Review Novel FOR ONE MORE DAY BY MITCH ALBOM

“Mothers hold their children’s hand for moment and their heart for lifetime”. From the quotation, it can be understood that parents have the good role to nurture their children, especially a mother. The parents nurture children with their actions and their feelings. In order for children to develop in all aspects, the parents must have supported in all areas.

“If you had the chance, just one chance, to go back and fix what you did wrong in life, would you take it? And if you did, would you be big enough to stand it? …. But most of all, it will make you believe in the eternal power of a mother’s love.” (Synopsis, back cover)

From that synopsis, we know that this book talks about the sorrow of child-mother relationship. Albom reminds us about two big things in this novel. They are about how to be a good mother for children and how to love our mother very well without hurting her heart. It means, we’ll learn how to have a good relationship between children and mother, especially for a single parent, mother.

“THIS IS A STORY ABOUT A FAMILY and, as there is a ghost involved, you might call it a ghost story. But every family is a ghost story. The dead sit at our tables long after they have gone.” (Prolog)

Okay! We started our reading with those sentences which hints that this novel would tell about a horror story in a family. It means that we will find some ghosts who scare us. Even, he wanted us to trust him that every family is a ghost story.

I really fooled by Albom.

After I read the prologue of this novel, I know that this is not a horror novel. Nope! Finally, I know what the meaning of For One More Day is and why the synopsis tells about the chance. Albom did it very well. He fooled me, maybe the other readers. Once again, I said that it’s not a horror novel.

“LOOKING BACK, I began to unravel the day my mother died, around ten years ago….” (Chick’s Story, 3)

The sentence which is from first chapter makes us wonder why Chick began to unravel at that time. Of course, we’ll know the answer of that question if we continue our reading. Okay! Albom successfully makes us want to continue reading this novel with that simple sentence. Starting from that question, we also know that it’s a past story and we’ll be invited to read someone’s past.

This story moves back to the memories of Child’s childhood and adolescence. Albom tells about Chick as a child who really regretted to his mother. As a character who is made by Albom, Chick comes with a lot of problems which is focused in his relationship with his mother. The relationship is not finished yet although his mother has already died. Then, from the feeling, he got a chance. How is it? He met his mother once again though he didn’t believe it.

The setting of this story is a village and it takes in a family. The family is unusual because the parents got divorce. Why is it unusual? By the time divorce is uncommon thing in that village. Chick had two choices, being a father’s child or a mother’s child. However, he had no choice that he wanted to stay with. His father left the home; he realized that he would stay with his mother. Whether he wanted it or not, he would be a mother’s child.

His mother nurtured him being an educated person. However, he didn’t like studying at all. He wished that he would be a father’s child. If it happened, he would be a professional baseball player.

Because of those things, the relationship of child-mother isn’t good. They made a lot of problems. Chick didn’t care his mother, it sounded like his mother ruined his life. However, his life is being broken after his mother had died.

For One More Day means that we get an opportunity to meet someone who has died. Chick ask us to ask ourselves about we had ever lost someone we love. He wondered one more conversation and one more chance. Then, he ended with this question:

What if you got it back? (Prolog)

This story tells us about love, family, mistakes, and forgiveness.