While most of the book is written in the third person, here AJ gets a chance to talk to us directly. That open-door policy lets in a lot more than well-meaning relatives, things that will turn life around for the man who keeps a rare volume of Poe in a climate-controlled case but hates the uber-cheerful Muppet Elmo because he’s “too needy.” Zevin never explicitly tells us what AJ is like but rather shows us through unique-and often humorous-details like these.ĪJ’s personality also shines through in the “shelf talkers” scattered throughout the narrative. Just because it’s a small town doesn’t mean nothing ever happens, however. Others seem to know what you need before you do. She’ll let herself into your apartment above the bookstore because you never lock the front door. He’ll call your sister-in-law to help you. If there’s an accident, it’s probably Chief Lambiase you’ll talk to. Although Zevin’s story is not historical fiction, it carries an old-fashioned, small-town feel. Readers who delighted in the eccentric neighbors in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, will get the same feeling from AJ Fikry’s community at Alice Island in a small, tucked-away corner of New England. Open this book and find an affectionate portrait of a curmudgeonly bookseller who faces loss through literature, with surprising results. Open the doors at bookseller AJ Fikry’s Island Books and find tragedy, comedy, romance, mystery, and more. Eccentric book banter tickles the reader, bringing a bookseller to life through humor and dialogue.Įven the stories have stories in Gabrielle Zevin’s thoroughly charming novel, The Storied Life of A.

The storied life of aj fikry review