The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (5 stars, audio, 260 pages) 

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry shows the life that happens in between all the book reviews. Foul-tempered A.J. Fikry is the reclusive bookseller at Island Books, far removed from the world. He has very specific preferences in his reading material, and will brook no argument as he scares away the vendors who come a long way to visit him. In fact, he would hate this book. His wife died, his store is in a sales slump, and his “pension” vanishes overnight, so all he wants to do is drink himself to death. An unexpected surprise promises to breathe life into this exhausted shell of a man.

As a librarian and book reviewer, I am surely the intended reader of this book, and what can I say except that it worked. The literature reviews at the beginning of each chapter, mostly for short stories, set a perfect tone. The author demonstrates clever knowledge of the book business, with funny and true book banter. Potential complaints against it include: too sappy, too gimmicky, too neat. I liked all of those qualities, though. I essentially told my wife the whole story as it progressed, and she was invested in even the second-hand telling. This is a funny, touching story with characters that feel real. It’s familiar, perhaps even too cliched, but it’s still a short and entertaining read that I enjoyed immensely.