This book follows the story of the fictional islanders living on Nollop, named after Nevin Nollop, who penned the pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." The island reveres Nollop and has a statue of him and his famous sentence in their town square. When letters begin falling from the statue, the island's council decides Nollop is sending them a message from the grave to stop using those letters.

The book is written in a series of letters between islanders, and as the letters drop from the statue, they are also excluded from the book. I was very impressed with how well Dunn continued to write without certain letters, especially as the book neared its end!

This reminded me a little of [b:The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society|39832183|The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society|Mary Ann Shaffer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529026760l/39832183._SY75_.jpg|2754161], not because it's an epistolary, but because of the way Dunn uses language. It's somewhat flowery at times, though not in a bad way.

The author didn't develop the characters as much as I wished he had. Still, this is a short, sweet, and clever read! I especially liked the ending. ( )

No vowels fell until the book was 83% done, and even then it was a U. What a cop-out. ( )

Written as letters to each other this made for a strange read (at times it did drag on). There was a great use of words in this novel about absurd regulations and a tyrannical governing body causing significant impact to society. 3.5/5 ( )

thought provoking
how government can use language to control ( )

Very interesting concept for a book. When the oligarchical veneration of an accidental linguist attempts to limit the residents of the tiny island nation of Nollop's free speech, a quick descent into chaos and a veritable police-state occurs. Moral of the fable: don't try to turn an independent state into an authoritarian regime. ( )