Letters from Cicely: A Northern Exposure Book is a 1992 novel by Ellis Weiner that features a collection of letters from characters from the show.
It was published by Pocket Books.
Tropes for the Novel:
- Continuity Snarl:
- Maurice does a disastrous job in every respect while performing as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, even though early episodes of the show established that, if nothing else, he is a good singer.
- Shelly's letter to her friend Cyndy talks about how Cyndy's husband Wayne came to pick her up from Cicely, but in Cyndy's only known visit to the town in the series, she drove out of town on her own and Wayne never made an appearance.
- A retrospective example occurs with Maggie's brother, who she refers to as Jack in her letters but who gets the name Jeffrey when he finally appears in person in the show several months after this book's release.
- Demoted to Extra: Ruth-Anne only gets to provide her point of view through one or two letters in the book due to spending most of the story too busy with an influx of additional responsibilities after the whole town develops insomnia, which makes them keep buying things from her store (requiring her to order replacements) or giving her more letters to mail almost nonstop.
- Epistolary Novel: It features letters from characters like Joel, who is thanking his parents for sending him lox from New York and asking for a recipe, it being smoked salmon and all.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: the structure of the book has Joel, Ed, Chris, and other characters writing letters to friends and family.
- Insomnia Episode: Cicely has to deal pandemic where residents are having problems sleeping and Joel reaching out to different institutions for research on sleep to try to solve the problem.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Chris is a lot less tranquil and mellow than usual when each of the three old girlfriends he invited to town (expecting only one of them would come) all arrive on the same plane, although he narrowly avoids their wrath by convincing them to try Polyamory.
- As Joel and Maggie excitedly talk about how the townwide insomnia spell broke after waking up two days later, they realize that another character was driving over to see them right before everyone started getting tired again and that if he fell asleep while driving, he must have crashed (although the guy escapes with minor injuries).
- The Plague: The town is hit with an insomnia pandemic that lasts for weeks, with one incident being Maggie falling asleep while flying a plane with Joel, just barely avoiding crashing it.
- Tie-In Novel: To the show Northern Exposure, with characters like Joel, Maggie, Maurice, and Ed writing letters to loved ones and what is going on in the town.
