The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin
2014 / 273 pages
read by Scott Brick 7h 2m
rating: 7 / contemp fiction
(read and listened)
A.J. Fikry is a bookstore owner, a widower and a budding alcoholic. One night one of his very most valuable books goes missing – is stolen. That’s very disturbing on top of everything else, but when he finds a 2-year old left on the floor of his shop well …
Except for a bit of bogging down about half or two-thirds, the story travels along nicely with a few twists and the characters are intersting, but this is a book with a “message” rather than an exploration of ideas. Not only that, the literary references are over the top. The end result is a cute story with a rather pretentious gloss.