounter with his long dead mom.

I wish I can stop reviewing it after that because that’s practically the start and the end of the story itself :-P

However, the juicy parts are the innards.. yummy yummy…

This “Chick-y” guy was once a promising baseball player from a broken family; in which his dad suddenly packed his bag and left his mom to fend for herself and the family when he was a young chap.

He took it rather badly; sort of blamed his mom for his dad’s exit and grew up to become an adult with myriad of problems, which lead him to his eventual suicide scheme.

Somehow his suicide attempt failed and he ended up meeting his long dead mom.

From thence onwards, his mom brought him around his old neighbourhood, walked him thru his difficult childhood and explained things she did to raise the family; including the… jeng jeng jeng… the reason his dad left the family in haste!

His mom then literally helped him back on his feet and back on track before vanishing and Chick regained his consciousness.

In the end, this book is revealed to have been narrated by Chick’s estranged daughter, Maria.

What do I think of the book?

Well, it’s a nice read. Nothing remarkable to shout about but it has all the right ingredients to make the reader weep :-)


Personal rating: 6 out of 10 (mostly on sob factor)

Cons:
1) Not much character development

Pros:
1) Sob factor :-) its a good thing for me OK!