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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
On the island of Nollop, an independent state, just off the coast of America, one sentence is revered: The quick brown fix jumps over the lazy dog. This pangram, written by their most celebrated son has instilled a literary passion in islanders and island culture. Shunning modern communication technology, this is a community of letter writers. So what then will they make of the letters of their sacred sentence when they start to fall from his memorial statue, shattering on the ground?
Well, obviously not the sane conclusion - that the aged adhesive is corroding - or there wouldnโt be much plot. No the leaders of the community decide to interpret this as the will of Nollop, challenging them to do away with the unnecessary chaff of the alphabet. And draconian penalties will be applied to ensure his will is honoured. The madness deepens as more letters fall. For whilst Z has limited impact on daily life, loosing D, U, E, and 50% of your Os is quite the challenge.
An amusing, if completely unsubtle, satire of authoritarianism and censorship, itโs cleverly done; with the story told entirely through letters between the characters, and thus slowly becoming more and more lipogrammatically restricted. Worth a read, as Iโm not even annoyed I had to read chunks of text like this by the end ๐ โ๐ ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ข๐ญ๐บ๐ฑ๐ฉ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ. ๐๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ณ๐บ ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ต ๐ฎ๐ฆ. ๐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฉ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ช๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ฑ๐ฉ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ต๐ฏ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ข๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ. ๐๐ด ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฉ ๐ข๐ด ๐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ฎ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐บ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข๐จ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ธ๐จ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฑ๐ฉ'๐ด ๐ฉ๐บ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ. ๐๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ 32 ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ. ๐๐ฐ๐ต๐ต ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฆ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ.โ
I expected this book to be light hearted and slightly overly "clever." I was wrong. Instead it is a completely engaging, subversive story about the power of language and the hold the veneration to the past has on us. It's an easy read - I finished it in one day - but an enjoyable love letter to language and to human perseverance.
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Police brutality
This was a really interesting book! I especially liked the creative ways the author came up with writing letters with the missing alphabet.
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book is told in letters!! As in mail. Itโs cute, but I wish I knew before going in, maybe I just didnโt catch it. But at the first I kept waiting for the story to โstartโ.
My heart wanted it to be a thriller by the halfway point, because it started getting awful slow and it already had the makings of a good one. Island, council of 5 older men making sovereign decisions (I donโt think thatโs a spoiler because it says they start outlawing letters in the description), people on secret trying to save the town. Add some atmosphere, a little more descriptive writing, dirty it up a bit and voilร ! A thriller.
It wasnโt bad though, I laughed out loud at the solution. And I giggled at the effort the townspeople went through to try not to brake the law as tiles continued to fall.
My heart wanted it to be a thriller by the halfway point, because it started getting awful slow and it already had the makings of a good one. Island, council of 5 older men making sovereign decisions (I donโt think thatโs a spoiler because it says they start outlawing letters in the description), people on secret trying to save the town. Add some atmosphere, a little more descriptive writing, dirty it up a bit and voilร ! A thriller.
It wasnโt bad though, I laughed out loud at the solution. And I giggled at the effort the townspeople went through to try not to brake the law as tiles continued to fall.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Literary masterpiece. Bravo!