Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

Mark Dunn has written a keeper for language lovers. A playwright with over 20 notches on his gun in that genre, Dunn decided to write his his first novel. I, for one, am glad that he did. This book is set on a 63-square-mile fictional island 21 miles off the Carolina coast, southeast of Charleston, available only by daily ferry. It is named for Nevin Nollop, the man who coined the term all of us old folks know from beginning typing, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." There is an aging statue of him in the town square and that statue bears that sentence, not engraved on the base, but on tiles at the top. One of these tiles, the letter 'z', falls one day and shatters. A little girl sweeps up the shards and takes them to the town council, a body that has exceptional power over the island and precious little common sense. They decree that this is an act of Nollop himself and declare that islanders from then on must never use that letter in any correspondence. If one does, the penalty for first offence is public reprimand, for the second, public flogginng, and the third, death. The plot begins to thicken when a second tile falls. Ella Minnow Pea, an 18-year-old girl, is the major letter writer (the novel is epistolary, remember), but there are others. and Dunn takes us on a merry chase as all of the epistles become a challenge for the town as tile after tile begin to fall. It is fun to watch the writers avoid the use of the fallen letters; it is tragic when the consequences begin to get carried out. For vocabulary lovers, new words abound, and new pangrams (sentences, like the one with the lazy canine and the bouncy vulpine,, that use all the letters of the alphabet) pop up throughout the book. (Example: "The wicked peon quivered, then gazed balefully at the judges who examined him.") There is a lesson here for those who follow blindly what a government tells them to do, but the book is a fun romp for those of us who like to have fun with language! The ending is a delight.

I truly loved this book. It's clever, original, and brilliantly executed. Quick plot: Ella Minnow Pea lives on the island of Nollop, where the creator of the pangram sentence "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" is revered. Disaster strikes when letters begin falling over the monument to Nollop - the government, in a fit of bureaucracy to rival none, declares that if Nollop had wanted those letters to remain in the language, they would not have fallen from the monument. Therefore, the fallen letters will be banned from use in speech or written form, with draconian punishments meted out to those who offend - the first offence receives a warning; the second a choice or whipping or exhibiting in public stocks; the third banishment. The first letter to fall is z; surprisingly common once it's no longer allowed, but after all, not so great a loss. However as more and more letters fall, communications - and the remaining population of the island - become more and more strained. Eventually, the High Council - forced to rename themselves through the loss of 'C' - issue a proclamation: if a new pangram, shorter in length than Nollop's infamous sentence - can be found by a given deadline, all letter-related statutes will be reversed, and life can resume it's normal flow. It's a quirky idea; and brilliantly executed. As each letter falls, the author banishes it from his own arsenal of letters, so by the time the remaining poor citizens of Nollop are left with a mere five letters, so is Mark Dunn. It's a fun book, a quick read, and a darkly sarcastic satire on the abuses and misuses of government. I enjoyed it immensely.

I better include the blurb from GoodReads for this one. Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram,* “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl’s fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere. *pangram: a sentence or phrase that includes all the letters of the alphabet ~~~ Correspondence is the only way this story is told. Letters between friends and family tell the story. So many creative writing ideas are presented in this book. As I mentioned, letter writing is one. Another emerges as bits of the alphabet are outlawed. Try writing without certain letters. What I loved was how vocabulary improved with fewer letters. But towards the end, subletters are needed, ph is F, etc. Sometimes, it takes a moment to figure out the new word. So, how would you write if you couldn't use certain letters? At first, I tried to read the book through the Libby app. But I found I just couldn't track properly to stay with it. So, I bought the Kindle version with Whispersync. That worked very well. There are several actors reading. That gave the story an even bigger boost. As the new words were formed, having Kindle set up with a larger font and spacing helped me understand the words presented. The readers were excellent at ensuring the reader/listener knew the word was spelled incorrectly, but the contents connected the communication. I highly recommend this book for fun and creativity.

