Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters
by Mark Dunn

This was my second book of the day.  I must admit, my first birthday book turned out so well that I decided to read the other one I bought at the same time.  Just as good!  But completely different. 

This book features the fictional island country of Nollop and the people who live there.  It is definitely a dystopian society, but I hesitate to use that word because of the image it provides.  This dystopia is not similar to anything Upton Sinclair or George Orwell wrote.  As a matter of fact, for the most part this book is cute, light, and funny.  However, as things progress it does become more and more distressing.

"A curiously compelling...satire of human foibles, and a light-stepping commentary on censorship and totalitarianism." -The Philadelphia Inquirer

This work is epistolary (a novel of letters), takes place around a pangram (a sentence composed of all the letters of the alphabet), and as it progresses becomes a lipogram (a written work composed of words selected so as to avoid the use of one or more letters of the alphabet).  I won't say more about the plot except that "it is a hilarious an moving story of one girl's fight for freedom of expression and a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere". 

Let me know if you decide to read this one - I'd love to have a good chat about it.

Tweet

Pin It