The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - June CC Book Club Selection

[NJTheatreMOM]

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@Mary13

Does it count if you know you read a book on the Pulitzer Prize list, but can’t remember a darn thing about it? I find that occurring more and more often as the years roll by…

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<p>Yes! I didn’t include All the King’s Men in my count, although I’m pretty sure I read it long ago. I’ve seen the movie several times on TV since then, and that has sort of displaced the memories I <em>think</em> I have of the book.</p>

<p>I also didn’t include Train Dreams, which was a finalist one of the years when no prize was given. That was a book I really liked and do remember.</p>

[ignatius]

<p>^^^ Yes. I did count The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk. I know I read it: I remember … hmm, a mutiny. It was in my Herman Wouk phase … The Winds of War and War and Remembrance which I actually remember better.</p>

<p>I no longer count books I read in high school. If I haven’t read it for pleasure - since high school - I just don’t count it. Catcher in the Rye is an exception to that rule; I hated it enough to have it count for a life time.</p>

[NJTheatreMOM]

<p>I read The Caine Mutiny in high school and actually remember it pretty well. I recall that one of the characters mentioned Finnigan’s Wake, which I had never heard of it and thought it must be a book about a ship.</p>

<p>I also read Wouk’s Marjorie Morningstar at around the same time.</p>

[ignatius]

<p>I think an e-reader makes reading a more solitary pastime. At least that’s happened around here. Two neighbors and I passed books back and forth every week or so: a phone call, a walk down the street with a couple books to exchange, a visit. One neighbor bought an e-reader and the exchanges stopped. If we end up calling about something else, we’ll talk books briefly but definitely not like we did before the e-reader. </p>

[Mary13]

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@ignatius

I did count The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk. I know I read it: I remember … hmm, a mutiny.

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<p>LOL, sounds about right. I posted this several years ago on a CC thread, but it’s worth a re-read. Always makes me feel better anyway: <a href=“The Plot Escapes Me - The New York Times”>The Plot Escapes Me - The New York Times;

<p>Reading it again, I was struck by this:</p>

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Did this mean that it hadn’t been a waste of time to read all those books, even if I seemingly couldn’t remember what was in them?</p>

<p>“It’s there,” Wolf said. “You are the sum of it all.”

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<p>How like A.J.'s comments at the end of the novel: </p>

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In the end, we are collected works.</p>

<p>He has read enough to know there are no collections where each story is perfect. Some hits. Some misses. If you’re lucky, a standout. And in the end, people only really remember the standouts anyway, and they don’t remember those for very long (p. 249).

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[NJTheatreMOM]

<p>Mary13, I like that essay “The Plot Escapes Me.” Thanks for posting the link.</p>

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“There is a difference,” she said, “between immediate recall of facts and an ability to recall a gestalt of knowledge. We can’t retrieve the specifics, but to adapt a phrase of William James’s, there is a wraith of memory. The information you get from a book is stored in networks. We have an extraordinary capacity for storage, and much more is there than you realize. It is in some way working on you even though you aren’t thinking about it.”

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<p>I think it’s the same with college courses. I remember very little detailed information from many of the courses I took, but I know they changed me and left “a gestalt of knowledge.”</p>

[SouthJerseyChessMom]

<p>Mary13 thank you for reposting that link- I had forgotten it </p>

<p>As fate would have it, NJ theatermom’s comment about Marilynn Robinson’s depressing book,Housekeeping sent me on a search to learn more, and I discovered the wealth of things on You Tube. I feel like I found a mother lode of enrichment.</p>

<p>I listened to a Kansas City One Book interview with Marilynn, and during the interview, she admits that she ** completely forgets what she has written **. It’s one thing to forget what one has read, but ** to forget what one has written! ** !
<a href=“A Conversation with Marilynne Robinson - May 12, 2010 - YouTube”>A Conversation with Marilynne Robinson - May 12, 2010 - YouTube;

<p>Anyone care to attend Yale literature class, to refresh your memory about books you’ve forgotten -
<a href=“15. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping - YouTube”>15. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping - YouTube;

<p>PS NJ TheaterMom, I understand how housekeeping was " painfully" sad.</p>

[mathmom]

<p>I used to have a quote on my dorm room door which said “No, but I’ve seen the movie.” I’d be up for * Lonesome Dove* , I bought it years ago when it was new, intending to read it, but never got around to it. I love western movies thanks to a film class in college.</p>

