23 May 2018

Review: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin is about A.J. Fikry who owns and lives above a bookshop on an island. Containing ample references to books and authors, this has been a favourite of book-lovers since it was released in 2013, but I only had a lukewarm response to it.

At times it read like a cozy mystery (baby left in the bookstore) and I didn't really care terribly much about A.J.'s journey through life, finding the supporting characters of Maya, Amelia and the Chief far more compelling.

The highlight for me was when A.J. tells a new sales rep what kinds of books he likes. He finds it easier to tell her what he doesn't like, and it really cracked me up. I enjoyed reading it several times over.
“Like,” he repeats with distaste. “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. I do not like children’s books, especially ones with orphans, and I prefer not to clutter my shelves with young adult. I do not like anything over four hundred pages or under one hundred fifty pages. I am repulsed by ghostwritten novels by reality television stars, celebrity picture books, sports memoirs, movie tie-in editions, novelty items, and - I imagine this goes without saying - vampires. I rarely stock debuts, chick lit, poetry, or translations. I would prefer not to stock series, but the demands of my pocketbook require me to. For your part, you needn’t tell me about the ‘next big series’ until it is ensconced on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Above all, Ms. Loman, I find slim literary memoirs about little old men whose little old wives have died from cancer to be absolutely intolerable. No matter how well written the sales rep claims they are. No matter how many copies you promise I’ll sell on Mother’s Day.”
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is recommended for book-lovers and anyone who has ever nurtured a desire at some point to live in a bookshop. Let's face it, that's most of us isn't it?

My rating = ***

Carpe Librum!

Would you like to comment?

  1. Great Review and I love that excerpt. I'm sure I have this on my shelf somewhere. Must dig it out and read it, I think I'd enjoy this story.

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  2. Thanks Veronica, I love that quote too and have come back to it often now that it's easily accessible on my blog :-) Let me know if you end up reading it.

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Thanks for your comment, Carpe Librum!