Essential Questions:

1.  What aspects of modern society are being satirized in this novel? 

2.  Compare the purposes of Mark Dunn and George Orwell (author of Animal Farm and 1984) or Dunn and Ray Bradbury (author of Fahrenheit 451). 

3.  Define epistolary, lipogram, pangram. 

4.  How does the structure of the novel enhance Dunn's purpose? 

5.  How is Dunn's use of language essential to his point?

Links: 

Scroll past the reviews of Ella Minnow Pea to Complete Review's review.  This comprehensive review should suggest many thoughts and connections--especially if you've recently finished reading the novel.  This site also offers definitions for many of the devices and literary tricks that Dunn employs. 

Peruse the reading group guide by Anchor Books and consider how you would answer these deep-thinking questions. 

View the teaching guide provided by Random House and review the questions over the story, contemplate the questions about language, and even apply other knowledge to your reaction to this novel. 

Read an interview with Mark Dunn that reveals what he did before he started writing novels in 2001. 

Read an interview with Mark Dunn to discover why this book was particularly challenging to write and the favorite words he coined to deal with his diminishing palette of letters. 

Read an interview that reveals details about Dunn's real-life Elvis encounter, which Paramount movie was "stolen" from one of Dunn's plays and what's ironic about his second novel. 

Listen to a reading from Ella Minnow Pea by the author. 

Mark Dunn's second novel was released in November 2002.  Read a review of Welcome to Higby.  Read an excerpt of Dunn's second novel.  In this novel, he makes more frequent use of epigraphs (at the beginning of each chapter) to satirize implied biblical quotes.  I enjoyed reading the novel in the summer of 2009.

Apparently, you can read the majority of Dunn's third novel (226 of 290 pages), Ibid: a life: a novel in footnotes, at this site.  This novel begins with letters between the character "Mark Dunn" whose novel has been lost and the editor has offered to publish the footnotes. 

Updated 8/17/09