CS Richardson
119 pages

Ambrose Zephyr has come to the end. At 50, he has just had a physical exam and learned that he only has a month to live. The doctors aren’t certain what the disease is, just that it’s fatal.

Because he only has 30 days left, give or take, Ambrose decides he’s going to do something he’s always wanted to do: visit all the places and see all the things on an alphabetical list he made as a young man. D is for a beach in the Dutch Antilles, E is for the windy coast of Elba, etcetera.

Coming along with him is his lovely wife, Zipper. The news of her husband’s terminal illness and the pair’s subsequent departure has left her confused. She isn’t certain she agrees with their journey, but she wants to support Ambrose.

Differing opinions aside, they start their trip. First up: a portrait in Amsterdam. Ambrose figures he will spend a single day at each of the 26 stops.

Everything in life is brief, and the book sets out to drive this point home. Even the book itself is small, its chapters tiny, its lettering dainty.

For CS Richardson, who has spent decades designing the jackets of books, slipping into the role of author seems to have been an easy transition.

Gimmicks are always a refreshing thing in fiction, like “The House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski, which reads like a case study of a Blair Witch-like project, complete with reference books and footnotes, or “Ella Minnow Pea” by Mark Dunn, in which the use of certain letters is slowly removed from the body of the book. Richardson doesn’t disappoint, using the structure of the alphabet to dictate events.

He fills “The End of the Alphabet” with quaint, beautiful imagery and describes the love between Ambrose and Zipper without being too sappy. No “Love Story” here. Well, all right, maybe some.

Instead of dragging the book down with premonitions of death, Richardson’s characters mainly focus on the amazing sites around them. (Zipper does get a little weepy from time to time, but nothing serious.)

Just like someone looking back on his life, Richardson switches back and forth between past and present.

Keeping the flow of the book going are anecdotes about Ambrose’s childhood.

Looking back at his younger years, we see that he’s always been interested in travel. It’s just something he always thought he’d have more time to do.

Much of the trip, Ambrose appears calm and happy. “If someone were no wiser,” Richardson writes, “he might have looked as content as a man on holiday.”

Nothing’s going to spoil this trip.

One wonders, at first, if he really feels this peaceful or if he is trying to be stoic for Zipper.

Perhaps he thinks if he appears to be brave, she will be, too.

Quickly, they move from town to town, taking boats and ferries and trains, visiting churches, parks and museums. One can’t help but be envious, even though the characters are fictional.

Richardson has written a lovely little book Possibly, dealing with books by other authors for so long helped.

Seeing as how the book is only 119 pages long, every word seems very carefully selected.

The book never backs down or cheats the reader in any way, despite it’s brevity.

Ultimately, Richardson makes us consider the idea of mortality without making us feel bad for not having done more.

Very often we have things we wish to do.

We put them off, somehow thinking we have endless amounts of time. Oh, and…

X?

You’ll have to read the book. It will take you no time.

Zip!