If you have not read "Island Bookstore", you must have heard the widely quoted sentence "No one is an island", and this famous saying comes from this.
The cover of this novel uses a large area of ??red paint to outline the foreground of red doors and windows. There is even a bookshelf with three or two books on the corner of the door, which is also that retro red color.
A small wooden plaque "A NOVEL" hanging on the door is clearly visible. Through the doors, windows and the corner of the open door, the light is dim and unclear, like an old man who has lived here for many years, quiet but not abject, profound and tender.
The author Garrison Zevin is an American writer and screenwriter. At the age of 14, he started working as a "music critic" and gradually became a writer. "Small Island Bookstore" is his eighth novel, and won the American Independent Booksellers' Choice Award in 2014.
The whole book is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on Maya's appearance warming AJ and AJ holding hands with Amelia. The second part is mainly about solving the mystery of Maya's life experience.
The beginning of the novel: AJ, a 39-year-old widowed bookstore owner, has no children and lives alone, and the bookstore business is also sluggish. After working in the bookstore during the day, he borrowed wine to get drunk, seeking the tenderness of his deceased wife in his dream.
Amelia, the new book sales representative from Knightley Publishing House, replaces the previous Harvey and comes to deal with AJ's business. However, the two parties broke up because of AJ's poor living conditions and Amelia's lack of understanding of AJ's reading preferences.
One day, AJ got drunk as usual and took out the valuable collection of "Timur". After sobering up, "Timur" disappeared, and the report was unsuccessful.
A J felt that the only valuable treasure had been stolen and there was nothing for the thief to worry about, so he stopped locking the front door during his long-distance run in the morning.
A J only thinks that nothing can be taken away by others, but never thinks about what others will leave behind. One day, AJ returned to the store after a long run and unexpectedly found a two-year-old and one-month-old little girl in the children's book section.
There is a small note pinned to the Elmo doll next to the little girl, which states the little girl's situation and the fact that she was abandoned.
After AJ called the police, he got along very well with the little girl named "Maya" during the weekend while waiting for the shelter to go to work. Maya is very talkative, a cute little girl who is friendly and demands love. She is very smart and loves to read, although she can only read picture books now.
Although AJ knew nothing about taking care of children, with the help of his sister-in-law Ismay and the police chief and friend Lambias, he started clumsily changing diapers, then feeding and bathing, and gradually became familiar with it. The attitude towards life has changed.
When Maya said "I love you" to AJ, AJ said: "Little girl, you shouldn't spread your love everywhere so easily. We get along very well and happily, at least for me It’s an unforgettable seventy-two hours, but some people are destined not to stay in your life forever.”
“I’m worried about you. If you love everyone, most of the time you will be emotionally hurt in the end. . I think that in your short life, you feel like you have known me for a long time. Your view of time is actually distorted, Maya. But when I get older, you will soon forget that you have known me. ”
The next afternoon, the body of Maya’s mother Mary Wallace was found on the coast. She committed suicide, and she was a complete stranger to Alice Island. When the welfare agency personnel came to pick up Maya, AJ already felt that taking care of Maya was the responsibility entrusted to him by Maya's mother.
After AJ decided to adopt Maya, curious island residents, especially mothers, often came to the bookstore to see Maya and explain to AJ how to take care of her. The bachelor Lambiase often took care of Maya on the grounds of reading, and gradually fell in love with reading from the book list recommended by AJ, but most of them were crime novels.
At a non-christening party for Maya, Ismay suffered her fifth miscarriage, and her husband, Daniel, a writer, was not by her side.
While Maya was suffering from chickenpox, AJ accidentally read "The Flowers of Late Night" which she had rejected - the first book recommended by Amelia, and fell in love with it, even though she had already rejected it. Four years have passed.
In the process of reviewing and discussing books, AJ and Amelia gradually discovered the importance of being connected and sharing passion.
When Amelia sprains her ankle, AJ goes to visit Maya under the guise of taking her to see garden animals. Although Maya didn't like it, she still tried her best to get AJ and Amelia to open up. In order to make Amelia happy, AJ carefully arranged an exchange meeting for the authors of "Late Flowers Bloom". Although the scene was a mess, Amelia understood that AJ was sincere and finally got married.