<p>That was so interesting about “What feels like the world”. I often get mad at author’s when they leave the ending open - but this one didn’t bother me at all. I don’t think the girl sails over the vault, but I didn’t feel like we needed to know for sure.</p>

<p>I think all the hand-wringing about e-books is overrated. I don’t own a kindle, but I can imagine getting one some day - especially as my eyes get worse. I do like books, and I like having a house with lots of books surrounding me. I’d hate for them to disappear all together.</p>

<p>Catching up on some of the earlier links… I love this imagined A. J. Fricky review of her own book:

Despite its modest size and the liberties its author takes, *The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry * has some lovely moments. Though my taste runs to books that are less sentimental than this one, I’m sure my wife, my daughter, and my best friend the cop will
love this book, and I will heartily recommend it to them.

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[Mary13]

<p>^ Perfect!</p>

[ignatius]

<p>I’ve read all the short stories that A.J. referenced before each chapter. I have definite likes and dislikes but will post those later. For now I’m confused. Why did A.J. write this about “The Bookseller”:

Your dad relates to the characters. It has meaning to me."

The two characters are grifters; the bookstore serves as little more than a front for their unsavory business. Okay story but why … other than the title?</p>

<p>And on the picky side here - A.J. writes about “Ironhead”:

Parents with heads made from pumpkins have a baby with a head made from iron.

The point is that the head is an iron rather than made from iron. I think? I understand why A.J. includes it. I think? Definitely I understand the reasoning behind “Bullet to the Brain.” I do like both of these short stories despite the weirdness of the first and hatefulness of the second.</p>

[Mary13]

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@shyparentalunit

I read the book, then read a number of the short stories and reread the associated chapters. I felt that it made me think more deeply about the characters and their motivations.

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@ignatius

I’ve read all the short stories that A.J. referenced before each chapter. I have definite likes and dislikes

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<p>Same here on both of the above.</p>

<p>I particularly liked “A Conversation with My Father” by Grace Paley? It’s nice (not gruesome at all). Kathryn Cope writes, “Of all the short stories referenced in The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, this is the one that really lies at the heart of the novel.”</p>

<p>Per Cope, in addition to the parallels between Zevin’s characters and Paley’s characters (dying father wishes “to impart all the knowledge he had gained about literature and life” to his daughter), “Paley’s story also draws a comparison between the brevity of life and the short story format – a theme that Zevin plays on throughout her novel.”</p>

<p>I could imagine A.J. and Maya having such a conversation (had he lived longer).</p>

<p>ignatius, you are absolutely right about the boy’s head being an iron, not made of iron. I noticed that immediately. I doubt it was a mistake on Zevin’s part—far too obvious. I chalked it up to the increasing difficulty A.J. had writing his paragraphs. </p>

<p>Do you remember, for example, his comment in the intro to the Bananafish chapter: </p>

<p><a href=“Side%20note:%20%20It%20has%20taken%20me%20all%20afternoon%20to%20write%20this%20sentence.%20%20My%20brain%20kept%20making%20hash%20of%20the%20phrase%20%E2%80%9Cuniversally%20acknowledged%E2%80%9D”>quote</a>. (p. 187)

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<p>He is struggling mightily to put together his sentences, and I saw the “Ironhead” error as an example of that. </p>

[NJTheatreMOM]

<p>No idea about why Fikry would say that about “The Bookseller.”</p>

<p>“Bullet to the Brain” was one of my favorite stories. I liked how the guy flashed back to a moment when he was charmed by an “ungrammatical” utterance, as opposed to his later stance of sneering at everything.</p>

[Mary13]

<p>

@ignatius

Why did A.J. write this about “The Bookseller”: “Your dad relates to the characters. It has meaning to me."</p>

<p>The two characters are grifters; the bookstore serves as little more than a front for their unsavory business. Okay story but why … other than the title?

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<p>Mr. Buggage and Miss Tottle were indeed horrible. A.J. couldn’t possibly relate to them as booksellers (except perhaps in the way that Mr. Buggage generally considered customers to be a nuisance).</p>

<p>But the description of the place—now that’s something I could see appealing to A.J. :</p>

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If you peered through the window itself you would see that the walls were lined with books from floor to ceiling, and if you then pushed open the door and went in, you would immediately be assailed by that subtle odour of old cardboard and tea leaves that pervades the interiors of every second-hand bookshop in London. Nearly always, you would find two or three customers in there, silent shadowy figures in overcoats and trilby hats rummaging among the sets of Jane Austen and Trollope and Dickens and George Eliot, hoping to find a first edition.

