Alphabet Soup: A Memoir in Letters by A. Gregory Frankson
Reviewed by Selena Mercuri
When I first glanced through Alphabet Soup: A Memoir in Letters, I found myself flipping pages, trying to decode the logic behind the sequence of the sections. Why did the book begin with I? Why did R appear halfway through, and not after Q? It was only after reading the first couple of pages that I realized the order itself was a gesture—non-linear, deliberate, and integrated into the book’s central concern: the construction and disruption of identity. “Random order does not necessarily mean entirely random randomness,” Frankson explains in the introduction. “The themes and topics in these letters fold back into each other in the way lines, images, and thoughts recur in spoken word or other oral poetic forms.”
“A. Gregory Frankson’s memoir is composed of twenty-six epistolary essays written in poetic prose, each structured around a letter of the alphabet and paired with a defining concept.”
A. Gregory Frankson’s memoir is composed of twenty-six epistolary essays written in poetic prose, each structured around a letter of the alphabet and paired with a defining concept. These range from S for Sanctimony to L for Lament—not as arbitrary wordplay, but as thematic anchors for reflections on family, race, intimacy, art, and survival. The order was dictated by a random generator, a choice that mirrors the unpredictability of personal memory.
Frankson, a poet and spoken word artist, is at his most commanding when he leans into rhythm and image. In V, inspired by the theme of vindication, he recounts the dissolution of a relationship in language that blends bitterness and beauty: “The beginning was innocuous enough. A casual contact between mutual friends was the first time our paths crossed. No explosions lit up the skies in a festival of fire like the last pyrotechnic symphonies on Ontario shores. Initial interactions that were loose as laces on a kindergartener first tripped us up.” The emotional stakes are high, but Frankson’s control of tone prevents sentiment from hardening into self-pity.
Other sections reach out toward philosophical reflection, particularly on ancestry and the land. In L, inspired by the theme of lamentation, Frankson writes, “It is in our births that we became connected, even if navel strings anchor us topologically to separate landscapes. And when we are extinct, the land will acknowledge us as part of the same fraternity.” The lyricism here is expansive, almost geological, concerned with time, rupture, and continuity.
There is also playfulness and sensuality—Frankson does not cleave to one emotional register. N, inspired by the theme of naughtiness, explores erotic vulnerability with characteristic musicality: “A bridged version of my struggle against your chemically charged charms leads inevitably like luring breadcrumbs along the path of least resistance: to the ties that bind, the motion of the ocean, the commotion, the languid float of the ship on waters calm in the aftermath of your somatic hurricane.” The language here rides the edge of excess, but it feels earned—part of the memoir’s broader insistence that the self must be narrated in its full range, from restraint to abandon.
This capaciousness is what makes Alphabet Soup so resonant. The book is not a collection of discrete anecdotes, nor is it a tightly plotted narrative arc. It is something closer to a glossary of becoming—an attempt to speak the self into coherence through tone, texture, and address.
About the Author
A. Gregory Frankson has published four poetry collections and contributed to six anthologies. He is a former Canadian national poetry slam champion, an inductee to the VERSe Ottawa Hall of Honour, and a former on-air poetic commentator on CBC Radio One in Toronto. Greg is based in Toronto.
About the Reviewer
Selena Mercuri is a Toronto-based writer, editor, and book reviewer. She is a publicist with River Street and a social media associate at The Rights Factory. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and studied Publishing at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Fiddlehead, The Literary Review of Canada, The Dalhousie Review, Room Magazine, Prairie Fire, The Ampersand Review, and elsewhere. Selena was the recipient of the 2023 Norma Epstein Award for Creative Writing and a finalist in the Hart House Poetry Contest. In the fall, she will begin the University of Guelph’s Creative Writing MFA program.
Book Details
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Language: English
Paperback: 216 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1459750333