[gmw]

‘What I mean is you probably haven’t experienced much of what Mr Friedman describes. I look at you, and having read the book, I wonder what made you respond to it.’

‘My, Mr Fikry, that’s a very personal question.’ She sips at the last of her second Queequeg. ‘The main reason I loved the book was the quality of the writing, of course.’

‘Of course. But that isn’t enough.’

-- Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2014)