Millard Salter's Last Day

Jacob M. Appel

Nov 2017 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

In the spirit of the New York Times bestselling A Man Called Ove, this is the heartwarming story of a man who decides to end his life before he’s too old—but then begins to reconsider when he faces complications from the world around him.

In an effort to delay the frailty and isolation that comes with old age, psychiatrist Millard Salter decides to kill himself by the end of the day—but first he has to tie up some loose ends. These include a tête-à-tête with his youngest son, Lysander, who at forty-three has yet to hold down a paying job; an unscheduled rendezvous with his first wife, Carol, whom he hasn’t seen in twenty-seven years; and a brief visit to the grave of his second wife, Isabelle. Complicating this plan though is Delilah, the widow with whom he has fallen in love in the past few months. As Millard begins to wrap up his life, he confronts a lifetime of challenges during a single day—and discovers that his family has a big surprise for him as well.

Ratings and reviews

The blurb for this one does a good job of summing up the premise, although some things are a bit misleading. As a psychiatrist, our main character does have an up close and personal viewpoint on the affects that aging can have on the mind and body, and like most of us, he doesn't want to go through that or be a burden. He takes it a step further and decides to end his life before the inevitable happens. While the book is well-written, and at times humorous, I had a hard time connecting to this character. The story also requires a bit of a suspension of belief on some of things that happened as well as the possibility that all of it happened in the span of one day. I did continue reading, mostly because I kept expecting someone or something to stop the intended suicide and I did have some curiosity about that aspect. I won't give that part away, but I will say that with so many distracting side-stories and a character that I found less than engaging, this one was just too easy to set aside for later. I didn't find that compelling aspect in a story that makes you want to read just one more chapter before turning out the light, making this one just an okay read for me.

A DAY IN A LIFE. Millard Salter's Last Day is the first book by Jacob M. Appel so I wasn't sure what to expect. What I found was a humorous tale about this thing called life. This is a standalone book. The book blurb adequately describes the storyline so I'm not going to repeat that all of that info here. The events in this book take place over a short timeline of one day. While I thought that the storyline would be predictable, I was surprised by twists and turns. This book isn't great but is unusual enough to make it worth reading.

About the author

Jacob M. Appel is the author of many novels and short story collections including The Man Who Wouldn’t Stand Up, Scouting for the Reaper, Phoning Home, Einstein’s Beach House, and Millard Salter’s Last Day. His short fiction has appeared in many literary journals including Agni, Colorado Review, Gettysburg Review, and more. His prose has won many awards including the Boston Review Short Fiction Competition and the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award. His stories have also been shortlisted for the O. Henry Award and the Best American Short Stories. He has taught most recently at Brown University, at the Gotham Writers’ Workshop in New York City, and at Yeshiva College, where he was the writer-in-residence. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Orlando Sentinel, The Providence Journal, and many regional newspapers.