The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin is a maudlin, overly sentimental affair with a contrived, predictable plot riddled with clichés and tropes that it embraces rather than trying to subvert. At times it is so full of melodrama that it reads like the bookish equivalent of a film that is trying its very best to bait an Oscar.⠀
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And good grief did I buy into it hook, line, and sentimental sinker like a sucker. Did I love every single page of it all.⠀
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Every description of this book makes it sound insufferable, but Zevin — much like she does to her characters — pulls the rug out from under us by positively filling it up to the brim with a charming, endearing and painfully human cast that you fall in love with almost immediately. I loved the experience of reading this story, and can easily see myself revisiting over the years.
ricardo reading 