Book Review

By Derryll White

Zevin, Gabrielle (2014). The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.

I received an Advanced Reading Copy of this book and was immediately struck by the pages of glowing endorsements, not from authors but from independent bookstore staff. “Something close to home,” I thought. “As a staffer at Lotus Books I will bond with this volume.”

Not the case however. I vacillated on this novel like no other in my memory of reviewing fiction. I liked it! I didn’t like it! “Oh, that was great. Why do I have tears in the corners of my eyes?”

Gabrielle Zevin pushes all the buttons of someone who works in a bookstore and hand sells books. She looks at the hardships, at the cash flow problems, at the author events, at the impact of e-readers. I would find myself thinking “trite, boring,” and then she would zing me with something personal. The loss of a life partner hit me as I read, as did the incredible desire one has to communicate, and then the discovery of a new partner with all of that associated tension and trauma.

And always the author had me asking myself “Why do I read? Why do I think books are important?” Then she looks insightfully at that community of people who love books, clearly indicating that really there is NO other community of consequence. She looks at why it is absolutely necessary that independent bookstores, such as Lotus Books in Cranbrook, need to survive. It is a touching dialogue.

So many times in reading this book I decided that I really didn’t like ‘The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry,’ and yet I kept reading. In the end I was left with the feeling that I had learned something deeply important about myself. Although not necessarily the type of book I like, I will be happy to offer it to almost any customer and say “You might really like to try this one!”

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Excerpts from the novel:

REALITY – They had only ever discussed books but what, in this life, is more personal than books?

WRITERS – Despite the fact that he loves books and owns a bookstore, A.J. does not particularly care for writers. He finds them to be unkempt, narcissistic, silly, and generally unpleasant people. He tries to avoid meeting the ones who’ve written books he loves for fear that they will ruin their books for him.

BOOKS – “I loathe collectible books anyway. People getting all moony over particular paper carcasses. It’s the ideas that matter, man. The words.”

THE STORY – …he doesn’t believe in random acts. He is a reader, and what he believes in is construction. If a gun appears in act one, that gun had better go off by act three. That is to say, what A.J. believes in is narrative.

LIFE – 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?

HAPPINESS – When did she get so negative? Their happiness is not her unhappiness. Unless it is. What if there is only an equal ratio of happiness to unhappiness in the world at any given time? She should be nicer. It’s a well-known fact that hate shows up on your face once you’re forty.

LOVE – “Maya, we are what we love. We are that we love…. 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.”

– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them.  When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.

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