Mister Pip

Written by Lloyd Jones

Narrated by Susan Lyons

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Lloyd Jones' Mister Pip is a modern tragedy set on a tiny copper-rich tropical island emabattled by internal strife. Thirteen-year-old Matilda watches as all the foreigners flee her homeland-all but one, the white man Mr. Watts. Amidst the ruins of the town schoolhouse, Watts reads Dickens' Great Expectations to the children, thus sparking their imaginations and giving them hope in a chaotic world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 3, 2008
• ISBN: 9781436116992

Reviews for Mister Pip

[vivienner_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a beautiful story that grabs the attention immediately. Until about halfway through the book I thought it would warrant five-stars but then it took a different direction and lost steam towards the end. One problem with the book is that it inspired no sense of place. I couldn't relate the book with the place. It prompted me to read some articles about Papua New Guinea, none of which sounded remotely like the country in Jones' story. What attracted me in the beginning was that someone without any teaching experience was using Great Expectations to give children a school-like experience. I fully expected it to continue in that vein and was disappointed. The details about civil war and mining were tantalizing, without actually providing any real information - although I could have done without the more gruesome parts. Maybe Jones thought as it was all so recent the reader would be more well-informed.Still, this winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for First Book is a good read.

[bridgey_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Didn't really know what to make of this book...... I definately don't feel that it deserves all the awards and accolades that I have read in other reviews and the press. Like so many so called 'great' novels, not a lot really happens and I often found myself checking how many pages were left until the end.The plot is quite simple, an island in the pacific is in the grip of a civil war. The only white man in the near vicinity decides to help the children by becoming their teacher. He seemingly only has one book that he reads to them a chapter at a time. The book is Great Expectations. The book is written through the eyes of the main character, who through her reading of the book makes several comparrisons to her own life and leans upon the storyline for moral support and guidance. There are many sub plots throughout the 200+ pages, many of them to do with class and race, but I never felt that any of them were explored enough and often, when introduced just took away my attention from the already thin storyline.To be honest, if I had to sum up the book I would say that it was easy to read and contained some fairly interesting points. But I would mostly say that all the hype is just a case of the emporers clothes. I have given the book 3 stars instead of two as I really liked the way certain characters met their end - very unexpected.

[eleanor_eader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book engaged, bored, gripped, shocked and then lost me again, leaving me with an uneven impression of its overall worth… it might have helped if I felt even a modicum of the warmth that Matilda, the principal character, did for the characters of Great Expectations. No one who has ever lost themselves in a world of books to escape parts of their childhood will find it hard to identify with Matilda during the majority of this book, and the story of her life on the island was very well told; but during the last thirty or so pages, the entire ending seems to wander off, the book tries to do something else, and left this reader a little disappointed. An okay read, though I can understand why some might have enjoyed it far more than I.

[tandah_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book largely takes place in a remote village on Bouganville, whose young men previously employed with the (now closed) mines have taken to the jungles as rebels, at war with the ever-threatening Redskins. Left behind are the older men, women, children and Mr Watts. Mr Watts takes on the role of educating the children, largely using 'Great Expecations' and inviting the parents kids in to pass on what they know to the children. Whilst there's a underlying sense of foreboding and reality, because of the innocence/ unworldliness/ community of the village and the telling of the enthusiastic younger Matilda, it feels magical.

[bookmart_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This took a little getting into but worth the effort.

[csegura-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A young girl in a forgotten island where war has installed itself.

This is the starting point for a brilliant story written by Lloyd Jones.

Matilda’s the young girl that narrates the whole story, with the help of her unexpected teacher she strolls through the XIX century England, using as a guide the novel of Charles Dickens, “Great Expectations”.

This book tells us about courage, friendship and loyalty, it also points out the enormous atrocities that the human being is able to do, and it reminds us all that even though you can’t live through books, you can always find shelter in them, a place to hide when reality is so awful that either you escape it, or you lose yourself.

But the true aspect of the book, the one in which Matilda will find herself thinking constantly is the ability of a person to be himself, not the one that everybody pressures us to be, but to be true to our feelings and opinions and to stand by them, even if it means that by doing that we will be against everybody else.

I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.

A recommended reading for all of those that, like me, think a book is more than just a story, a book can be a friend. And I bet that in the end you’ll be friends of Matilda… and of that mysterious character called Mr. Pip.

