July 08, 2016

The A to Z of You and Me - James Hannah


Sourcebooks Landmark, May 3, 2016.



Three Stars



Forty-year-old Ivo finds himself in hospice care with diabetic kidney failure due to drinking, drug use and hard living. Ivo’s high-risk lifestyle has exempted him from the organ transplant list, he is estranged from his friends and family, and his girlfriend Mia has left him. He is dying alone as a relatively young man, filled with regret for all of his past mistakes – this really should be a tragic novel, but it actually manages to be quite clever and funny.


To cheer him up, Ivo’s nurse suggests he play her “A to Z” game, in which he will choose a body part for each letter of the alphabet and think of a memory associated with it. Some of Ivo’s memories are quirky, some are thoughtful, and others are downright depressing. Throughout the game, Ivo addresses Mia as “you”, speaking to her through all of his memories – she is his anchor to life, an irony that only becomes apparent halfway through the book.


As Ivo’s health declines and he needs more painkillers, he becomes less coherent and increasingly unreliable as a narrator – at the same time, his “A to Z” memories have more depth and the secrets revealed are darker. We learn why Mia is absent from his bedside, and what his friends and family have said and done over the years. The structure of the game is contrived but not too cutesy, and it is often quite graphic in nature.


The game reveals Ivo’s many regrets, but the people in his life provide redemption, especially his nurse and the daughter of another patient in hospice care. Regardless of the mistakes he has made in his short life, there is still time to forge new connections and create meaningful relationships. Ivo’s experiences sometimes veered into melodramatic and unlikely situations, some of which seem incongruous to the rest of the novel. However, for the most part, the gimmicky structure does actually work, allowing Ivo to deal with his past before it’s too late. Ivo’s acceptance of himself and his regrets makes the novel worthwhile, despite its mostly predictable path.


I received this novel from Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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