How important or meaningful is the structure of the story built around the anniversary of the same date each year?

Anniversaries can be so important as a way to measure the progress, or lack thereof, in our lives. And, some dates have so much meaning. In the story, looking into their lives one day each year, sometimes accentuated significant change and sometimes seemed only to say "same thing, different year". We could measure the time and the lingering effect of the death of Dexter's mother. I was blown away by the quote from Tess following Emma's accident. Now the story continues with that added meaning to the "One Day".

I liked the idea of looking at one day, though every once in awhile I did want to know more about what had happened to the characters during the year. I also thought the quote from Tess was a reminder that events can add weight and significance to a day for anyone, and often is shared by many people. It reminded me of the recent death of a friend of mine who was loved by many in many different walks of life. As with the death of loved ones, I know that the day we lost her is an emotional day for all who knew her.

I, too, liked the structure of the book and found it to be a creative and unique way to show how characters and relationships develop over many years. It did seem a bit of a stretch, however, that so many momentous things happened on the same day. It would have been more realistic to throw in a couple July 15th's where nothing much happened.