Customer Reviews

The End of the Alphabet

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The End of the Alphabet is a great title for this short novel. Ambrose Zephyr is obsessed with organizing his life about the letters of the alphabet. Whether his name influenced that obsession, I don't know. But A.Z. meets and marries Z.A. (Zappora Ashkenazi). I wonder about the potential names of future children (there aren't any).

"Healthy" Ambrose is given a hard prediction. He will live for no more than 30 days. What is a man to do? What is a wife to do? What is a couple to do!

They decide to travel, inspired by the alphabet.

Author C.S. Richardson switches back and forth between man and woman, past and present, thundering toward a conclusion you know is coming but yearn for an alternative ending. Both A.Z. and Z.A. are nice people, with a good life. Is this unfair? Yes, but endings are endings, in life and in stories.

Well edited, nicely formatted, and poetically written, this is a pleasant novel to read, although you will be finished in less than two hours.

It is a reminder to finish life fulfilling your dreams. Remember this.

This small book will be one of my all time favorite reads. I can't describe this book adequately because it is one of those books that depending on where you are in your life - you will get a different meaning. Ambrose Zephyr a fiftish year old man who is suddenly diagnosed with an unnamed illness that will cause his death in 30 days. He has spontaneously decided that he will take his wife, the passion of his very simply ordered life, Zappora Ashkanazi (ZA to his AZ), also known as Zipper, on a trip that will encompass all the letters of the alphabet. As they travel the story goes back and forth from their present adventure to their life before the diagnosis and how two people can see the same thing in different ways. When the end comes, and it is inevitable, what story will Zipper have to tell.

This is CS Richardson's first book although the back flap tells us that he is a very well regarded book designer and has won numberous awards. As a first book I enjoyed it. I reminded me in the writing of Steve Martin's Shopgirl novella.

The novel follows husband and wife Ambrose and Zipper as they travel the world in a whirlwind of urgency to make up for lost time. It is a book about love as much as loving however it left me wanting more for it seemed to me that there were huge aspects of their lives that were left unexplored. As I read I longed to have more flesh and soul. I wanted to know more about the characters' history and their inner lives but that was all but impossible in the short 150 pages.

Mr Richardson is an excellent writer and this is a worthy first effort. His prose while utilitarian is not so sparse as to render unbelievable and unsympathetic characters.

But he does need to give us more. I only hope that in his subsequent books he treats us to more of his talent.

The End of the Alphabet, by CS Richardson, is a poignant and haunting little tale of love, acceptance, and the unfinished business of life. I picked this novel up about a month ago and set it on one of the heaps of books that lean randomly at the foot of my bookshelves. I snatched it up yesterday morning on the way to work and fell into its charming embrace on the bus downtown. Fortunately, yesterday was a quiet day at work and I read the book straight through. It was a charming tale that captures the elusive prosaic poetry of day to day love. I was absolutely enthralled by the tale of one Ambrose Zephyr - a man in his fiftieth year who is told by his doctor that he has about thirty days to live. He resolves that very night to to spend those last thirty days on a world tour that he has been randomly planning in the back of his mind for most of his life starting with "A is for a portrait in Amsterdam" "B is for Berlin", and so on. The novel is written on fly paper and bubblegum and will stick to your fingers until you finish reading it. It is a soft surprising little fable that in the end reminds one that true love is generally a long conversation wrapped in regret and memory and echoed habit rather than a soaring operatic ode. I recommend this unforgettable little novel as a journey that will keep you guessing at every page.

Steve Vernon

Ambrose Zephyr is 'around' fifty when his doctor tells him he's got a month to live. It's a sure thing. No mistakes. It's a mysterious disease and Ambrose had better get his life in order. But Ambrose has other ideas. He and his beloved wife Zipper pack their bags and travel to the places they've longed to see once again or perhaps for the first time. It's to be a whirlwind trip through the alphabet.

While traveling, Ambrose reflects on his life while Zipper struggles with the unfair hand they've been dealt. They both saturate themselves with their surroundings, their life and their love for each other in preparation for the inevitable.

CS Richardson's The End of the Alphabet is more of a novella than a novel. Its brevity leaves the reader feeling the story is unfinished. Huge gaping holes exist because there are not enough pages to be able to give the entire story. It's told in the narrative and while the prose is visual and beautiful, I was left feeling I'd been told rather than the more exciting 'showed.'

Armchair Interviews says: If you want a beautifully written snapshot of Ambrose and Zipper's world, The End of the Alphabet is for you. If you want detail and completeness, it's lacking.

For anyone who has experienced the love of the right person and the loss of that person, this book resonates with the depth of that loss. It was the perfect reminder of why I am so fortunate to have shared a love like Ambrose and Zipper's.

Ambrose Zephryr and Zappora "Zipper' Ashkenazi are a married couple with very little time remaining. After hearing the news of his impending death, Ambrose decides he wants to travel. The couple begin their journey with place names starting with the letter `A,' then `B,' and so on.

This very small book (only 119 pages) was meant to be little. It is indeed indicative of the fleeting amount of time the couple have left to spend together.

I appreciated this novella for its poignancy and tenderness, and its sad portrait of the utter helplessness of its characters. It is a book that can be read in one sitting and/or re-read again and again.

I was thrilled to find this book at my public library, but I read and read and read without really bonding with the story or the characters.

Yes, I finished it, but only because it was short.

A short, poignant read. Occasionally I felt confused and lost in the story- where are they and who is doing what? However, I feel that may have been intentional, to add to the experience the characters are going through. A quick, nicely written love story, without being overdramatic, cliched or sappy.

I have , thankfully , never seen the movie Bucket List. I have , thankfully , read The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson. The ads for Bucket List left me thinking "How crass , it is sure to be a hit.". The End of the Alphabet is the opposite. It is beautiful. It is a beautiful love story. It is a beautiful love story and an A to Z journey.
Ambrose Zephyr and his wife Zappora Ashkenazi , known as Zipper, are on a journey to visit all the places they have dreamed of going before Ambrose dies. They do so in an A to Z fashion. The End of the Alphabet is such a sweetly told tale not of just the journey to these places but of the journey that is their lives and the special love they have. The last sentence is so beautiful I cryed lovely tears.

As an interesting side note there is a passage that describes me better than I or anyone else ever has or could. Ambrose is a young boy and he is drawing the alphabet depicting each letter. " .....A is for Anaconda, B is for booby , C is for codfish.........When his father asked why A wasn't apple or B wasn't bird or C wasn't cat , young Ambrose explained that things didn't always have to be the way you'd expect.
Everybody does apples and birds and cats , he said , and it's boring to do what everybody else does........"