Tag: amelia

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

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

“The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry” is a contemporary fictional story about a book shop owner and how he handles the unexpected twists and turns that life has in store for him. If you are a reader who enjoys mulling over and applying what you read to your real life, you may really like this book. The main characters are all about that — learning lessons from books.

“Her mother likes to say that novels have ruined Amelia for real men. This observation insults Amelia because it implies that she only reads books with classically romantic heroes. She does not mind the occasional novel with a romantic hero but her reading tastes are far more varied than that.” pg 12, ebook.

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There’s some romance, some mystery, some heart break in this tale. There’s also fantastic book analysis of classic works written by the character A.J. Fikry that add dimension to the story as it unfolds. It is through these mini book reviews (and his actions) that the reader gets to know A.J., who is otherwise a rather introverted and sometimes curmudgeonly character.

“Despite the fact that he loves books and owns a bookstore, A.J. does not particularly care for writers. He finds them to be unkempt, narcissistic, silly and generally unpleasant people. He tries to avoid meeting the ones who’ve written books he loves for fear that they will ruin their books for him.” pg 39, ebook.

But he’s not unpleasant to the extent that I didn’t like him. In fact, A.J. was my favorite character. I felt like he lashed out at people or kept them at a distance because he was hurting. I think at one point or another in our lives, we’ve all been there.

“So it’s basically like a book party.” “Yeah, sure.” Lambiase has never been to a book party. “I hate book parties,” A.J. says. “But you run the bookstore,” Lambiase says. “It’s a problem,” A.J. admits. pgs 74-75, ebook

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There’s plenty of relate-able moments in The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. The characters feel real with all of their imperfections and dreams.

The thing is, though, sometimes people tell you you’re on one kind of trip, but it turns out to be another kind of trip, you know what I mean? I just want to know what kind of trip I’m on. Are we going to see topiaries, or are we going to see something else? Maybe that lady friend of yours, say? pg 118, ebook.

The trip this story takes you on is unexpected, very much like life. Who know where we’re all headed and what we’re going to do along the way. But, at the very least, I hope we all get to read as much enjoyable fiction as we want to before the trip ends.

Recommended for readers who enjoy contemporary fiction and book clubs.

Have you heard they’re making this into a film?

Thanks for reading!

The Mermaid by Christina Henry

The Mermaid by Christina Henry

The Mermaid begins like most other mermaid tales. A creature from the sea is caught in a fisherman’s net. With one glance, the mermaid falls in love with him and decides to leave the ocean.

But her eyes had seen inside him the way that women’s eyes do, and his loneliness snaked into her, and she was sorry for it, for that loneliness caught her more surely than the net.” pg 4

Predictably, their life together goes well, until one day it doesn’t.

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Then, one of P.T. Barnum’s right-hand men, Levi Lyman, comes seeking a real mermaid, or at least a woman with a reputation of being a mermaid, for the showman’s museum.

“What he’d caught in his net had been far more alien, a creature covered in silver scales all over, with webbing between its fingers and teeth much sharper than any human’s. pg 9

Barnum is cast as the villain of this tale, a grasping coin-counter with little regard for the feelings of people, let alone magical creatures like a mermaid: “Barnum privately thought that if the woman was really a mermaid — not likely, as Levi had said, but there was always hope — she wouldn’t be going anywhere. There wasn’t a chance in heaven or hell that Barnum would let something like that go once he had it.” pg 43

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Coincidentally, the day before I picked up this book, I had the chance to watch “The Greatest Showman“, a musical film about P.T. Barnum’s life, museum, and the people he hired to fill its halls.

I enjoyed the music and choreography, but felt that a man as complex as P.T. Barnum couldn’t fairly be depicted in a 90-minute film. There was a darker side to Barnum’s story — the way he fleeced people out of their money with “humbugs” and, in a particular, his treatment of a woman named Joice Heth.

P.T. Barnum is a purveyor of wonders, a seller of miracles, a showman of the first order.” pg 58

In this book, Christina Henry doesn’t shy from these shadows in Barnum’s life, but I didn’t feel like he was a particularly scary antagonist.

I suppose the true struggle in The Mermaid could be Amelia’s difficulty in maintaining her mermaid nature in a human world. However, that story has been told before.

She meant to do the proper human thing, to behave the right way, but they were not as easy with each other as she’d thought they would be.” pg 153

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Henry didn’t put a twist to this fantasy tale as she so successfully managed to do with Alice, her dark re-telling of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I confess, I was rather disappointed.

I wanted a unique mermaid story. Instead, I got a fairly standard interpretation of a classic.

“I left because I wanted something I didn’t have, and once I loved Jack and lost him, I wasn’t the same as I was before. Love does that. It changes you in ways that can’t be undone.” pg 177.

The Mermaid is a charming little tale, for what it’s worth. Just don’t expect too much out of it. It’s not a humbug, but I wouldn’t call it a wonder of the world either.

Here are some of my other reviews of books by Christina Henry:

Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook by Christina Henry

The Red Queen by Christina Henry

And thanks for reading!