Let's Bust a Recap : The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Ok, book-lovers. I don't generally give star ratings because, let's face it, they're too subjective and my five star book might be your one star book and vice versa. But after reading The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, all I can think is: that was a solid three-star read. Very middle of the road. I just didn't feel that strongly about it one way or the other. 

I picked up my copy of this popular 2014 novel several years ago at The Book Shelter, and, as is usually the case, it has hung around on my shelves since then largely ignored. But this year, the movie adaptation came out on hulu, so my book club and I decided to read it together. 

In The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, we meet our grumpy protagonist—a widowed book store owner on the quaint Alice Island—a little over a year after his wife has died in a car accident. He subsists on crappy frozen dinners, he's given up exercising, and he's slowly drinking himself to death. His plan to sell the bookstore and retire comfortably is shot to pieces when his extremely rare and incredibly valuable copy of Tamerlane is stolen out of his apartment. Thankfully, he has people in his life who genuinely care for him including his late wife's sister Ismay and the island's chief of police Lambiase, and when a mysterious package shows up at Island Books, Fikry is awakened to a new life he couldn't have imagined for himself. 

I liked the premise. The vague blurb on the back cover did not give away the big twist in the mystery package. I loved how each chapter opened with A.J.'s notes on a famous short story and how Zevin used those openers to foreshadow the chapter to come. The literary references throughout the book are great. I don't know, it just didn't all add up somehow. The emotional ending didn't feel earned. It just kindof fell flat for me. Fikry was giving Ove or Eleanor Oliphant. But if I were to grade them, Ove and Eleanor get an A+; Fikry gets a B-. 

The movie was much the same. I thought the script was actually very nicely developed for this to be a solid book-to-screen adaptation, but the acting was not good. (With the possible exception of David Arquette playing Lambiase.) Every character seemed to speak in a monotone, and some even seemed to be reading their lines straight off a cue card. Lucy Hale looked like the exact opposite of how I pictured the plucky book sales rep Amelia. I liked the score but it felt off in the film. Like it was trying to generate the emotional response in the viewer that the actors certainly weren't going to elicit. And the use of green screens was pretty glaringly obvious. The cutest thing in the movie was the physical Island Books storefront. Overall, good adaptation; bad movie. 

What else can I say? Read it, don't read it—whatever. *shrugs* The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is just fine. That's all.