Ella Minnow Pea

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In so doing Most Senior Council Member Willingham and his four fellow counciliteurs left themselves scant room for the possibility that the tile fell simply because, after one hundred years, whatever fixant had been holding it in place, could simply no longer perform its function. We must respect that silence and make our decisions and judgments based upon science and fact and simple old-fashioned common sense—a commodity absent for too long from those in governmental elevatia, where its employ would do us all much good. It's a close race, and Dunn marvelously heightens the tension as the tiles drop like flies and language becomes ever-more limited. This has been simplified (fairly cleverly, and almost adequately) for the paperback edition to: A Novel in Letters.

Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn - Complete Review Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn - Complete Review

What does Dunn gain by eschewing a single narrative voice in favor of many characters writing to one another about the events that beset their island-nation? What does Ella Minnow Pea suggest about dictatorships: their origins, aims and methods of accumulating and holding on to power? Given the titular protagonist's Punny Name, it's not hard to foresee the arrival of a chapter headed by ***LMNOP***.Ella Minnow Pea focuses on this theme when considering, "We slowly conclude that without language, without culture— the two are inextricably bound— existence is at stake". Totally independent of the USA, the island is named after its one famous citizen, Nevin Nollop, supposed creator of the pangram “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Mark Dunn is the author of more than 25 full-length plays, including Belles, Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain and Armistice Day. And although at first Ella believes that the loss of ‘Z’ will be only a minor inconvenience, she soon realizes that the ban has grotesquely far-ranging implications. All Nollopians begin to work on this challenge, which they dub “ Enterprise Thirty-Two,” though by this point many people have been banished from the island or they have moved due to the hostile environment.

Review: Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn - The Edge Review: Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn - The Edge

With this goal in mind "Enterprise 32" is started, a project involving many of the novel's main characters. We slowly conclude that without language, without culture -- the two are inextricably bound -- existence itself is at stake.For 100 years, a cenotaph honoring Nollop's remarkable vulpine-canine sentence has stood in the center of town.