Say it quickly as in "LMNOP."
Joan, a friend of ours, had lent Ann this book which
languished on her bookshelf until recently, and after Ann finally finished it
(actually, a very fast read once one starts), said to me, you ought to read
this book as it's "charming."
Charming? I want to read a
charming book? But she also added that
it has its dark moments. OK, why didn't
you say "dark" in the first place, bring it on (I was between reading
materials anyhow)!
Well, she was right on both counts. First it appealed to me right out of the gate
as it is an epistolary novel, a favorite form of mine, with Helene Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road being the best
of the lot. I had also read the more
recent The Guernsey Literary and Potato
Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows which I would
definitely put in the "charming" category.
Ella Minnow Pea
though is in a league of its own. It is
first and foremost a homage to the English language and a subtle statement
about its disintegration -- or even increasing irrelevancy (thanks to our
substandard educational system and the onslaught of mass media). It almost reads as a word game.
It's my second straight read about a fabled place (Saint Sebastian
being the other one), in this case Nollop, "an autonomous island nation 23
miles southeast of Charleston, SC"
In the 19th century it instituted a "monastic devotion to liberal
arts education and scholarship, effectively elevating language to a national
art form." The nation was renamed
Nollop to honor its "native son, Nevin Nollop, the author of the popular
pangram sentence The quick brown fox
jumps over the lazy dog".
Imagine, a peaceful, harmonic small nation which puts
language first, and modern technology second.
A cenotaph was erected at the center of town, with tiles of that pangram
at top to honor Nevin Nollop, who, over the years, became almost a deity. All was well for years. But the "High
Council" -- heretofore a compassionate though bureaucratic government of
the island -- elevated Nollop to God himself when the masonry holding the
letter "Z" crumbled and the letter fell to the ground. The Council chose to interpret this as
Nollop's message from beyond the grave that the letter "Z" was to be
banned from all speech and written communication, with severe penalties, even
death or expulsion from the island by the third offense.
So already, the novel is setting up one of its themes,
scientific reasoning vs. religion (the aging of the masonry, the true reason
behind the falling tile vs. man's never ending quest to find an explanation for
the unknown through religious fanaticism).
As more tiles descend, the consequences for the residents of
Nollop become more complicated and severe, having to delete now a continuing
barrage of the alphabet when they speak or write, with their correspondence now
being confiscated and inspected prior to delivery. The Council becomes more dictatorial,
instituting totalitarian government to ensure all citizens worship the dictums
of the great Nollop from beyond the grave, even seizing private land to erect a
church in his name.
There are some very funny moments in the novel, and some
very sad ones. There are themes such as
the role of chance in life, and how one neighbor can turn on the other and then
eventually seek forgiveness and receive compassion.
And it is all comported in correspondence that becomes
increasingly difficult to write as more letters continue to fall to the ground
with increasing frequency. There is even
some talk of going to a roman numeral form of communication, but, by that time,
most of the townspeople have already been banished or worse.
Mark Dunn, who is a playwright by trade, has used all his
dramatic skills and his love of language to write this work, such a delight to
read as he too obeys the will of the almighty Nollop High Council in writing these
epistles that are more and more difficult to discern, but still readable. Sometimes, they reminded me of the ubiquitous
ad on the NY Subways systems in the 1960's that read something like this:
"if u cn rd ths, u cn lrn spdwrtg."
If you read LMNOP (i.e. Ella
Minnow Pea), you will not put this down as our
young heroine Ella tirelessly works on "Enterprise 32," a pangram
that promises to end the whole debacle.
Thanks, Ann and thanks to Joan, who as I said lent her this
work ages ago (it's a signed edition too, as Joan and Michael's PR firm worked
with the author on its publication).
