Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Spender's good idea of publishing a book as an AIDS fundraiser resulted in 26 letters drawn by Hockney and 26 short pieces by a who's who of contemporary writers. Hockney's drawings are true to his style, yielding bright, cheery, surprising mini-artworks. The writers' poems, essays, etc., use the letters of the alphabet as inspiration. The book that results from Spender's idea and Hockney's drawings turns into a one-of-a-kind collection of short writings by such distinguished writers as Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike, and Susan Sontag. The bonus successful merging of the visual and the written will give some comfort to AIDS victims. Recommended for academic, hospital, museum, and public libraries.-- David Bryant, Belleville P.L., N.J. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Usually a form of children's literature, either didactic or for entertainment, the abecedarium in this case is for adults. Not that its subject matter isn't fitting for children. Rather the attitudes and tones its 26 contributors adopt aren't especially childlike. This is not because of the book's purpose, which is to raise money for persons with AIDS (100 percent of its net proceeds are to be donated). It's because each writer responds in his or her contribution to a particular letter's graphic representation by the British artist who's lately the ne plus ultra of artistic chic. Now, children and--taking their cue from their audience--those who write for them rarely care about chic, but adults and their writers do, so the latter respond to it with the requisite sophistication. Not that under these circumstances, these writers answer Hockney's irrepressible charm with their own. Their responses vary satisfyingly widely, from blazing wit (Patrick Leigh Fermor on Z~) to wistful childhood memory (Ian McEwan on J ) to seriously piqued (John Updike on V for venereal, as in disease). In all, a picture book for adults of the highest order. ~--Ray Olson