Paperback, 208 pages
English language
Published Jan. 1, 2002 by Anchor Books.
An epistolary novel set on a fictional island off the South Carolina coastline, Ella Minnow Pea brings readers to the hometown of Nevin Nollop, inventor of the pangram "The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog." Deified for his achievement in life, Nevin has been honored in death with a monument featuring his famous phrase. One day, however, the letter Z falls from the monument, and some of the islanders interpret the missing tile as a message from beyond the grave. The letter Z is banned from use. On an island where the residents pride them-selves on their love of language, this is seen as a tragedy. They are still reeling from the shock when another tile falls. And then another...In his charming debut, first published in 2001, Mark Dunn took readers on a journey through the eyes of Ella Minnow Pea, a young woman forced to create another β¦
An epistolary novel set on a fictional island off the South Carolina coastline, Ella Minnow Pea brings readers to the hometown of Nevin Nollop, inventor of the pangram "The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog." Deified for his achievement in life, Nevin has been honored in death with a monument featuring his famous phrase. One day, however, the letter Z falls from the monument, and some of the islanders interpret the missing tile as a message from beyond the grave. The letter Z is banned from use. On an island where the residents pride them-selves on their love of language, this is seen as a tragedy. They are still reeling from the shock when another tile falls. And then another...In his charming debut, first published in 2001, Mark Dunn took readers on a journey through the eyes of Ella Minnow Pea, a young woman forced to create another clever turn of phrase in order to save the islanders' beloved language. About the author: Mark Dunn is the author of more than twenty-five full-length plays that have been produced nationwide and beyond. His debut novel, Ella Minnow Pea, was winner of the Borders Original Voices Book of the Year award, a finalist for the Book Sense Book of the Year award, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selected title. His second novel, Welcome to Higby, was published in 2003, followed by 2004's Ibid. He is currently at work on a children's book and a novel, both forthcoming from MacAdam/Cage.
Unterhaltsam, spannend fΓΌr einen nicht-Muttersprachler und doch nicht abgehoben, sondern irgendwie sehr treffend in der derzeitigen Krise. Top.
Ella Minnow Pea is a contrived fantasy set on an island of people who delight in flowery language. It features a small, old-fashioned courtship during what I would more likely describe as "a plague of letters".
It's fun and diverting. It's not difficult to read even when, about three-quarters through, it switches to using homophones instead of restricting words themselves.
The pace never rises above a gentle saunter. Don't think of it as some great literary achievement, but enjoy it for what it is.
Clever, fun, quick read
I write this on Nollop on October 13. They say that it is illegal to use letters D, F, J, K, Q, Z. Thus, this is my review about this marvellous thing. It's brilliant. I turn through it in a single one-more-than-three hour sitting while anticipating my aeroplane leaving. It gets more yet more inventive all the way through. It has a clever twist, a clever title. It is especially marvellous because writers have to use variable expressions, as am I, to postulate amongst themselves about what is going on. There is a small portion three-sixths through where I perceive it is a literary excercise, but that might have been the sleep starting: but it cleverly moves up a gear anyway. Brilliant. (Oh, and writing that was very difficult indeed!!)
Part whimsical book of language, centered around "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog". Part heavy-handed allegory about dogma, tyranny, and the populace's accepting of it.