[ali1stegs · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Amazing and brutal.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Matilda and other natives are left without a teacher when most foreigners and some natives leave one of Papua New Guinea's islands due to fighting among warring revolutionary factions. Mr. Watts, the one white man on the island, assumes the role of teacher even though he is far from qualified. He shares Dickens' work Great Expectations with the children who in turn share it with their families. Dickens' fictional character "Pip" is central to the story as Matilda embraces this character. Mr. Watts, who had been known as Pop Eye, is now often called Mr. Pip. The significance of Pip follows Matilda throughout her life. This is the first book I ever remember reading with a Papua New Guinea setting. The book was set in the early 1990s, and it's unsettling that such atrocities as those committed by some of the warring factions happened that late in the 20th century. This is not a book for the squeamish. This book is well worth the read to celebrate the power of language and literature.

[barbaretta_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mr Pip is fiction set in an historically accurate context of the civil war in Bougainville in the 1990s - a contemporary conflict, and for Australians, one that is on our door step.The story is told through the eyes of a young village woman, Matilda. It has an originality of theme and approach. Great Expectations is used as a framework for much of the narrative – so for lovers of Dickens, to meet an old favourite in this clever way is a wonderful “added value” to the read. There is also clever commentary on cultural imperialism, without it ever actually being directly mentioned.The book’s many layers and themes were skilfully interwoven to the extent that it defies attempts to box it neatly into a genre. It is a mystery, a war story, a love story, historical fiction….The technical quality of the plot development, the use of Matilda as story teller and the seamless way it moved from Bougainville to Townsville and then New Zealand was exemplary. There is beautiful use of language, a style that is factual, and almost non emotive while at the same time, telling an emotionally charged and powerful story. The character development, the way Jones treats human frailties and the cameos – especially Grace’s story – are highlights.Be prepared for violence and tragedy and an ending that perhaps isn’t what it could have been. But most importantly, the book taught me something. I had heard about Bougainville of course, but until reading Mr Pip it was just another conflict of the many in the world. On finishing the book I was moved to find out more.

[bibliophileofalls · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a strange book. One I won't quickly forget. The first 3/4 of the book seemed quite lovely--a book about a book. The book is "Great Expectations" and is the only book the school or the schoolteacher has. And what a strange schoolteacher. The book has a delightful almost lyrical tilt to it until the violence of modern day terrorist warfare rears its ugly head. The ending is OK but you can't help but feel empathy for Matilda and all she has gone through. Not exactly for the feinthearted.

[mlarge_5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I truly enjoyed this book… a coming of age story about Matilda, who lives on a remote island off the coast of Papua New Guinea (what an exotic location!). Mr. Pip is the only white person living in the island, and after he decides he is going to be the school master, he begins to read aloud to his pupils Dickens’s Great Expectations. There are some scenes that depict violence in the island due to the “rebellion;” however, the story is wonderfully crafted: the plot, and the characters make this a great read, despite the violent scenes.

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the story of Matilda, a 13-year-old girl whose island home is in the grip of war. All the white people leave the island, except for Mr. Watts who is married to a local woman. He is an eccentric, often seen wearing a clown's nose and pulling his wife around the village on a trolly. Mr. Watts decides to open the village school, and to read the children Dickens' "Great Expectations". This is a story about the power of reading and of imagination. It is also a story about loyalty. As Matilda becomes fascinated by Pip, she begins to pull away from her mother. Her mother both betrays and defends Mr. Watts as his own story becomes known in the village. And Mr. Watts' loyalty to his sick wife comes at the price of an earlier betrayal.I found the ending, once Matilda is grown up, not as convincing as the rest of the story. Her transition to life with her father and her meeting with Mr. Watts' first wife weren't as developed as the earlier parts of the novel; things just wrapped up a bit too quickly.But, still an excellent story well worth reading.

[bookwoman247 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When Matilda is 13, revolution strikes the island where she lives.After the school was forced to close, Mr. Watts, the only white person left on the island, re-opens the school, though he has no experience teaching.When he begins to read from Great Expectations, Matilda becomes enthralled with the story of Pip.As the war progresses, the village, which had remained largely unaffected, is visited in turn by both the rebels and the soldiers. When questioning by the soldiers leads to a misunderstanding directly related to the reading of Great Expectations, tragedy results.I loved this book, which drew me in from the beginning. I loved the character of Mr. Watts, who, at first was saintly - almost too good to be true. The author did an excllent job of showing him to be less than perfect later in the story, creating a much more well-rounded character.I've heard a lot of complaints about the ending, but I think it fits beautifully with the transformative theme of Great Expectations. The only weakness I saw was with the character of Matilda's father, as pointed out to me in a discussion with a friend. It felt as though the author, having created the character, didn't know what to do with him. Otherwise, the book and the ending were excellent!

