Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters
Registered by MarciNYC of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA on 1/22/2004
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
Another title I heard about from other BXers and also recommended by Nancy Pearl, Librarian. (You just gotta say it that way!) It's going on Mt TBR with myriad others, so I'll journal again when I've read it.
How someone comes up with an idea like this and pulls it off is simply amazing. I was really hard pressed to describe this book - in a word, quirky.
When the letters in the sentence "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" made famous by Nollop of the island start to fall from the Centotaph, this is taken as a sign from Nollop. Hence the Island High Council decides to ban them from written and spoken language. One by one the letters fall, and what follows is a series of letters written between Ella (Minnow Pea) and other Island residents illustrating how they adapt their language usage as a result of these verboten letters.
I found it quite amusing and enjoyable, but towards the end when a majority of the alphabet was banned and the letters were written phonetically I found it a bit of a challenge to read. Still, I'm amazed that the author was able to take this concept and pull it off so well. Kudos to Mark Dunn for that feat and creating an original book in the process.
I'm going to pass this one on to a good friend in the next couple days - wonder if I can get frequent flyer miles for the book as well as myself.
When the letters in the sentence "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" made famous by Nollop of the island start to fall from the Centotaph, this is taken as a sign from Nollop. Hence the Island High Council decides to ban them from written and spoken language. One by one the letters fall, and what follows is a series of letters written between Ella (Minnow Pea) and other Island residents illustrating how they adapt their language usage as a result of these verboten letters.
I found it quite amusing and enjoyable, but towards the end when a majority of the alphabet was banned and the letters were written phonetically I found it a bit of a challenge to read. Still, I'm amazed that the author was able to take this concept and pull it off so well. Kudos to Mark Dunn for that feat and creating an original book in the process.
I'm going to pass this one on to a good friend in the next couple days - wonder if I can get frequent flyer miles for the book as well as myself.
My wonderful friend MarciNYC passed this on to me while en route to visiting her family for Thanksgiving!
Journal Entry 4 by queeneve at Given to a fellow bookworm in Louisville, Kentucky USA on Friday, December 3, 2004
Released on Friday, December 03, 2004 at about 10:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Given to a fellow bookworm in Louisville, Kentucky USA.
RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
The sentence that launched a thousand typewriter tests...
I thought this book was really great, and so original! When you read it it sounds like an old-fashioned civilization, but it IS present-day in a fictional nation that has seceded from the U.S. Also very timely for 2004 - the fascism theme and 'dumbing down' of society figure prominently. I am still baffled as to how the author came up with the idea and then executed it! But bravo to Mark Dunn for pulling it off. (Gee, I sound like MarciNYC!) Enjoy!
eve.
l.m.n.o.p.
I thought this book was really great, and so original! When you read it it sounds like an old-fashioned civilization, but it IS present-day in a fictional nation that has seceded from the U.S. Also very timely for 2004 - the fascism theme and 'dumbing down' of society figure prominently. I am still baffled as to how the author came up with the idea and then executed it! But bravo to Mark Dunn for pulling it off. (Gee, I sound like MarciNYC!) Enjoy!
eve.
l.m.n.o.p.
