39 pages • 1 hour read
The Storied Life Of Aj Fikry
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Themes
The Overlap between Literature and Life
Throughout The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, the characters often find that life is art or vice versa. The characters struggle with the question, “Where does life begin and fiction end?” For instance, Amelia’s mother implies that fiction ruined Amelia’s chances for love, that Amelia is applying unrealistic expectations to potential suitors because of the standards set by the books Amelia reads. Her mother also believes that Amelia cannot distinguish between fiction and real life and that as a result she will never find a good man. Amelia embodies this conflation again when she self-identifies as a “winter title” (a book with a small chance of success).
Amelia is not the only character who has trouble distinguishing between life and literature. At one point, A.J. asks himself “What, in this life, is more personal than books?” (21). At this point in A.J.’s existence, nothing gets closer to who he is than books; he sees them as a better mirror of himself than the people around him.
Perhaps the most egregious conflation of the two worlds comes during the time after Nic’s accident, when reality has suddenly taken on a whole new tone for A.J. He compares his role in his wife’s accident to similar incidents in literature, trying to graft some preconceived plot onto what’s clearly just a case of bad timing and luck (25-27). A.J. even admits that he “doesn’t believe in random acts. He is a reader and what he believes in is narrative construction” (68).
Even though A.J. becomes a more rational thinker when not in the spotlight of grief, he maintains a very loose boundary between life and literature throughout the book. Even as he lays dying, he wants to cry out to Maya, “My life is in these books,” forever melding the two entities into one (295).
The Power of Books
Perhaps the most prevalent theme of this novel is the great power that books can wield over human lives. The slogan of A.J.’s shop reads, “No Man Is an Island. Every Book Is a World” (9). Very often, especially in the beginning chapters, that literary world is another world, an escape. A.J. escapes into books after he loses Nic, turning inward and using them for comfort and connection while outwardly behaving brutishly. The problem is that we cannot live in that other world, as Amelia’s mother makes plain when she accuses novels of ruining Amelia “for real men” and implies that Amelia has unrealistically set her heart on what the fictional world promises romantically (9).
Amelia isn’t the only woman in this novel who succumbs to the fictional reality of books. Marian’s choice to leave her child in a bookstore demonstrates this theme. Marian loved books so much that she thought they could save her life; when she finds her life upended, she uses a bookstore to save her daughter. Ismay also experiences the power of books, telling Chief Lambiase that some of the books she teaches “are like old friends” (244). Jenny, the woman from the foster agency who visits A.J. and Maya, also operates under the influence of books, having chosen her career because of a fascination with orphan stories.
Books also have the power to work as litmus tests for determining what kind of person someone is. A.J. interrogates all his dates about their reading choices, thinking this will open up some window into their true selves. Chief Lambiase also uses character summary to connect with Ismay, playing off the conventions of literary genres to flatter her (246).
Islands (and Isolation)
The name of A.J.’s bookstore, “Island Books,” is revealing. In a literal sense, the bookstore exists on an island, which makes building a strong business difficult; it’s hard to get people to travel to and from the island, and tourists come and go. A.J.’s one employee could be considered an island, as she often runs the floor alone while A.J. takes care of the behind-the-scenes work.
A.J. too functions as an island to himself much of the time. His emotional life is solitary. He works and lives alone, without ever reaching out to family. He buries himself in a narrow selection of highly polished books. As an island, A.J. is not successful. He is self-destructive, rude, unsanitary, and an alcoholic. He often turns away help, giving the appearance that he would prefer to remain stuck in his own ways. It is only when A.J. allows Maya into his life that he begins to acknowledge the benefits of community and connection. He asks for help, from both Ismay and Lambiase, to raise his daughter. A.J. fully dashes the island concept when he allows Amelia into his life and builds a family.
At the end of his life, A.J. attempts to become an island once more. He tries not to tell his family about his terminal illness so the burden will be his alone. However, it is because he reaches out to Chief Lambiase that he is able to afford the surgery he needs, and it is because he includes his family in his experience that he dies peacefully surrounded by love. In the end, while living in isolation and undergoing radiation, A.J. realizes the foolishness of trying to live without others. He concludes, “A man is not his own island. Or at least a man is not optimally his own island” (291).
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