Ella Minnow Pea

Ich liebe kreative Buchkonzepte und das hier war eins der kreativsten Bücher, die ich je gelesen habe: ein Briefroman, in dem immer mehr Buchstaben verschwinden, weil sie von einer Statue abfallen. Eine eindrückliche Warnung vor totalitären Systemen und ein inspirierender Liebesbrief an unsere Sprache!

Dieses kleine aber feine Buch hab ich richtig gerne gelesen. Auch wenn mein Englisch nicht das Niveau hat, dass ich alles ohne Probleme verstanden habe, war die Sroryline richtig cool und so in Briefen geschrieben einfach mal was anderes. Außerdem lässt es Kreativität zum Mitraten, welcher Satz alle Buchstaben (möglichst nur ein mal) beinhaltet. Große Empfehlung für kleines Buch.

“On Wednesday, July 19, the Council, having gleaned and discerned, released its official verdict: the fall of the tile bearing the letter 'Z' constitutes the terrestrial manifestation of an empyrean Nollopian desire, that desire most surely being that the letter 'Z' should be utterly excised--fully extirpated--absolutively heave-ho'ed from our communal vocabulary!” In Nollop, a fictional island off the US-American coast, language is at the center of everything. But the island's peace is disturbed when suddenly, letters starts to fall off of the monument of their cherished idol Mr. Nollop. He is being worshipped for having come up with the wonderful sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", a pangram containing each letter of the alphabet at least once. For the Nollopian leadership, the sudden fall of letters can only mean one thing: It is a divine message from the deceased Mr. Nevin Nollop, suggesting that whatever letter has fallen shall not be used in written or spoken communication any more. And thus, one letter after the other is banned from the island. People who use it, who even just accidentally speak a word that contains a forbitten letter, are punished and eventually exiled. Neighbors denounce neighbors; the people live in fear. We witness all of this through letters that are being sent between Ella Minnow Pea (tell me this is not the perfect name for a character in this novel) and her cousin, aunt, family and neighbors. Throughout the book, their communication becomes increasingly cryptic as less and less letters are at the writers' disposal, and the terror soon infecting the once peaceful island becomes blatantly clear - not just through content, but also through form. "Ella Minnow Pea" is a startling example for what amazing powers lie within language while also being a thoughtful parable for extremism and dictatorship of any kind. This cautionary tale is certainly worth your time and a scary and yet somehow delightful read for everyone enjoying a play on language and the occasional epistolary novel. Go read!