At a mere 208 pages, Ella Minnow Pea is a lexically delicious little book. It’s also a wonderful allegory (or perhaps a satire?) of fascism, censorship, the corruption of absolute power, theocracies, and the apathy (or fear) that allows evil to triumph over good. "We are a nation of letter-writers, who, in the absence of reliable telephone service or the existence of electronic mail, have cultivated our hardship far beyond all expectation." The novel takes the form of letters from the inhabitants of an independent little fictional island called Nollop. It takes its name from the founding father Nevin Nollop, who is credited with discovering the wonderfully succinct sentence, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” in which each letter of the alphabet appears. This sentence is Nollop (the island)’s claim to fame, and it is proudly displayed in the town square. However, one night the letter ‘Z’ crashes to the ground. The council takes this as a sign from Nollop himself that the letter Z is unnecessary anyway – well, we hardly use it, after all – and so they decide to ban its use. Anyone caught using the aforementioned forbidden letter will be placed in the stocks, whipped, exiled or executed. This of course means that all the books should be destroyed. As more letters fall, they too are excised, until the task of saving the beloved island of Nollop’s people from incommunicable oblivion falls to Ella. And she is running out of both time and letters. "Not only does it cripple communication between islanders, it builds rock walls between hearts." As a society of letter-writers who leave lengthy essays rather than notes and who will never say in five words what could be said in fifty, the novel can be a bit wordy… But that’s the point. As letters are stricken from the vocabulary of the Nollopians, the letter-writers must find ever more roundabout ways of expressing themselves, leading to some fantastic word-creating and lexical acrobatics. I particularly enjoyed the new words for expressing days of the week in the wake of the loss of ‘D’: Monty, Toes, Wetty, Thurby, Fribs, Satto-gatto and Sunshine. Thus, despite the overly complex and abnormally formal way that the Nollopians speak, the whimsy of it grew on me until I wished that everyone talked like they did, always and forever. And as the letters become more and more scarce, their spectacularly creative ways of expressing themselves are limited more and more, until they cannot speak except through language such that you might find in a teenager’s text messages – the horror! "In the sanctuary of my thoughts, I am a fearless renegade. Yet in the company of the children I cringe and cower in a most depreciating way." While the progressively lipogrammatic form and verbose style of the novel are more than enough to make me fall madly in love with it, the plot itself is effective and complex. The characters are distinct and lovable, as their relationships and the effects of their actions and the loss of their very identities filter out through the letters. From the man who must rename himself Prince Valiant-the-Comely to avoid a forbidden letter in his name, to a woman who decides to cover herself entirely in paint, to a family that march into the council house dressed as ducks and waving Quaker oats over their heads as they quack to protest the loss of the letter Q, the characters make this engrossing. Furthermore, the ever-growing power-madness of the Council is chillingly similar to theocratic/ideocratic dictatorships such as ISIS, Nazi Germany and the second Bush Administration. Neighbours turn on neighbours and any sense of privacy is obliterated by censorship and spying. "Today we queried, questioned, and inquired. Promise me that come tomorrow, we will not stop asking why." The novel, while dazzlingly clever and scrumptiously linguistic is a treat to read. The characters are just mad enough to be utterly realistic and the moral implications are profoundly engaging. It’s a small, whimsical and wonderfully intelligent book, and a pleasure to read. I wish it had been longer, but not a word (or letter) was wasted.

I'm a writer and an editor. This book was so much fun to read. It started out with such fancy writing that you had to re-read it twice or three times to understand it--usually a no-no for a book--but it was so intriguing I couldn't put it down. The metaphor for the politics that is going on in the country right now was on point, where people are afraid to speak their minds or have opinions that don't fall in line with the main stream media or you are cancelled. The leaders' antics are like those in "The Emperor's New Clothes," only in this book, even if a child points out the idiocy, they are also punished. This book had some twists and turns and it was fun to try to keep up with the alphabet-speak. I loved the transitions to the spelling of the words. I actually had to read it aloud to be able to understand what they were saying. At one point, when read aloud, it sounded like phonetic German--another metaphor. I was a quick read and I highly recommend it, especially for wordsmiths who love words and the English language. It really was genius.

Ella lives on the fictional island of Nollop, set off the coast of South Carolina with her friends and family. Nollip is named after Nevin Nollop – the creator of the well-known pangram, “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” The sentence is tacked on to a statue commemorating Nollop in the town’s center. One by one, letters start to fall from the statue, and as they do, the island’s High Council interpret this as a sign from Nollop himself – banning letters from use in speech and writing. Citizens of Nollop must adapt to a new way of life and adjust their communication – carefully tip-toeing around the illicit letters. Ella and her friends work to restore the full 26-letter alphabet to her fellow citizens, with it restoring freedom of speech and communication. If you are looking for an intelligent read, with a dense plot and fully developed characters centered around totalitarianism, censorship vs free speech, superstition vs science – this is not the book for you. Quite frankly – there are far better books for that. If you are looking for a quick, pleasant read and some mental stimulation – this is the book for you (you can read this book in its entirety in a mere afternoon). The story is told through a series of letters between citizens of Nollop – and it becomes more challenging to read these exchanges as an increasing number of letters are banned. At first – seemingly less common and unimportant letters conveniently fell from the statue. No worries. Child’s play. But as the story unfolds, there are in fact certain words with such letters that can’t quite be expressed the same with substitutions. Turns out these letters, however infrequently used, are vital members of our alphabet. It certainly becomes a mental challenge to work around illicit letters and communicate the same – and its also a brain teaser just to interpret some messages meanings. Overall, I give this book 3 stars. Certainly not an in-depth analysis of some intense thought-provoking topics– but it was an overall cute and fun read! A nice change of pace to my usual reads.

