C. S. Richardson

"A man can see a hundred women, lust for a thousand more, but it is one scent that will open his eyes and turn him to love."

Ambrose Zephyr is a contented man, he shares a book-laden Victorian house with his loving wife, Zappora Ashkenazi, the love of his life. Zappora (Zipper) simply describes Ambrose as the only man she has ever loved. Without adjustment. They both have fulfilling jobs but no children because they simply didn't want any.

Then, just as he is turning fifty, Ambrose is told by his doctor that he has an unnamed illness and only one month to live. Reeling from the news, he and Zipper embark on a whirlwind expedition to the places he has most loved or has always longed to visit, from A to Z, Amsterdam to Zanzibar. As they travel to these romantic destinations, Zipper struggles to deal with the grand unfairness of their circumstances, whilst Ambrose reflects on his life.

'The End of The Alphabet' is a tender, intimate story of an ordinary life defined by an extraordinary love but is truth little more than a short story, (my copy only had 123 pages, wide margins and double spacing). Despite or perhaps because of its brevity Richardson’s prose has an honesty almost poetic in nature. This book is a very touching exploration of the nature of love, loss, and life which only took me about two hours to read. A simply beautiful piece of writing.… (mere)

This is a gem of a book - perfect for reflection on the cusp of a new year as it honors the past in so many aspects but also demands priorities for time ahead. Sweet, melancholy, whimsical this book details the true love relationship between Ambrose Zephyr and Zappora (Zipper) Ashkenazi over the course of a meaningful month. There is so much in this little book — alphabetical word play, Love, friendship, travel, time, and big questions about the meaning of life especially lived as a couple. A book blurb by Chris Cleave says it best: “An alphabet of the language of lovers, a beautiful fable of art and mortality: elegant, wise, and humane. I like to think of the happiness this book will bring. I’m sure it will be given as a gift between lovers, and will inspire many journeys — geographical and emotional.”… (mere)

If you wish to fill a couple of hours of your life with a nicely written weepie, this is for you. Is it a novella? It is 140 small pages, large margins, double-spaced text. I've certainly read lots of 'short stories' this length.

It does consider a dilemma I've often wondered about. There are those quick deaths - one moment you are vacuuming or cooking dinner, next moment finito la musica. Death displaces life and you scarcely even have time to register it. There are the long ones, where you know for years what is going to happen and death simply becomes part of life, which goes on much as it had before.

Then there is finding out you have one month give or take, as the doctor says to Ambrose. I tried to make this sound better: 40,320 minutes. What do you do then? It makes me weep just thinking about it. Again. I had a friend to whom this happened. We were on the phone, we asked him to dinner, he said he couldn't for precisely that reason. He had 30 days, that was his news. There were so many things for which there was no longer time. We did see him for a coffee visit one morning during that 30 days, but in retrospect I feel terribly guilty about having taken that time from him, we just weren't important enough in his life to have justified 60 of those 40,320 minutes. Maybe, since you very devoutly believed in God despite this shitty situation, you will be reading this and if so, accept my apology, Richard.

This is Ambrose's account of those thirty days he discovered he had left. Completely different from my friend Richard's. Just as heart-breaking.

… (mere)