This is a very sweet book, and an especially good one for us younger adults who still have trouble relating to our parents.
Chick is a former major league baseball player, an alcoholic, and someone who is completely lost in his life. After two failed attempts to kill himself, Chick makes his way back to the home he grew up in. He finds his mother there, waiting for him with open arms. By the way, his mother has been dead for eight years.
"Mom..." My voice cracked. "We buried you. You've been gone for a long time."
I stared at the sandwich, two triangles of bread. "Everything's different now," I whispered.
She reached over and put my cheek in her hand. She grimaced as if a pain were passing through her.
"Things can be fixed," she said.
Chick gets to spend one more day with his mother, and learns who she really is inside. He learns about the heartache and grief she went through alone as a single mother, and comes to forgive her for the "wrongs" he felt she had done to him growing up.
Throughout the book, Chick makes a list of "Times My Mother Stood Up for Me" and "Times I Did Not Stand Up for My Mother." Some of these chapters were heartwrenching to read, as I recognized stupid, immature, teenage attitudes and decisions we've all made in life, and how they really affect our families. Chick comes to see how skewed his view of his mother really was, and realize how much she loved him despite his anger and stubbornness.
This is a very easy and fast read — less than 200 pages and short chapters. It will lift your spirits and help you see things more optimistically.
You can find For One More Day at Alibris.
