The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry (Zevin)
(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)
This was a book group selection. The club organizer had revealed that the vote for December book was split 2-2-2, which made me question my decision numerous times before voting. One more vote was cast after mine (I don't know if he know the standings at the moment) and it also went to "Storied Life". It's short and it reads very quickly. I breezed through it in a few days of subway rides, hall duty and and before bed reading. Apparently, there is a movie in production with Christina Hendricks and Lucy Hale.
The chapters are introduced with capsule book or story reviews written by A.J. Fikry to his daughter Maya and are usually about what makes a story good or what makes a writer good. I got a chuckle out of the first one, "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz" because back in the 90s I actually heard an Old-Time-Radio adaptation of it (probably for Suspense, but it might've been a different program), but I never actually knew the origin of the story.
The story opens with Amelia Loman of Knightly Press traveling to by ferry to the lone bookstore of Alice Island, near Hyannis, near Boston, to present the new books in their catalogue. The owner of Island Books, A. J. Fikry, is a cranky, old man (not actually very old) with peculiar tastes who is upset to hear that the last rep is no longer around as he knew A.J.'s tastes. He has certain tastes and won't carry what won't sell. The story then shifts to A.J. who we discover is a widower who is drinking himself to death in the year since his wife's (Nic) death. His sister-in-law, Ismay, checks in on him from time to time. She is married to Daniel, who is a somewhat successful author, whose first book sold well and everyone loves it better than all his later books.
A.J. wakes up one morning after drinking too much to find that the place has been cleaned, but also that someone has stolen his prized copy of Tamerlane, the first work ever published by Edgar Allen Poe, and credited only to "A Bostonian". Only 50 copies were printed, and he likens it to "the Honus Wagner of rare books". I understood that reference, and I pity anyone who didn't get either reference. He reports it to Alice PD officer Lambiase, who looks into it, but other than alerting the auction houses, there isn't much to be done.
A.J. is more depressed by this, seeing that Tamerlane was to be his retirement plan. He takes to not leaving the door locked when he goes for a run (he lives in an apartment above the store) because there is no longer anything worth stealing. He comes back to find that a woman has left a baby named Maya in his care. The mother washes up on the shore a few days later. A.J. ends up adopting the girl and raising her, and in the process becoming a changed man. So much so that he decides that he would like to see if Amelia (who I was wondering whatever happened to) if she'd be interested in dating. She's actually engaged to an American hero ... but that eventually dissolves before they can get married. Ameila and A.J. become a couple and she moves to Alice, even though she'll need to travel a lot.
The store grows a bit and changes, as A.J. stocks more children's books (things other than Elmo, or The Monster at the End of This Book, which is actually about Grover) and starts hosting events. In particular, he hosts an author event for a book that he never gave a chance to but Amelia loved. When he finally read it (four years later), he enjoyed it so much. He wanted this to be a surprise for Amelia and a good time to propose. Well ... there were a lot of surprises that night. But there were still book clubs and events in the store for years after, and the store seemed to thrive despite the coming of ebooks and ereaders.
I did like the reference that the only thing worse than a world with big chain bookstores was a world without them. Those chains (many of which have disappeared in the past 20-30 years -- this is me reporting this) allowed the little stores to carry more of the literary books and fewer of the mass market blockbusters. A small shop can't be all things to all people but it can respond to what the public enjoys, and it can try to persuade the public to try new things. It also helps that Ismay is an English teacher, so if her students need a book, she can tell A.J. to order it.
There was one bit, about halfway through, where the Cops book club were debating loose threads and leaving things unresolved, if ambiguous endings were okay. My takeaway from that section was, okay, I get the feeling we'll hear more about that Tamerlane before this book is over. And we do. And we leaving more about Maya's background.
I enjoyed the book, and it ended as I suppose it should have. I'm going to look for some Christmas-themed stuff to get me in the mood for the holidays, but I already reserved the other book club selection that I was deciding between. Maybe lightning will strike twice.
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