The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin
2/60 | Started 01.05.23 • Finished 01.13.23 | 5 stars
[Late posting this one as I was on a significant wait list for the hard copy.]
I just love this book.
But me-also-thinks my latter-day reaction speaks to the necessity of encountering stories at precisely the right time in our lives. Remember, Maya: the things we respond to at twenty are not necessarily the same things we will respond to at forty and vice versa. This is true in books and also in life.
It's beautiful and heartbreaking and lovely and painful. There's delight and sorrow. But above all there's love. A love only found between a father and a daughter that are placed together by "fate." The love found in words expressed on a page.
“Friedman gets at something specific about what it is to lose someone. How it isn’t one thing. He writes about how you lose and lose and lose.”
I can't say too much. It's easy to give the story away as it jumps right into the action. Pick this one up and you won't regret it.
“I love you,” she says with a resigned shrug. “I want to leave you with something cleverer than that, but it’s all I know.”