In the second part, the main line is the breakdown of Ismay's marriage to Daniel and his joining hands with Lambiase, which leads to the mystery of Maya's life experience. Ismay was stimulated at AJ's wedding and committed suicide by throwing herself into the sea, but was stopped by Lambiase and rejected his pursuit. Ismay drives Daniel home, but unfortunately gets into a car accident and suffers severe leg injuries, and Daniel disappears from Ismay's world forever.
Maya wrote a short story "A Day at the Beach" based on her memory of her mother Amelia and won an award. Lambiase asked his friend AJ for help and gradually got together with Ismay. As they deepen their relationship step by step, they discover the secrets between "Tamerlane" and Maya: Maya is the illegitimate daughter of Daniel and a book lover named Marianne, and "Tamerlane" is the hush money paid to prevent Marianne from appearing again. , but because the source was unknown and difficult to sell, Maya used a crayon to damage the cover, which reduced the value, and she did not dare to return it.
AJ fainted during a morning jog and was found to have a rare brain tumor. After Lambias learned of the situation, he persuaded Ismay to return "Tamerlane" in the form of a letter. A J used the money from the auction of "Timur" to undergo surgery, but failed to save his life. In the process of losing his speech function step by step, AJ tried to express the meaning of "love", but failed to achieve it.
"Maya, we become what we love. It is love that makes us. We are not what we collect, what we get, what we read, as long as we live, we are love, we The things we love, the people we love." These are the last words A J wants to send to Maya.
Amelia wanted to raise money for Maya to go to high school, but she didn’t have the experience to run a bookstore, so she sold the bookstore. Ismay and Lambiase did not want the "Island Bookstore" to disappear, so they changed their retirement plans and continued to operate and expand the "Island Bookstore" so that it could continue to survive for a long time under the impact of electronic books. for a long time.
At the end of the novel, Amelia left Knightley Publishing House, and Jacob, the new sales representative, started his sales trip with high spirits just like Amelia back then. .
In a trance, time seemed to go back to the past. It was still that small island bookstore. After so many years of ups and downs, it seemed that everything was still there, and everyone was still living in the same way as before.
This novel is far more important than the simple "love" we are talking about. It is full of life inspirations about reading, parenting, choosing a spouse, etc.
About reading: In the diary written by A J to Maya, there is the following field: "Reading novels needs to be read at the stage of life that suits it. Remember, Maya: we have *** at the age of twenty Something that sounds good may not sound good when you are forty years old, and vice versa, as is the case with books, and so is life."
Regarding parenting: First, although Ismay is a child. School teacher, but in comparison, Maya likes to get along with AJ and Lambiase, because they do not treat Maya as a child and do not talk to her like a child. In this way, as a smart child, he also knows how not to embarrass his father, understands his father's thoughts, provides encouragement and comfort, and even tells white lies.
Secondly, although AJ lacks the experience of being a father, he has enough patience to take care of Maya's daily life. When Maya goes through adolescence and needs independent space, he can also take good care of her.
Regarding mate selection: Nicole and Ismay have completely different criteria for mate selection. “Ismay chose to go to a college because she liked the photo in the brochure; to marry a man because he looked so handsome in a tuxedo; to teach because she saw a movie about an inspiring person. The movie. "The handsome Daniel is a scumbag who keeps cheating, but the ugly AJ is always loyal to love.
Amelia also provided a reference for choosing a spouse. She gave up the "American hero" and chose a bookstore owner with a spiritual connection, and her correctness was verified after marriage. choose. "Start with appearance, be loyal to character, and focus on talent." "Soul" and "thought" are far more important than "appearance" and "body".
There are no big ups and downs in the author's writing, everything is very ordinary and not outstanding. Even the car accident between Nicole and Daniel and the death of the protagonist AJ are not sloppy. Ordinariness, kindness and love can redeem the loneliness in life, warm you and me, and rewrite the story of an island.
"Because we are afraid from the bottom of our hearts that we are not worthy of being loved, we stay alone. However, it is because we are alone that we think that we are not worthy of being loved.
Yes One day, you don’t know when, you will drive on the road. One day, you don’t know when, you will meet him (her).
You will be loved because you are the first in this life. You will never be alone again."
When I close the book, I am even more attached to the warmth of this world.