The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry

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Average customer rating 4.5 (4 comments)

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Zevin's story is romantic, sweet, fun, with a touch of mystery enough to engage your mind, and a dash of heartbreak for perfect balance. Her characters are well-crafted--I especially loved her description of Amelia as a "big dandelion of a girl." Read it, you will feel nice inside.

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Some books are just more "bookish" than others. I know that sounds crazy--how can books be more or less bookish?--but it is true. This is a book for people who love books, and who understand the power of literature. A.J. Fikry is a prickly fellow when we first meet him, still reeling from the death of his wife several years earlier, and determined to drink himself to death. Then, things change and, due to circumstance, he begins to let a few more people into his life. I liked that A.J. was rather prickly when we first met him and, even though his life circumstances change dramatically, he still maintains a bit of that prickliness. Too often, characters make an unrealistic transformations where they go from angry, bitter, what have you to bundles of joy and rainbows. A.J. is not like that....he is who he is. I loved the fictional island of Alice. Zevin created a quaint town and brought it to life without going all Lake Wobegon on it (Lake Wobegon is great, but a town as "full" of that would not have worked there). There were a few "townsfolk" who were brought into the main narrative, which was just enough for a novel of this scope. I was immediately sucked into the narrative in a way where I was happy to just go along with what has happening,so I didn't think too much about what was coming next in the plot. Because of that, I personally didn't find the plot predictable, but I can't speak for others. There were a couple minor things that bugged me. Some of the time jumps were just a bit too long for my tastes. I would have preferred more time jumps of less time that less time jumps of greater time. There was also a character, who was set up to be a major player, that was cut out of the plot rather abruptly and, in my opinion, in a clumsy manner. Still, these complaints are minor and they don't change the fact that this is one of the most enjoyable books I've read all year. I would recommend it to any reader.

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Very enjoyable, quick read. Sweet book. A book for readers. I especially enjoyed the fact that most of the books mentioned were ones I knew. Good characters. Made me want to visit Alice. I had some trouble following the passage of time, but it didn't disrupt the flow too much.

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I loved this book, after I read it at the library I went out and bought it and read it again. I am going to leave a more detailed comment on your other page for this book, where there are three comments already. I was hoping someone who reads this could answer this question for me. The cover with the red storefront is perfect for this book and also quite lovely to look at. It makes me think of Island Books without knowing it is their storefront. The library book and the book I bought have the other cover which I find quite ugly. I almost didn't read the book because of it. Who makes these decisions? Which cover came first. We see this often and those of us not in the industry often wonder why they change and if there is anything we can do to get the cover we prefer when ordering books? Silly comment to you guys I guess. But I've often wondered.