For One More Day

BOOK REPORT

1. Title: For one more day

2. Author: Mitch Albom

3. Setting (when and where): At the beginning, a baseball field is the setting for the scene that sets the stage for the action of the novel to start, which throughout the entire novel are always present and very important. It is taken place during the middle of the 1900’s on a small town call Pepperville Beach.

4. Characters: Charles “Chick Benetto”: As a kid, he was forced to choose between his parents “father or mother”. He is a strong, cocky athlete, muscular and tall; a good looking guy. Played Baseball, always took for granted his mothers love and adore his dad.

Pauline “Posey Benetto”: Chick’s mother. She had large, almond-shaped eyes, dark and creamy complexion, indeed a very attractive and candid woman, whom after being abandoned by her husband, shortly after looses her nurse career, struggled to raise a family alone. She worked as hairdresser and had to clean apartments to support a family. She died at the age of 79 years of a heart attack.

Leonard “Len Benetto: Chick’s father. Len had an athletic figure, very good-looking and stubborn man. Used to play baseball, and enlisted in the World War II. Also an owner of his own business.

Catherine: Chick’s wife. She met Chick during college, when he was singing “This could be the start of something good.

Maria: Chick’s daughter. She was born at the tail end of chick’s failed career. She had long straight hair and full lips, just like her mother. She took on sports writing job at college.

Roberta: Chick’s young sister. As a kid, always very sweet girl that had a penchant for wearing ballerina shoes everywhere she goes. When she became fifteen, she suggests that her mother remarry.

5. Summary:

This story is about “Charley Benetto”, unhappy, facing the pain of his unfulfilled dreams, lost his family and job due to his depression and alcohol abuse decided one day to kill himself. Everything begins when he chooses to end his life going back to his hometown when and where a car accident happened. Charley after the accident, on a near death experienced went thru a journey to his troubled past, snapshots of different memories and moments came to his life when somehow the spirit of his already dead mother came to join him, and makes him see in a different prospective all his life, realizing the times that she did stood for him and the time that he did not stoop for her. He also discovers how little he knew about his mother and how she managed to keep a family together through hard times with dedication and love. Charley Benetto, a kid, a man, a pro ex-baseball player, ex-husband and father who after all only wanted to save his own life, trying to make things right again with those he loved for one more day and specially his beloved mother.

6. Personal opinion of the book:

This is a great story example about love, family relationships and what parent’s true love means, especially when it comes from your mother. It is about what they are capable to do for their children to protect them even on the hardest and difficult situations and events in life. This book will remind us how our parents should be treated, respected and loved, we are here because of them, and we should never forget that. Sometimes, we take things for granted and that is when we have to step aside from our box and appreciate the value of they have done for us, and never wait until the last minute to express what we feel, correct or just makes things right and have to wish a one more day, because we might not have that opportunity again.