poorlywordedbookreviews 's review for:

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

5.0

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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 wouldn’t 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, it’s 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 I’m not even annoyed I had to read chunks of text like this by the end 😆 “𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘱𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭. 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘵 𝘮𝘦. 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘩 𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘱𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦. 𝘈𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘩 𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘦𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘐 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘸𝘨𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘩'𝘴 𝘩𝘺𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘦. 𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 32 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘸. 𝘎𝘰𝘵𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘦𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩.”