#a.j. fikry

[deadpoetsmusings]

‘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.’

[deadpoetsmusings]

This book is a love letter to book lovers. It’s such a treat to read. On an unrelated note, I’ve realized that I’ve gotten into a habit of posting two photos of the same thing because I have a hard time deciding between the two. Yeah, my decision making skills are not what I’m known for. 

[sh-93s]

“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”

Gabrielle Zevin -The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

[sweetasteriaa]

I chanced upon "The Luck of Roaring Camp" again a couple of years ago and I cried so much you'll find that my Dover Thrift Edition is waterlogged.  Methinks I have grown soft in my middle age.  But me-also-thinks my latter-day reaction speaks to the necessity of encountering stories at precisely the right time in our lives.  Remember, Maya:  the things we respond to at twenty are not necessarily the same things we will respond to at forty and vice versa.  This is true in books and also in life.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

[coverspy]

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Gabrielle Zevin (F, 20s, long blond hair, reading while walking to 7 train at Court Sq)

[beingbelgian]

I can promise you books and conversations and all my heart.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin

[spheresr4cubes]

I want to love you.

Just let me love you.

Oh, wait. You can't.

You don't exist.

[smoakingquiver]

The Storied Life..

I just had the pleasure of reading The Storied Life of A.J.Fikry. I have to say it was a book that I could not put down! 

I honestly did not know what the book was about. When I read the synopsis on the book jacket I (foolishly) thought it was a mystery/suspense novel. And I think I should mention now there are significant spoilers ahead. 

The story in itself is about the simple life of a complex man who is thrust into not only mundane situations but some extraordinary ones. What does a man who is on the verge of embracing isolation do when he is handed a baby of a mother who just killed herself? That might seem like the crux of the entire story but there are just so many more layers to the tale. It deals with the transformations and metamorphosis of not just an individual but of what seems to be a rag tag family.   

It begins with a man who is dealing with the loss of the love of his life. He seems to think of her as his connection to other people. As he comes to terms with this loss, he deals with another materialistic loss that seems to shake him out of his reverie. And thus events are set in motion that bring us back to a full circle. 

As the story is narrated the protagonist often uses books as a way to reference and relate to the events that happen to him or others, some more favorable than others. Sometimes his comments are understood sometimes not. But that doesn't seem to deter him from ding it again and again and sticking to his own personality quirks rather than to conform to what seems normal to everyone else. HIs own eccentricities and his almost weirdness is what won my heart! And won him the fair maiden in the book. Even that little sub plot has such a poignant twist that it made me tear up. 

Of course, there were some plots that were predictable as the book progressed (something I think should have been commented about by the protagonist) but those in themselves helped the characters be more accessible to the reader. I think this is what appealed to me the most. As a lover of books, I often do look at events and people and say "it seems like its right out of *this* book!". It was almost like validation when I saw it in print, staring at me from the page, that I felt that like I was not alone. And thats the beauty of a good book. It makes you fall in love with the characters, relate to what they are going through, but it also makes you feel like you can almost relate to your self.