The Storied Life of A J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
| The Storied Life of A J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: Pleasantly heartwarming, but this tale of a bookseller and the building of his unusual family circumstance does spend too much effort preaching to the converted when it comes to praising other literature. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 256 | Date: March 2014 |
| Publisher: Little, Brown | |
| ISBN: 9781408704615 | |
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A J Fikry is not having a good time. He's lost his wife to a car crash, and he's not making that much money. The book store he runs, stuck out on a limb on a quiet island community, is too remote to turn a profit year-round, and he has just dismissed the latest publisher's rep to turn up at his door, partly because her previous counterpart, an inconsequential part of A J's life when all is said and done, had died and he didn't know about it. But his bad time is about to get a lot worse, as the one thing he owns worth the most – a rare book, more valuable than his house, his business, anything – is about to vanish. Which bizarrely will cause several major changes to his one-person household…
This has charming, whimsy, quirky, et al, written all over it. A J is but one element of this – the old-before-his-time, stuck-in-his-ways bookseller, whose proper name we never learn. The community he lives in is bound to be populated with odd people – the author sleeping around behind the back of A J's sister-in-law-as-was, the cop learning to appreciate books, as long as they're crime titles. But the major changes, which the blurb feels free to mention and I don't, are definitely on the serious side – or at least, they are to a point.
There is a definite sense of humour to this – quite a wide-ranging one, all told, from the failed expectation, the comedy of manners, to the in-joke about books (the customer who stayed up all night reading The Book Thief but demanded a refund due to its narrator). There is a levity amongst the sadness, and on the whole, the balance is brilliant, with a swirl of emotion to make book groups sit up and declare this a real, meaty read, and for those who read but a dozen books a year to feel they get their money's worth.
But to me, the whole seemed a little too arch. The quirkiness was better than it could have been, but the comedy, as a rule, struck me as too, well, bookish. That and more certainly felt like the author was preaching to the converted. I know it's stupid and rude of me to say that books can't be about books or their sellers or readers, and so I'm not saying that; I just felt there was a little too much that was cliquey, clubby, chummy, about the whimsy in these pages. What's more, the 'collected works', as they quickly prove to be, are in fact a personal selection of short stories, chosen by A J, with notes for a future reader. This literary mixtape is a charming idea, putting forceful chapter titles to the work, as well as adding depth, but boy does it give the game away. There is foreshadowing and there is foreshadowing, and as heartwarming as the book proves to be at times, as clever as the construct maybe, as enjoyable as time spent with the characters can become, I ended up predicting far too much of this to make it the standout killer the author intended.
I dare say the publisher's agent with this on their books would sell many a copy, for it does do a lot of what it wants. It has a proper story – a very unfashionably complete, charming story arc if you don't mind a few surprises, sadness and mysteries along the way. It features its callbacks of details it deems important whereas you'd forgotten all about them in a very unshowy way, but it also wears its heart on its sleeve too broadly. Books are great, for they bring so much to one's life, is the moral. The platitudinous nature, and the in-jokes, and the rampant guessability where it features, all make this something nice and welcome, but no more.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
To see how a book about book lovers can not seem preachy, turn to The Library of Unrequited Love by Sophie Divry. Readers of either or both would probably also enjoy The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom a lot, too. We've also enjoyed Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Storied Life of A J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Storied Life of A J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin at Amazon.com.
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