[harvreviewer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Every avid reader has had the experience of being drawn so deeply into a narrative by the skill of a talented writer that real boundaries suddenly yield to the life of the imagination. In his captivating novel Mister Pip, New Zealander Lloyd Jones richly celebrates that magical experience.Mister Pip is set on Bougainville, a small island off the coast of Papua New Guinea that finds itself in the midst of a bloody civil war between government soldiers known as “redskins,” and rebels dubbed “rambos.” Soon the rambos shut down the island’s copper mine and the redskins respond with a naval blockade. The island’s inhabitants, including the narrator of the novel, a bright and engaging thirteen-year-old named Matilda, are thrust into a struggle for survival.In the midst of this turmoil, an enigmatic white man named Mr. Watts, nicknamed “Pop Eye” by the island's children, steps forward to assume the duties of their teacher. Recognizing that circumstances preclude the teaching of a conventional curriculum, he instead introduces his students to Charles Dickens’ classic, Great Expectations. From the first chapter, Matilda and her classmates identify with the story of the orphan Pip, striving to relate his experiences in mid-19th century England to the harsh realities of their own lives. When the text from which Mr. Watts has been reading mysteriously disappears, the children demonstrate the extraordinary degree to which they’ve internalized the story by their ability to reconstruct much of the novel’s plot from memory.Like many hungry for control, the warring factions recognize the subversive power of great literature and Mr. Watts’ infatuation with Great Expectations ends in violence and tragedy. But in an emotionally powerful coda to the story, Matilda reveals how her life has been changed irrevocably by the love of literature inspired by Dickens’ novel. Mister Pip has been published to great acclaim in Australia and the United Kingdom, and was the recipient of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award 2007. It’s a generous and moving exploration of the almost miraculous way in which books can transport any reader across vast expanses of space and time.

[alluvia_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

You need not have read Great Expectations to love this little book, but it certainly makes reading it all the more interesting.Excellent story-telling with (mostly) believable, sympathetic and quirky characters in a far-off island setting. Twists to the story that one doesn't expect but which remind us solidly of the good and evil in human nature. For all its flaws, there is some relationship between "Mr Pip" (Watts) and the narrator (Matilda) that is touching and engaging.Recommend.

[kambrogi_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thirteen-year-old Matilda lives a precarious existence with her mother on an island in the South Pacific that has been torn apart by conflict, causing the white entrepreneurs (who once brought them jobs and modern goods) to flee. When one white eccentric who remains offers to teach the children at the abandoned school, he uses Dickens’ Great Expectations as his only text, and this story reveals itself through and in response to that Dickens' classic. As a coming of age tale, it presents a believable sense of place and people, highlighting the potential opportunities and dangers inherent in tampering with the culture of others. It takes a turn toward excessive violence later on, to a degree that is not expected in the gently unfolding tale, and Jones fails to provide his protagonist – a sensitive child – with a believable response to this. I also had to wonder whether someone who hadn’t read Great Expectations would fully appreciate the story, however I can’t speak to that. All-in-all, the story is compelling and the read was definitely worthwhile.

[rosenpage · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant! High literary values and a great story!

