There’s a part of me – a big part of me – that loves hunting through discount tables and used book stores, looking for treasures long abandoned by people unknown, or those never discovered and left to be sold for bargain prices. But there’s another part of me that is saddened by the amazing things people pour their heart into that never get discovered, and are left to be found by people willing to gamble a few dollars on forgotten and unwanted books.
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is a book I’ve seen a million times with no consideration of reading. It’s the kind of book that I immediately assume I wouldn’t enjoy, based on nothing more than my preconceived ideas of what the story is about. But if anyone asked me to describe why I wouldn’t like the book – I wouldn’t be able to offer any viable explanation. The cover just didn’t look like something I would read.
But the audio book was on Audible as part of their plus catalogue – and that often decides what my next book will be.
A.J. Fikry owns a bookstore on the fictional Alice Island in Massachusetts. His wife is recently dead, and he’s a cantankerous snob. Amelia Lohman works for a small book publisher, and she travels to bookstores around the country attempting to increase the sales of the publisher’s catalogue. She meets A.J. for the first time, and, in his grief, the meeting does not go well. Not long after this, however, he finds himself taking care of a small child who he eventually adopts. This child, Maya, understandably changes his life.
That’s kind of the basic plot. A man entering his middle ages has his life changed by a child he never expected to have.
Let me be clear: I loved this book. Even though the irascible older man who is somehow still lovable has been done countless times, I’m still always a sucker for it.
Gabrielle Zevin also wrote Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which I understand is a highly regarded book. I don’t know much about it, but if it has the same charm, I might give it a try some time.
