Thursday, August 23, 2007

For One More Day

This is the last of Mitch Albom's novels I read recently and I think I like this one best. "For One More Day" is not very different from "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" but somehow I find this a little more interesting, entertainment-wise.

Like always, Mitch Albom loves to explore matters regarding life and death. The way this book was written had a little more kick in it that somehow appealed to me whereas "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" was more nostalgic. True, it was nostalgic being able to spend another day with your dead mother and all but the whole journey was more lively compared to "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" which was a little mundane and melancholic.

With "For One More Day", Mitch Albom has come a long way from the days of "Tuesdays with Morrie" but still managed to dish out a book that is articulate, captivating yet easy to read. The book is not more than 200 pages, the magic number Mitch Albom seem to target when it comes to his books which is a nice number. The words are not too small and the spacing just nice for such books. With each chapters segmented into small portions for you to digest more easily and the "intermission chapters" I talked about in previous reviews of Mitch Albom's books, you get a very good easy reading book.

While "Tuesdays with Morrie" concentrated more about the celebration of life with death just around the corner and "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" touched mainly on the topic of death and the reflection of the life you had, it seems that "For One More Day" is somewhere in between. This book is not exactly about death but more about a near-death experience, a wake-up call of sorts, to cherish the life you have and to turn it around if needed. In this aspect, I find this book to be as powerful as "Tuesdays with Morrie" but yet as entertaining as "The Five People You Meet In Heaven". Maybe that's why I like this book best since it's an amalgamation of both bestsellers.

It seems that the fathers in Mitch Albom's books sort of have dark backgrounds whereas the mothers seem to project the source of love, tender and care. Chick Benetto's dad in "For One More Day" loved baseball more than him while Eddie in "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" lacked any fatherly love and constantly yearned for his dad's approval. In "Tuesdays with Morrie", I don't remember him mentioning about his dad and Morrie seems to be more of a father figure than his own dad. Is it safe to say that Mitch may have a problem with his dad and his source of inspiration is his mom? It's just a thought since I just couldn't shake that feeling off when reading the books.

I would definitely recommend this book along with the other two of his works I reviewed earlier. It is really hard to choose between the three and I would be hard-pressed if forced to choose one, so I won't. You can read the excerpt first to get a feeling of the book or you can always drop by an MPH, Borders or Kinokuniya outlet. "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" have already been made into a play and a movie, respectively and the movie adaptation of "For One More Day" will be premiering December 2007. I'm not sure it will be the same as reading the book but I may watch them just for fun.

If you had one more day with someone you'd lost, who will that person be and what would you do with that person?




2 comments:

  1. i only can choose one person? guess i'd choose my grandpa. never really got to say goodbye properly.
    that's what death is, i suppose - it's sudden and unexpected.

    :(

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  2. i've quite a few to choose from and i don't know who to choose...my dad, my grandpa, my grandaunt, etc...undecided!!!

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