Under the harrow

*Starred Review* Dickens lovers, rejoice! Dunn (Ella Minnow Pea, 2002) folds a nineteenth-century writing style into a delightfully original story spiced with wonderfully evocative names and personalities from the Dickens oeuvre. Every word in this leisurely paced treasure is meant to be savored. Every scene is a theatrical masterpiece, providing plentiful opportunity to bark with laughter, raise eyebrows in amazement, and sigh in despair. Dingley Dell, hidden in backcountry Pennsylvania, proceeds in its anachronistic Victorian style as an experiment begun decades ago, when Darwinian scientists wanted to know how a small society would evolve, given no new input from the outside world. Unaware of their true role in a larger scheme, people in the Dell are informed that a horrible plague has occurred, and they are to be quarantined for safety. Government corruption, greed, classism, and distrust are at the center of this story, told by Dell resident Frederick Trimmers, Esq., for the edification of Outlanders. Dingley Dell is truly under the harrow that is, under fire its residents the victims of a most dastardly deception. Similar to Orwell's Animal Farm, with a hint of Jasper Fforde, this story will make you think and laugh at the same time.--Baker, Jen Copyright 2010 Booklist

Dingley Dell is a self-contained valley peopled by orphans, whose guardians abandoned them with only an encyclopedia and the works of Charles Dickens. From these beginnings comes a Victorian society whose limited trade with outsiders raises more question than it answers. Those who leave rarely return or are considered mad. The beginning drags a bit as the residents try to figure out what the reader already knows, but the tide turns and comes in fast once a runaway returns to the valley. Scribe-for-hire Trimmers and his friends, amateur sleuths disguised as a poetry society, discover that their strange world will come to a quick and bloody end unless they act. This sometimes perplexing but well-executed tale winds up feeling like a surprisingly hardy crossbreed of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Eric Flint's 1632. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Those familiar with the work of Dunn (Ella Minnow Pea) know that his novels reflect an interest in constrained writing. This latest effort is no exception. Here, Dunn chronicles the final days of Dingley Dell, a society constructed from the pages of Charles Dickens novels, through the voice of a Dinglian expatriate. Each chapter is written in Dinglian parlance, complete with dictionary entries from the Dinglian encyclopedia for clarification. Far from portraying a lighthearted, utopian community existing on the fringes of society, the story actually unfolds into a surprisingly dark tale of social manipulation. Unlike the famous Oulipo writing collective, Dunn uses constrained writing in a way that is always readable and imaginative. The language may be dense for average readers, but after a few chapters the story is engrossing enough to captivate their interest. VERDICT Dunn is a truly unique writer, and his novels will always find fans among bookworms and English professors; recommended.-Joshua Finnell, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.