Ella Minnow Pea is a short epistolary novel by Mark Dunn released in 2001 following the perspective of letters sent between the townspeople of a fictional island called Nollop located off the coast of South Carolina. I just finished reading this book, and it is by far the best, most creative, and most interesting book I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I was hooked from the first page, and I couldn’t stop.
The island of Nollop the book takes place on was named after a man by the name of Nevin Nollop, who was famous for creating the phrase “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” which contains every letter of the alphabet, and the phrase was engraved on tiles on a memorial statue in the town of Nollopville. One day, however, the tiles start falling off the statue. Faced with this incident, the island’s High Council decided it was now illegal to use letters that fall off in writing or speech, believing the phenomenon was Nollop speaking to them from beyond the grave. The protagonist, Ella, and her family try to fight back for their freedom and make a deal with the High Council, agreeing that if she could make another phrase with all 26 letters before a set deadline, they would repeal the law.
Many characters make appearances in the letters, the main figures being the main character, Ella Minnow Pea, the relatively normal girl who lived a quiet life on the island before the events of the book; her rebellious, justice-seeking cousin, Tassie; Ella’s mother, Gwenette; Tassie’s mother, Mittie Purcy; Ella’s father, Amos; Nate Warren, a scholar and journalist from the States who traveled to Nollop; and the Nollopian High Council, the main governmental body that’s in charge of the island’s law and order. The characters are deeply connected with rich relationships shown developing throughout the letters they send, making their relationships and conversations feel that much more real and engaging.
This book is not only extremely creative with its concept and plot, but it’s also incredibly creative with its writing style and word choice. Because it’s written from the perspective of the Nollopian people, when a letter falls off the memorial, the characters and the book stop using those letters. You could be halfway through and look back, only to be shocked there is not a single letter D for over ten pages! Since the story has many language restrictions, the book uses many big, complicated words and incorrect grammar that can make the novel hard to read. If you ask me, that aspect really helps to elevate the realism of this title and makes for a hilarious reading experience.
Despite there being no real dialogue between characters, you can still feel the same emotions, both spoken and unspoken, that they were feeling at the time of writing those letters. And despite the book being relatively short at only 208 pages, it still successfully tells its compelling, cautionary story about the human desire to speak freely, authoritarianism, and the dangers of searching for hidden meaning when there isn’t.
Ella Minnow Pea has stuck with me even after turning the last page, and if you ask me, it’s a literary masterpiece that deserves more attention. Overall, this book is a quick read with amazing writing, world-building, and plot, so I highly recommend you give it a read!
