Ok, so I don’t usually tend to do this here, and if people are receptive, maybe I will do it more. So I watch the way culture shifts and mutates in today’s society, and I am congnizant when conglomerates attempt to persuade people to do something, buy something, or feel something. And recently Starbuck’s did two things that I think are suspect albeit interesting. One is promoting the recent film, Akeelah and the Bee, and the other is the recent promotion and sales of Mitch Albom’s For One More Day.

I mentioned this book to a friend tonight, and she said "My Starbucks doesn’t sell books!" And since I am certain that her Starbucks is also my Starbucks, I nodded profusely that yes, they did sell that book there. And I am certain since I recently chatted with the barister about that book. As she took my order, she commented "At least it’s not as sappy as his last two books."

Now mind you, I’ve never wanted to read this guy’s books before, but For One More Day was intriguing. It’s the story of Chick Benetto, a former professional baseball player, whose total brush with fame was winning the pennant with the Pirates, before ultimately losing the Series. After middle age encroaches on Chick, he decides to take his own life after losing both of his parents (in two dissimilar ways), losing his marriage, and not even being invited to his daughter’s recent wedding. Since his mother’s death 8 years earlier, he slowly drank himself to the brink of total despair. For some cosmic reason, Chick decides to visit his parent’s boarded up home one last time before he puts the gun to his head. When he let’s himself into the house that he and his sister never had the heart to sell, he finds food cooking and a stocked house.

As he turns a corner, Chick’s mother is standing there welcoming her son with open arms.

The books continues from there. As the title suggests, Chick has one last day with his mother. A day to watch her work, to talk with her, and to once again be her son. The narrative of this surreal day is enmeshed with short chapters entitled "The Day I stood up for my Mother" or "The Day I did not stand up for my Mother", which shed light on his upbringing and his mother’s strained relationship with his enigmatic and absent father, who earlier during Chick’s life, forced Chick to choose to be a momma’s boy or a father’s boy. He chose his father, but as his mother will point out, a child should never need to choose.

And in this book, Albom chose to write a refreshing, emotionally laden tight novel. He takes few risks until the very end of the book, and has pleasantly moved away from the sappy histrionic drool of his last two tales.