This is an amazing writer. Both books I've read by him - this, and The Five People You Meet in Heaven - will have you feeling the story he tells; the scenes he describes; and the emotions of the characters. Thanks to Ariel for this recommendation (at least, the author - this was the only book by him that the Sandy Springs Public Library had on the shelf :)For One More Day is about a man named Charley (a.k.a. Chick) whose life has steadily gone downhill ... and after his only daughter doesn't invite him to her wedding, he decides to commit suicide. Check out this beautiful writing ...
"Apparently, through my drinking, depression, and generally bad behavior, I had become too great an embarrassment to risk at a family function. Instead, I had received that letter and two photographs, one of my daughter and her new husband, hands clasped, standing under a tree; the other of the happy couple toasting with champagne.
It was the second photo that broke me. One of those candid snapshots that catches a moment never to be repeated, the two of them laughing in midsentence, tipping their glasses. It was so innocent and so young and so ... past tense. It seemed to taunt my absence ... This time, my little girl would not take my hand and comfort me; she belonged to someone else. I was not being asked. I was being notified."
In the chaos after Charley's suicide attempt fails, he encounters his mother - who had died eight years earlier - and Charley gets the chance to fix things with her, seek forgiveness, and learn family secrets, like about why his father left when he was younger - for which he had always blamed his mother.
A fantastic read for anyone - and it will especially touch those who grew up in a single parent home.
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