READING: The End of the Alphabet by C. S. Richardson

I've recently found myself reading novellas. It started with Margaret Atwood's The Tent, and then moved on to Stewart O'Nan's Last Night at the Lobster and the book in the title of this post. I'm currently reading The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. These are all things I'm getting from my college's library (we have a very small collection of popular books from the McNaughton book services).

I have to say that I'm quite enamored with the novella in book form. You know you've got a story with some substance to it, but it's also not something you'll need to devote weeks to. The design of all of these books is quite lovely and their size is just perfect for me to hold comfortably one-handed.*

While the Atwood was entertaining, and I'm in love with O'Nan's prose, it was the Richardson book that really hit me. The End of the Alphabet is about a couple, Ambrose Zephyr and his wife Zappora (Zipper) Ashkenazi, who learn that Ambrose has one month left to live. Ambrose decides, rather selfishly, to take his wife on a 26-day whirlwind vacation with each day being a place that starts with the corresponding letter of the alphabet.

Perhaps it's due in some part to how important my own relationship is that the idea of suddenly only having one month left with each other was so compelling. What would you do? How would you act? While there's never enough time for everything you want to do, having a timer get set for you only makes that more poignant.

But there's more to the book than that. You learn a lot about how they love each other. You learn a lot about how much they like each other's company. Each page of this books revels in the strength and vivacity of Ambrose and Zipper's love. For me, I kept seeing bits and bobs of my own relationship as I learned more about this fictional couple.

If you have someone that you care for more than life itself you should do yourself a favor and invest an afternoon into reading this book.**
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*So I can read and drive I presume.

**I enjoyed this book so much that I went and BOUGHT it.