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A review by gwendle_vs_literature
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This book was difficult to put down, and frequently caused me to laugh out loud (which is unusual for me).
It is a delightful fable, and examines the difficult subjects of tyranny and fanaticism, not in fine detail, but still to great effect. The titular Ella is a worthy heroine.
The book becomes increasingly difficult to read due to convoluted syntax, unconventional phrasing (e.g. terminal-cot rather than death-bed) and finally extremely unorthodox and creative spelling as more and more letters disappear from its pages.
The wordplay of the subtitle “a novel in letters”, referring both to the fact that it is an epistolary novel, and a novel about the twenty-six letters of the modern phonecian alphabet, was part of what convinced me to pick it up. The contents of the novel lived up to my expectations, and then surpassed them.
I plan to read this again in future, logged in to the OED online so that I can look up all of the unfamiliar vocabulary (which this time I mostly just figured out based on likely etymology and context clues), and to uncover how many of the words are fabricated rather than simply obscure or archaic.
I highly recommend this book to anyone in love with language.
It is a delightful fable, and examines the difficult subjects of tyranny and fanaticism, not in fine detail, but still to great effect. The titular Ella is a worthy heroine.
The book becomes increasingly difficult to read due to convoluted syntax, unconventional phrasing (e.g. terminal-cot rather than death-bed) and finally extremely unorthodox and creative spelling as more and more letters disappear from its pages.
The wordplay of the subtitle “a novel in letters”, referring both to the fact that it is an epistolary novel, and a novel about the twenty-six letters of the modern phonecian alphabet, was part of what convinced me to pick it up. The contents of the novel lived up to my expectations, and then surpassed them.
I plan to read this again in future, logged in to the OED online so that I can look up all of the unfamiliar vocabulary (which this time I mostly just figured out based on likely etymology and context clues), and to uncover how many of the words are fabricated rather than simply obscure or archaic.
I highly recommend this book to anyone in love with language.