Ella Minnow Pea

Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable by Mark Dunn, 205 pages

Ella Minnow Pea is set on the fictional island of Nollop, an antiquated place off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop is named after (the presumably fictitious) Nevin Nollop, also known as the guy who came up with the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," a sentence that uses all 26 letters of the alphabet in just 37 letters. The inhabitants of the island have embraced Mr. Nollop's obsession with the English language, and erected a statue of Nollop, complete with tiles spelling out his sentence, in the town square. But when the tile with the letter "Z" falls off, the island council takes it as a sign from the long-dead Nollop that the letter should no longer be used, and spells out harsh punishments for those that dare utter or write that 26th letter. As the book continues, more and more tiles fall, with the same reaction from the council.

This book is exceedingly clever. The story is told through letters sent between the titular character Ella and her cousin Mittie (as well as a few other characters) and as the tiles fall, fewer and fewer letters are used in the missives, and so, in the book. For that reason only, Dunn probably had a lot of fun and a lot of frustration writing this book. Aside from the "progressively lipogrammatic" element, Dunn also manages to create a great story exploring censorship, authoritarianism, and even religious zealotry in a rather short novel. People who love words and language, as well as those with a mischievous streak, will enjoy this story.