Days of Books and Roses

Like me, Mom hates finishing a good book and suggested that if I write a review of it, it might elicit comments. The book I just finished reading is The End of The Alphabet by C.S. Richardson and here are my thoughts on it.

If you were told that you only have 30 days to live, how would you spend those days? Ambrose Zephyr, the main character of The End of The Alphabet by C.S. Richardson has just been told that. He is fifty and married to a woman he loves very much when he is told that his illness will kill him within a month. Give or take a day.

He quickly decides to spend his 30 days traveling alphabetically from Amsterdam to Zanzibar. Though Zaporra Ashkenazi (nicknamed Zipper) his much loved wife thinks that he could use the letter “A” to get his affairs in order, she decides that if he wants to travel she will go with him. They have no children and she does not want him to go without her.

This is a beautifully written story of their last journey though it’s not a travel book and things don’t always go well. However, throughout the book you see how much they love and depend on each other and how gracefully they complement each other. This is above all a love story with a little bit of poetry and magic on every page.

Logically there are some problems with the book as you’re never told what his disease is and he never asks for a second opinion. This is C.S. Richardson’s first novel and he uses no quotes for his characters so there were times I wasn’t sure whose “voice” I was reading. But this is an intelligent and deeply touching book; poignant without being maudlin. Life goes on. Death goes on. Love goes on.

What would you do if you were told you only had 30 days to live?