The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Author: Gabrielle Zevin

Publisher: Algonquin Books, 2014 (Hardcover, 258 pages)

Rating: 

Thoughts:

This is one of the sweetest stories I have ever read. Kevin builds a quint island life with a lovely assortment of characters. The relationships that form throughout the story gave me life. I recommend this book if you are looking for something comforting and something to put a smile on your face.

Memorable Quotes:

“Sometimes books don’t find us until the right time.” p. 92

“A.J. walks over to the crime section. He looks across the spines, which are, for the most part, black and red with all capitalized fonts in silvers and whites. An occasional burst of fluorescence breaks up the monotony. A.J. thinks how similar everything in the crime genre looks. Why is any one book different from any other book? They are different A.J. decides, because they are. We have to look inside many. We have to believe. We agree to be disappointed sometimes so that we can be exhilarated every now and again.” p. 237

“The words you can’t find, you borrow.
We read to know we’re not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone. We are not alone.
My life is in these books, he wants to tell her. Read these and know my heart.
We are not quite novels.
The analogy he is looking for is almost there.
We are not quite short stories. At this point, his life is seeming closest to that.
In the end, we are collected works.” p. 249

“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.” p. 251