What immediately attracted me to this unusual novel was author Gabrielle Zevin’s technique of beginning each chapter with the title of a famous short story like Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and introducing that segment with a one-page link. Other stories she leads her chapters with include Roald Dahl’s “Lambs to the Slaughter,” “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” (Raymond Carver), and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
Getting to AJ Fikry’s island bookstore is a formidable task that culminates in a ferry ride, but for the new publisher’s representative, Amelia Loman, it’s her job. His destination is a quaint little business called Island Books in which an eccentric owner, AJ Fikry, invests very limited tastes when it comes to selecting the kinds of books he can tolerate. He has a special taste for story collections. Additionally, Mr. Fikry expresses rude behavior towards the stunned Loman, who recently replaced another (deceased) manager with whom he had become comfortable. Fikry’s first meeting with Loman is a disaster, but she is determined to win him over.
Fikry and his late wife had invested in the bookstore (she loved it more than he did). He only has one employee and threatens to fire her one day. She seems indifferent and he doesn’t like her nonchalant way.
As the novella progresses, a rare Poe book is stolen; a baby is abandoned on the premises; and a local policeman who is mainly dedicated to reading mass fiction copies of Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme novels, becomes a godfather and promoter of better reading among his fellow officers. Romance blossoms, mysteries are solved, and tragedy strikes.
Zevin’s dialogue rings true; descriptions of him are peppered with vivid images; and sets the pace of his novel so that the reader’s interest does not wane. Here is an exception:
“Amelia introduces herself (to the single employee, the moody teenager) as a sales rep for Knightley Press, and the teenager, without looking up from the page, vaguely points to the back. ‘AJ is in her office.’ Precarious stacks of ARCs and galleys line the hallway, and Amelia feels the usual flash of despair. The tote bag that is embossed on her shoulder has several editions for AJ’s stacks and a catalog full of other books for her to toss… door to AJ Fikry’s office is closed. Amelia is halfway there when her sweater sleeve catches on one of the stacks, and a hundred books, maybe more, crash to the floor with a mortifying clap of thunder. The door opens and AJ Fikry looks from the wreckage to the dirty blonde giantess, who is frantically trying to re-stack the books. —Amelia Loman. She stacks ten more tomes and half of them collapse. ‘Leave it,’ orders AJ. ‘There is an order to these things. You are not helping. Please go'”.
Another excerpt illustrates his mastery of description (Fikry has been annoyed by his rude treatment of the representative and runs out of the store with non-buying customers): “Finally, he goes up to the attic where he lives. He opens a cardboard box.” of frozen vndaloo (an Indian curry) in the microwave. Nine minutes, according to the instructions on the box. While he is there, he thinks about the girl from Knightley. She looked like a time traveler from 1990s Seattle in her anchor-print wellies and granny dress and fuzzy beige sweater and her shoulder-length hair that looked like it had been cut in the kitchen by her boyfriend By the time he gets back upstairs, the vindaloo is cold again. If he reheats it in that plastic dish, he’ll probably end up with cancer. He carries the plastic tray to the table. The first bite is burning. The second bite is frozen. Dad Bear’s vindaloo and Baby Bear’s vindaloo. He throws the tray against the wall…”
If you like novels about far flung places, baby adoption, bookstores, allusions to famous tales, and whimsical characters, The Storied Life of AJ Fikry is for you.
The novel is alternately sad, ironic, romantic and tragic. It is about a turn in one’s life, selflessness, bonding, acceptance and friendship.
