The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin
**SPOILERS BELOW**
“We aren’t the things we collect, acquire, read. We are, for as long as we are here, only love. The things we loved. The people we loved. And these, I think these really do live on.”
I have heard a lot of great things about this book so my expectations for it were very high going in. To be honest, the book was sitting at about a 4 star rating for me until the ending. I thoroughly enjoyed how this book wrapped up. But starting with the beginning, *Tamerlane* was an item that was connecting our main character to his past, so much so that he couldn’t move on with his life. When it goes missing, we suddenly watch our grumpy sunshine character slowly come back to life. It was as if he was letting that one item determine who he was: a widowed, depressed, bookstore owner with nothing to look forward to. When Maya showed up, I was a little turned away because I, for some reason, typically don’t like when children are introduced in books. Most of the time they seem to just get in the way and be a burden to the main characters and their relationship. However, in this case, it happened to unfold in the complete opposite way. I absolutely loved the contrast between our grumpy, sarcastic, and off putting MMC, and this very intellectual, unbothered, and happy little girl. Watching their relationship develop and him start to really care for the girl made my heart melt. As the story goes on we learn more and more about our main character, watch his relationship with his daughter unfold, watch as he falls in love with the girl he’s been interested in for years, and see how the people in his life show up for him. This book is not a religious book, but as a Christian, a lot of themes stood out to me that resonate with my faith.
Here are some of the main takeaways from this book:
1. It is a great example of how what goes around comes back around. What’s gone has not been lost. Yes, he lost his wife and an unborn child. But, he was able to adopt a child and find love again. Hope is not lost even when we feel like we are at rock bottom, but we have to be willing to see those blessings when they are in front of us and take that leap of faith.
2. Our comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there. A.J. was pushed out of his comfort zone many times. When his book goes missing, when a child shows up in his bookstore and takes on the father role, when he shoots his shots with Amelia, when he hosts his first author, when he proposes, when he learns he has brain cancer, when he has surgery for said brain cancer, and ultimately, when he can no longer use words to communicate with his girls. However, we see A.J. turn into this social, funny, charismatic, and loving person before our eyes.
3. The importance of community. It was truly heart warming to watch A.J.’s community step up to help him in times of need. The officers when they searched for his missing copy of *Tamerlane,* the women and mother’s who showed up to help him care for Maya, Ismay and Daniel (they both needed some serious help themselves) but they still showed up for him, and Amelia, whose charming personality and forgiving, motherly nature, helped him to love again.
4. The importance of literature and our words. Our words, what we say, what we write, and what we read, have the power to change lives. There are a few quotes towards the end of this book that support this. Words connect us. They make us feel more, they can make us feel less in whatever way is needed.
5. We are that we love. We are love. We are not the things we collect, we are not the things we enjoy, we are not what we do. None of that defines who we are. We are defined by who we love, how we love, and who loves us. No job, no title, no award, no position, no amount of money, no social status, nothing like that, has the power to define who we are.
I could say more but I’ll leave it at this for now, will sit with this book a little more in case anything else comes to mind.
Good job Gabrielle Zevin. Thank you for reminding me of these solid truths, and for the love and the tears that resulted in reading your work.