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<p>If you consider the shop itself to be a character, then it makes more sense that the story resonates with A.J. His illness is advanced at this point and The Bookseller is the final story. Maybe that image of “place” is what has remained with him. </p>

<p>Still, it is an odd story to end with – but then A.J.’s tastes run to the dark side, so perhaps it’s fitting. Maybe he doesn’t relate to the characters as booksellers, but as typically awful representatives of the human race, because despite all his good qualities, being a misanthrope is part of A.J.'s personality, too.</p>

[ignatius]

<p>^^^ I can see the description of the bookstore appealing to A.J. but feel less charitable at the moment regarding the short story’s inclusion. I think the title may have been the deciding factor along with the fact that you can’t easily get your hands on the content. I hate to think of a shrug and a “Who’s really going to bother to look for it?” but wonder if that’s not the case - same for “Ironhead.” The other stories just seem to work so well that “The Bookseller” stands out the opposite way.</p>

<p>Is there nothing in your “cheat sheet” book - those of you who have one - that clarifies?</p>

[SouthJerseyChessMom]

<p>Lol- " cheat sheet" book !
I assumed some of the older short stories may have been selected to avoid some copyright issues. </p>

[mathmom]

<p>I thought that perhaps A.J. Fricky sees those booksellers as the sort of people he could have become if Maya had not come into his life and let him rediscover love. They are his dark side. (Though I don’t see him as someone who was motivated by money the way they were.) But maybe something about the way he doted on Tamerlane felt that way to him? I think it works as an inclusion.</p>

[mathmom]

<p>I counted The Caine Mutiny, though I am pretty sure I only remember it because I also saw the movie. Though I’ve read a lot of seafaring books. Loved all the Hornblower books, and more recently read all the Master and Commander books.</p>

[PlantMom]

<p>I’ve never read Lonesome Dove, but I’d like to. H and I stopped at the bookstore today for a coffee. They had none in stock, and the manager said upon pointing to the music section and ever-growing toy department, “hey, we only have so much shelf space for books.” </p>

<p>I read “Bullet in the Brain” this afternoon. The main character was so obnoxious that I felt little remorse for his demise! I did like the mechanics of the story, and how his history was smashed into a microsecond at the end of his life. I also liked the sentiment of his remembrance in the transition from life to death, “they is”. And then, he wasn’t. The mechanics of the short story form are really incredible, how so much can be fit into so few words. I’m awed by the ability of good poets, as well :)</p>

<p>Did anyone think of E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End when A.J. writes in his final words on “The Bookseller” (pg. 247), To connect, my dear little nerd. Only connect." I a similar phrase initiates the Forster book. On wikiquotes, I found this from chapter 22 of Howard’s End,

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.

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[ignatius]

<p>^^^ PlantMom - love your thoughts re “Bullet in the Brain” </p>

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@Mary

A.J.’s tastes run to the dark side, so perhaps it’s fitting. […] despite all his good qualities, being a misanthrope is part of A.J.'s personality, too.

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@mathmom

I thought that perhaps A.J. Fricky sees those booksellers as the sort of people he could have become if Maya had not come into his life and let him rediscover love. They are his dark side.

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<p>Okay, I can go with that. My less-than-charitable thoughts have now been scrubbed.</p>

[Mary13]

<p>^^ Also love PlantMom’s find re Howard’s End!</p>

<p>No help from the cheat sheet on “The Bookseller.” Kathryn Cope has virtually nothing to say about that particular story. Maybe she was stumped, too. In fact, I wonder if she even read it. In her synopsis, she kept referring to Mr. Buggage as “Mr. Baggage.” I may ask for my $2.99 back. ;)</p>

<p>Actually, Cope did have some good observations re “Ironhead.” She writes that, like “What Feels Like the World,” “Ironhead” “explores parental love and the powerlessness parents feel when they cannot help their children.” She also theorizes that the pumpkinhead/ironhead parent and child are a subtle allusion to the fact that A.J. and Maya are “both black but not the same kind of black” (as the rude customer points out on p. 83). </p>