ISBN-13: 9780385722438Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: September 2002
224 pgs
Source: Personal Library
Have you ever wondered what our life would be if we are forbidden to use certain alphabets? How would you communicate if those alphabets are omitted? By using sign language, or would you simply give up communicating?
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters covers such themes and I have to say it is one of the most extraordinary epistolary novels I read thus far. In an island of Nollop, Nevin Nollop is the creator of the well-known pangram “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” thus having the island to be named under him. Due to this reason, the government and the people have great respect in Nevin Nollop and this sentence is preserved on a memorial to its creator on that island. One day, an alphabet “Z” falls from the inscription beneath the statue and thinking that this is some sort of a message passed down by the great late Nevin Nollop, the government bans this alphabet in all written and spoken forms. In highlighting the seriousness of the matter, they implement a penalty system in which whoever used the forbidden letter would be given a warning for the first offense, and banishment from the island for the third (and final) offense.
As more alphabets began to fall off from the inscription, the people in Nollop began to find it a challenge and in the end, they are either being banished or being forced to leave the island of their own accord. Ella Minnow Pea is the lead character of this novel, and through her letters to her family and friends we see her determination and persistance as she chose to remain in Nollop and finally to do something about it.
I have to say I absolutely loved the premise of this novel. It is so, so very clever and imaginative! I liked Ella; she is such a great character (not to mention that she is also a very brave and an intelligent girl). There are times I giggled and then sympathised with the characters as their letters seem to take on a silly note when more alphabets are being omitted, but jokes aside I can totally understand their frustrations and how tough it would be to come up with a complete sentence without having your intentions misinterpret! I don’t know about you, but I think I would now appreciate the alphabets more after reading this lovely novel.