Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs

From the how-did-I-miss-this-book department is an utterly fabulous treat, ella minnow pea: A novel without letters. Considering all the linguists I know and how efficient Amazon is at pushing books in my direction, I am at a loss to explain how or why we all managed to escape reading this book and immediately buying a copy for everyone we know. I got lucky when the editor of the English edition of the local paper suggested I go and get a copy from Akateeminen.

The story is in a similar vein to Thurber's The Wonderful O as it is a lipogram told around the familiar pangram 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'. It is one of the most brilliantly clever books I've read in years as it combines cunning linguistics with political allegory in a epistolary novel. Language lovers must get this book. I need to go find a hardback copy so it can find a proper place next to my old, but dignified, copy of The Wonderful O. :)

18 Jan 2004 at 13:11, Helsinki