The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: A Novel

Richard Seltzer

You have to read this

""Every word the right one and exactly where it should be. That's basically the highest compliment I can give." p. 92 That's what one of the characters in this book says about a book she loves. Those words apply to this book as well. I told my best friend/partner, "You have to read this." On one level, this is a love story about two people who love books. "When I read a book, I want you to be reading it at the same time. I want to know what would Amelia think of it. I want you to be mine. I can promise you books and conversation and all my heart..." p. 154 In addition. it is a book about books and what books reveal about the people who enjoy them. "People tell boring lies about politics, God, and love. You know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question, 'what is your favorite book?'" p. 87 In addition to the story itself, I enjoyed the book recommendations. I just ordered stories by Alice Munro and the Jackson Brodie series by Kate Atkinson and Tamerlane by Poe. Other passages I highlighted: "A good marriage is, at least, one part conspiracy." p. 155 "It is the secret fear that we are unlovable that isolates us... but it is only because we are isolated that we think we are unlovable. Someday, you do not know when, you will be driving down a road. And someday, you do not know when, he, or indeed she, will be there. You will be loved because for the first time in your life, you will truly not be alone. You will have chosen to not be alone." p. 157 "We aren't the things we collect, acquire, read. We are, for as long as we are here, only love. The things we loved. The people we loved. And these, I think these really do live on." p. 251 "No man is an island; every book is a world. p. 8 "They had only ever discussed books but what, in this life, is more personal than books?" p. 8 "The thing I find most promising about your short story is that it shows empathy. Why do people do what they do? This is the hallmark of great writing." p. 187 ["

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July 18, 2022 Verified Purchase

John B. Rogers

Lovely story, marvelous characterization

"It was a struggle to read The Storied Life of A J Fikry because of the format I chose, but it was a more than worthwhile effort. Zevin weaves a wonderful story by creating marvelous characters. Other than A J, it seems at first that we’re heading toward caricature (Maya, Lambiase), but the characters surprise us. And the plot, likewise, seems headed toward a love affair between AJ and Amelia that is entirely predictable, but each of them is strong, so the predictability takes a back seat to the multi-faceted people. The twist (spoiler) is heart-rending but beautiful, because AJ, who starts in the prickly shell of of a literature esthete, keeps the good parts of shell but loses the rough edges through love. And then there’s Maya, the standard precocious child that inhabits so many books … except she turns out to be a lovely person. And Lambiase the local cop who develops a taste for literature. Alice Island could have been Martha's Vineyard (the hill and the truck that kills Daniel) or Nantucket (the store being"right in the center of the main strip (...) the second or third place you come to after you get off the ferry"). But it has the feel of the Cape. And then there’s the literature part. The book is a writer-nerd’s pleasure. The countless arguments in my critique groups about what belongs in which genre and what is good writing, often carried out over wine and beer, are played out in AJ’s cranky dismissal of Amelia on her first visit: ““How about I tell you what I don’t like? I do not like postmodernism, postapocalyptic settings, postmortem narrators, or magic realism. I rarely respond to supposedly clever formal devices, multiple fonts, pictures where they shouldn’t be—basically, gimmicks of any kind. I find literary fiction about the Holocaust or any other major world tragedy to be distasteful—nonfiction only, please. I do not like genre mash-ups à la the literary detective novel or the literary fantasy. Literary should be literary, and genre should be genre, and crossbreeding rarely results in anything satisfying.” The writing was good and clear. A bit hard to follow for mechanical reasons (see below) and because point of view wandered a bit between omniscient and close third person. In addition to being well-written, it was an easy, short, tear-jerking read. And then there was the excitement of trying to read it. That Amazon cares not a whit about the material it provides was evident. I need an e-book, and Amazon was willing to give me one … free. Except what Amazon gave me was a cover and a demand for $2.99 from a little bookstore in New Jersey. The file I got had most of Zevin’s words in it, but presented as if they’d gone through a Cuisinart. Sentences jammed together, making it hard to determine who was talking. Clearly a ripped off copy, presumably a copyright violation. I read it anyway and enjoyed it. ["

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January 5, 2023 Verified Purchase

Mary Drew

A Charming Story of a Bookstore and its Persnickety Owner

"The literary charm of Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader, the engaging characters of Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows' The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a love story as piquant as that in Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Blurbs, as the title character of this novel says, "are the blood diamonds of publishing," and this sort of hype sets the reader up for a letdown, but in the case of Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A J Fikry you probably won't be disappointed. Based loosely on the story of Silas Marner, The Storied Life of A J Fikry takes place on Alice, an island off the coast of Massachusetts bearing a good deal of resemblance to Martha's Vineyard. A J owns a bookstore there but as the story begins he is depressed at the death of his wife, neglecting the store, increasingly isolated, and heading for bankruptcy. An outsider who married into an old Alice family, he has made no friends and doesn't get along very well with his relatives. He doesn't care to sell anything he doesn't think is first-rate, and that consists mostly of serious literary fiction. Enter a publisher's representative, Amelia Loman. New on the job, she wonders as she makes the lengthy trip, which includes a boring ferry ride from Hyannis on which she paints her nails yellow, whether it's worth her while to visit this bookstore, described by her predecessor as persnickety. The visit does not go well. A J is downright rude to Amelia and disdainful of the books she offers on her winter list. The theft of a valuable first edition of Poe's Tamerlane, the sudden arrival of an unidentified orphan, a book club for police officers only (they are partial to Jeffrey Deaver mass market crime fiction), and a touching short novel by a mysterious and hitherto unknown author all play their parts in shaping life in and around Island Books. The exposition is clever. We learn about A J and the bookstore from the detailed notes Amelia reads on her way to her first visit to Island Books and about Amelia in a phone conversation she has with a man she met on an online dating site. A J's sister-in-law scolds him for his increased drinking and decreased interaction with his customers, revealing the backstory. Each chapter has a short story title that suggests what is coming: "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz," "The Luck of Roaring Camp," "A Perfect Day for Bananafish." Short comments by AJF on each of these stories leads each chapter in a format seemingly intended for a shelf sign to help the potential reader. But we soon realize the customer is not the reader AJF has in mind. A reader's copy was provided to me by the publisher. I liked it so much I bought myself a paper copy of the book. ["

