Ella Minnow Pea

I finished the first book for my southern reading challenge.

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

I liked it. It was the story of a little island off the coast of South Carolina that was it's own country. It's main claim to fame was that it was the birth place and home of Nevin Nollop, author of the phrase "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog". They erected a statue in his honor with the phrase on it and lived a simple life but one full of rich language, letter writing, and expressions of thought.
One day a letter falls off of the statue and the town council meets and decides that it must be Mr Nollop speaking from the grave letting them know not to use that letter again. They set up most severe consequences for breaking this rule. A three strike situation; strike one a warning, strike two either a public flogging or a day in the stocks and strike three banishment from the island with threat of execution if you return. Some of the citizens of this island nation are aghast at the ludicrousness of the situation but most go along.
As letters continue to fall off, and people's lives are altered we find our heroine Ella, and her family and friends fighting to save the island from the encroaching totalitarianism.

I found myself eager to find out what happens, curious if I could make up such a sentence with so few letters (no) and rooting for the heroes.

It was so interesting to me to see the historical parallels in a social sense as it often brought to mind atrocities in our world's history (like the efforts of Hitler) and how little by little a small change here, a seemingly inconsequential freedom taken away there and pretty soon a bleak and dismal evil takes over. One thing that really struck me was how many of the islanders didn't want to rock the boat or join the fight and I wondered how often we see injustices and just let them slide...maybe until it's too late.

Interesting book. The language was a delight and the story compelling.