This book is written through a series of letters beginning with Ella Minnow Pea writing her cousin Tassie who just happens to live on the same island as Ella. Their island; however, does not have internet service so they are forced to correspond through snail-mail. Their island is just off the coast of South Carolina but does not belong to the U.S.A.. They are independently run by a totalitarian government which starts forcing people to quit using letters of the alphabet. All this occurs because the statute of the founding father of this island, Mr. Nollop, has letters from the saying he came up with falling off and breaking on the ground. The rulers of this community see it as a sign from beyond the grave. It starts with Z but soon encompasses many other letters which are not to be spoken or written unless you're under the age of 7. If you dare disobey, the first offense is a public dressing down and a fine; the second offense is either a public whipping or to be put in the stockades for a day; and the third offense gets you expulsion from the island. It is quite amusing to see the sorts of things people resort to when losing parts of their alphabet and the letters get funnier and funnier. The question is can Ella save her island from becoming completely silent? You will just have to read to find out. This is a wonderful quick-to-read book which I think everyone will enjoy.

Ella Minnow Pea is a harrowing and cautionary tale about the dangers of taking things a bit too far. In this case, an island "nation's" fondness for one of its founding fathers, Nevin Nollop, the "creator" of the pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." However, it is really a work outlining important but ignored aspects of language, and English in particular. That the very literate island folk worship Nollop for the esteem he brought them is somewhat belayed by the fact that the above pangram could be two letters shorter just by saying "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." The islanders hadn't noticed this in 100 years?? Anyway, tragedy strikes and rather than carry on rationally, the islanders proceed to make things worse by discarding the use of letters from the language, fortunately the less used ones at first. This causes much overthinking and a lot of consternation as life on the island proceeds to fall apart about as quickly as Nollop's memorial statue. It gets to the point where we think we might be entering "Lord of the Flies" or "Wicker Man" territory, but fortunately, about the midway point the novella makes a more humorous inflection that points to a soft if zany landing for our characters, though not before a lot of damage has been done. Now, author Dunn took the road of lipograms and removing letters when there was just as good a chance (and this could have been a characteristic of island life before the story begins) that the island folk would have been required that all their sentences contain all 26. As harrowing and confounding as this zany lexographic quirk of island life might have been--it just might have been possible! (Ahem). Maybe a sequel could be dreamed up?? Dunn is pretty good at the human psychology underlying the events that unfold, but doesn't dig too deeply into the backgrounds of the villains, so we don't get a good angle on their causal motivations. There's also something of a red herring about stateside real estate developers that you might think come into play later on but don't. That, said, the novel is fun if a bit too serious at times. I suppose it could be argued that without language we'd all turn into savages, but the mood shifts here are a tad exaggerated.

Muy bien pensado, es bonito ver cómo según evoluciona la historia el uso restrictivo de las letras va limitando las comunicaciones

Me encanta como evoluciona la historia, pero sobre todo el lenguaje para compensar las letras que se van eliminando.

Esta edição comemorativa é lindíssima! As ilustrações acompanham perfeitamente o desenrolar da história.

a marvel of a book

The Story… Off the coast of America is an Island called Nollop. Named for the revered Nevin Nollop (deceased), creator of the pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Nollop is not an advanced nation - it's not even keeping up with the rest of the world. But what Nollop lacks in technological advancement, it's makes up for with the adoration of language. The Nollopian's adore words - especially Ella. They adore words, and they idolise the aforementioned Nevin Nollop. A monument to his linguistic prowess stands proud for all to see - tiles with individual letters spelling out the famous pangram. One day, a tile falls from the monument - the letter Z. The governing body of Nollop - being so fanatically devoted - declare the falling of the tile to represent an instruction from Nollop himself! The message is interpreted to mean the Nollopians should never used the letter Z again. Not in speech, not in writing...and those who break this divine law are severely punished. The book is written as a series of letters from various Nollopians. As more tiles fall from the aging monument, the Nollopians are forced to abandon the variety of words they adore so much, until they can take no more... What I liked… The book itself is an example - albeit a very strange one - of totalitarian government, fanatical religious leadership and censorship. As the letters fall from the monument, so too are they removed from the book. Dunn writes very cleverly, managing to keep as much variety and love of language in each letter, despite the every increasing pressure caused by the rapidly decrease pool of usable letters. It is clever, not just because it is a physically difficult task, but also because Dunn manages to express so much emotion in so many ways, and when Ella's heart breaks, my heart broke too. The format itself, a series of somewhat connected letters, is a very novel and highly effective form of delivery. It was not just a gimmick - it brought the story to life. It took me a little while to get my head around it, and might have been irritating if the story wasn't so engaging. Finally, I loved the variety of 'authors' for the letters. The letters are written by many different characters; all with different views and ways of dealing with an incredibly difficult situation. Perhaps one of the most difficult, but most rewarding things about this book is that you find yourself questioning which of the characters approaches you think you would follow if you were in their place. Questions like this are what usually make books about totalitarianism very difficult, and often soul crushing to read - but the admittedly bizarre situation allows you to consider these ethical dilemmas, something which I find really important. What I disliked… Nothing. I loved it. Final thoughts... This book seems really strange. The premise is strange, the way it uses an ever decreasing pool of letters is strange. The use of letters instead of 'normal' prose is weird. BUT it is beautiful. It is challenging. It is insightful. It is art. This book may be better suited to those with an appreciation for linguistic acrobatics, and the art of words, rather than the casual reader - but I would still encourage the casual reader to try it and see. It's more than worth the effort.