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April 1, 2014 Verified Purchase

chibilee02

Has It's Charm But Wanted To Like It More

"As a bookworm, to read a book that celebrates all that entails about being one, can be both interesting and entertaining. There’s also something comforting knowing that there are others out in the world (reality and fictional based) who are in the same boat as you. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry I think is one of those books who does a great job of capturing the quirkiness and charm of us whose reading and books make up a big portion of who we are and our lives. From the get-go, it’s quite obvious the book is going to center around books and reading. It’s in every nook and cranny in the story, from the characters themselves to the plot, one cannot escape the obvious. For anyone else, it may seem to be overkill or confusing. But to those who shares in A.J., Maya, Amelia and company’s passion, it’s par for the course and in many ways, reflective of our own feelings and quirkiness. That is where the book’s charm comes from. It’s easy to see parts of ourselves within these characters who share the same passion as we do. It’s something that’s celebrated and not used to have people stand apart from the general populous. In this book, if you are NOT a reader, then you are the one left out of the loop. With all that said, the overall work left me wanting more. I just felt like the story moved at a fast pace where the author, Gabrielle Zevin, just coasted along on some of the finer details that would’ve added more depth to the story. I would’ve loved to have a deeper exploration of A.J.’s unique personality (I feel the book would’ve benefited if it was in first pov of A.J.) especially since his is an interesting mix of surly, conceited and likeability. I wanted to know the origins or at least how his thinking process worked. As it is, I spent a good portion of the beginning not really liking him which affected my feelings on the book (fortunately he became more charming the further I read). I also was caught off guard by some of the revelations later on in the story (e.g. Tamerlane, Ismay/Daniel/Marian/Maya connection, A.J.’s lifelong condition). To me, they just seemed to come out of nowhere, as if Zevin almost forgot about the events in the beginning and decided to provide explanations to them. They happened abruptly and I had to shift my focus to try to fit the new information into what I have known. If there little clues, mild mentions or something written throughout the story that let the reader know that something is not right and unfinished business still exists then perhaps everything else won’t seem so sudden and out of the blue. I’ve heard about this book for quite a while and how many people loved it. I wanted to be one of those people, I wanted to like it more. This book is like thinking you’re seeing something from your peripheral vision, but when you fully turned to look, there’s nothing there. The whole reading experience for me was as if I sort of got what I was reading but in the end I didn’t get the full story. I got the surface but nothing else below. The only thing that made the book interesting were the characters’ love of reading and books. That specific feature made the book a comfortable and relatable read and provided that unique charm that only those of us who shares the same passion for reading and books can understand and appreciate. ["

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January 5, 2016 Verified Purchase

G. Messersmith

Quirky, fun and sweet read for all bibliophiles out there

"Zevin has written a fun and sad novel about a bookstore and its owner. The bookstore is located on a small island off of Massachusetts and is called "Island Books" and owned and operated by one A.J. Fikry. Fikry is depressed, hard to get along with, angry and a literary snob, which makes him very difficult to love and doesn't bring a lot of success to his bookstore. In fact, the bookstore is failing as the novel opens. Further, Fikry tells the book sales rep, Amelia Loman, that he does not like "postmodernism, postapocalyptic settings, postmortem narrators, or magic realism" (13) just to name a few of the literary things he does not like which include children's books and young adult. Fikry is trying to get by after the death of his wife the best he can. He drinks too much and says awful things when he should just be quiet. But then unexpectedly a baby comes into his life and turns everything around. After the baby, Maya, shows up, the novel moves quickly through her growing up and getting ready for college. We get to watch Fikry grow and change and most of all become more accepting. There's a love story included in here but I won't spoil it for you but you will simply love Fikry and his new love. There's a side story about Fikry's sister-in-law and her philandering husband along with the story of Fikry's new best friend, who just happens to be a cop. What makes this novel so wonderful is the story of the bookstore, it's not just used for background here, and each chapter opens with a short written piece by Fikry to his daughter Maya about a novel or short story he has read. One of my favorite of these is written over F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" which reads: "Gimmicky, oddball story of the challenges of owning a town made of diamonds and of the lengths the rich will go to protect their way of life. Fitzgerald is in fine form here. The Great Gatsby is unquestionably dazzling, but that novel occasionally seems overgroomed to me, like a garden topiary. The short-story format is a roomier, messier affair for him. 'Diamond' breathes like an enchanted garden gnome." This is a quirky entertaining novel which is not overly sentimental (though it could have been) and is at times funny, sad, and refreshing. On top of all that it tells about bookstores, bookclubs, books, and people who just love books. I only wish there were more novels out there like this one. ["

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June 20, 2014 Verified Purchase