Oh, ancient art of letter writing, what has happened to you?

I occasionally have little bouts of ‘I’m Going to Write People Letters’ phases. These phases never last long as I run out of stamps and never feel like going to the post office to buy more. Every time I hear news about email systems it occurs to me that part of our historical record has died. Does anyone donate email records to local libraries for future historians to read? I do not know.

Ella Minnow Pea (say it out loud…. get it?) by Mark Dunn is a small novel about letters told through the letters of residents of Nollop. This tiny island off the coast of South Carolina only claim to fame is Nevin Nollop, author of the sentence: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Nollop is very proud of Nevin. So much so, that they have erected a statue in his honor with his famous sentence set in tiles around the statue. But, what would happen if those tiles began to fall off their pedestal? Would the statue merely need some maintenance to make sure other letters do not fall? Or, is it a sign from the great Nevin Nollop that the fallen letters are no longer worthy of use?

Of course, any decent person would realize that the latter is exactly what is meant by this phenomenon. And if the letters are not worthy, well then, they just need to be outlawed.

Watch, and try to read, as the written word is destroyed in front of your very eyes. The book begins with long beautiful letters to and from friends and family members. By the end, when only “LMNOP” are the only legal letters left, the letters become similar to a txt msg I rcvd 2day.

Ella Minnow Pea is a quirky little book that is both hilarious and poignant. It is a fabulous read that word lovers with thoroughly enjoy.

*For the record: I wrote this review out long hand, on paper, with a pen, before typing it into my computer. Insert smiley face emoticon here.