For someone who loves books to a borderline-clinically obsessive magnitude, books where writers are the main characters are a treat. In Amy Falls Down by Jincy Willett, the main character, Amy Gallup, is a sixty-something retired writer who finds amazing inspiration, wit, and vitality after suffering a severe concussion when she falls onto a birdbath. Even though her concussion renders her nonsensical, She immediately has an interview with a young, local reporter who is not able to make sense of her strange answers—Amy at many points tries to convince her she has a bionic leg, for instance. The article nonetheless makes ripples in the literary community and would eventually snowball Amy into literary fame once again.

Amy is certainly an interesting character. She is the sort of no-nonsense, dry humor sort of woman whose adamancy about living her life the way she wants to is slightly familiar to any reader. There are parts about her that make complete sense (a complete love for her basset hound) and parts that make no sense (a horrible fear of airplanes). This fear of airplanes really does come out of nowhere. It is thrown in to the book sort of haphazardly over halfway through the novel, and it does not really come from anywhere, although later on you will realize why it had to be there (no spoilers, I promise).

The plot did not go in the direction I thought it would. I expected one ending from about a third of the way through the book, and I was so committed to expecting it, that when it did not come, I was confused. For whatever reason, I had convinced myself the story was foreshadowing one thing, and it may have, but my ending did not come to fruition regardless. But in reality, this book felt very real. The events were foreshadowed, but unexpectedly twisted in a way you would not have thought, which is pretty much how life manages to work itself out anyway.

Final conclusion: I think my ending was better, but I am not sharing due to spoiler reasons. However, that does not mean this was not a fantastic book in its own right. It was compelling (which is kind of Amy’s joke), imaginative, and downright funny. It was not thought provoking in a worldly way, but it still made me introspective, which is nothing to shake a stick at. Overall a great read, and a fun way to think about books while reading a book.