[dwate_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Matilda is a 13-year old village girl who tells the story of how the elderly Mr Wells takes on the unpaid job of teaching at the local school, and how he entrances the children with his reading and discussion of his one book - Great Expectations. Mr Wells (formerly known as Popeye) is the dishevelled white man who pulls his crazy wife along behind him on a trolley.The setting is Bougainville at the time of rebels fighting the New Guineans (“Red skins”) in the jungles. The village children have little concept of what the fighting is about, but they are attacked by both sides, with disastrous consequences. While villagers are raped, dispossessed and murdered, Mr Wells tries to continue his teaching. The Redskins discover that there is someone called Mister Pip in the village and insist that he is brought to them. They burn the village to the ground as punishment for his non-appearance. When a group of rebels arrive, Mr Wells declares he is Mister Pip and agrees to tell his life story over several days. All are fascinated by the stories, which appear to be a mixture of Pip’s and his own life experiences. However, the return of the redskins brings the murders of both Mr Wells and Matilda’s mother. Matilda eventually escapes to Australia and later writes her story. This is a beautifully written and imaginative novel, dealing with many moral dilemmas, as well as conveying the innocence of village life, shattered by conflict.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It comes as no surprise that I love a book that is about how a great novel can transform the life of a young black girl on a remote island in the South Pacific. Matilda and her mother live on Bougainville part of the Solomon Islands. Matilda's father is in Australia working when civil war breaks out on the island. He can't return and no-one can leave the island. All the white people that worked for the copper mine or the school or the church have left except for Mr. Watts. Mr. Watts is married to a local woman so he stays behind in order to be with her. Mrs. Watts sometimes appears standing on a small platform that Mr. Watts tows around while he wears a red clown nose. Thus, Mr. and Mrs. Watts are figures of derision to the local people but when Mr. Watts says he will teach the children quite a few of them show up. Mr. Watts captures the children's attentions by reading to them from Great Expectations. Soon Matilda and the rest of the children are enthralled by the story of Pip. Matilda draws the name "Pip" in the sand above the high tide land and decorates the letters. This draws the attention of the government soldiers who demand to meet "Mr. Pip". Mr. Watts explains that Pip is a fictional character and Matilda is sent to bring Great Expectations from the school. But Matilda is unable to find the book so the leader of the government force orders that everything from all the villagers' huts be burned. This is the first of increasingly violent reprisals by the government soldiers who become obsessed with finding Mr. Pip. Even without the book the children are able to recover segments of it from their mind and they go about reconstructing the book. Nearly every child is connected to the story although Matilda, perhaps, has a deeper connection. At least Mr. Watts seems to believe so and he wants Matilda to survive. That looks to be difficult as the government soldiers become more frustrated with the inability to find Mr. Pip.I can see how these children could become entranced with Dickens' writing. I believe that his books are best appreciated orally. The sentences that look unwieldy on paper flow when they are read aloud, especially by someone who is a trained actor. I read Great Expectations when I was in school which is a long time ago but I can still recall certain scenes vividly. However, some things mentioned in Mr. Pip I had forgotten altogether. The library has a digital recording of Great Expectations. I think it's time to load it on my PDA and immerse myself in this wonderful story.

[kirstiecat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm still not entirely clear how I feel about this novel, mainly because there are some absolutely brilliant and astounding elements in the way the author pits religion against Dickens and develops a very profound story. I was absolutely in awe of certain parts of what this book was able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. It speaks about genocide equally with imagination, which is very strange.

At the same time, Mr. Watts, the only white man on the island is bringing to these children only Dickens..no novels from people who are minorities, for example. The book succeeds on this point only when it speaks of how it teaches them to relate to new people and places and to use their imagination. Still, the idea that Lloyd Jones, an older gentleman from NZ, can truly hope to know what little Matilda may have experienced discovering wonders and at the same time experiencing such severe brutality is a little naive. And yet, it's difficult not to get wrapped up in her story.

Basically, and I hate to say it, but if it had been a true story and written exactly as is, it would get 5/5 stars. As a work of fiction written by Jones I am more skeptical.

I will say I read this book while working out at my gym and at one point my silent sobs and sweat probably disguised my tears a bit. Yes, it made me cry and cry and cry. There's alot of revelations here that make the book very worth reading.

FAVORITE QUOTES:

pg. 40 "The great shame of trees is that they have no conscience. They just go on staring."

pg 45 "The trouble with Great Expectations is that it's a one-way conversation. There's no talking back. Otherwise I would have told Pip about my mum coming to speak to the class, and how, seeing her at a distance-even though only two desks back from the end of the room-she had appeared different to me. More hostile."

pg 255: "The tour ended back at Eastgate House. I followed the others up the stairs and there I encountered Miss Havisham in her white wedding gown. She was stuck behind glass, her back turned to us sightseers. There for all eternity. I wished she could turn, just for half an instant, to find a black woman staring at her."

[downstreamer_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an absolutely pitch perfect piece of writing, which manages to be both simple and profound at the same time, without being too clever for its own good (like, say ... The Life of Pi). Jones adopts the voice of Matilda, an 11 year old girl on the isolated island of Bougainville, near Papua New Guinea. It is through her eyes that events unfold, and her story is told authentically - with her limited point of view. Nonetheless, the resonances of Matilda's observations are profound and wide ranging. A masterpiece.

[cariola_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful book about the power of the written word (when mixed with the reader's imagination) to change lives and/or make them bearable. Also questions the meaning of heroism in a violent world and examines the role one influential person can play in shaping the life of a young person. Jones creates a unique and believeable voice for his narrator, 12-year old Matilda, and his depiction of her life in a remote Solomon Islands village torn by political war is both engaging and devastating. It's not hard to understand why Matilda and her classmates so eagerly enter the world of Dickens's Pip as a means of escape from the poverty and violence of their own lives. Mr. Watts, the last white man left on the island, a man known for wearing a red nose and carting his very large wife about in a trolley, finds himself cast in the role of teacher. Ill prepared, the best he can do is share with his students his love of "Mister Dickens's greatest novel," Great Expectations. In their world, Pip's story becomes a fragment of reality onto which they can hold.My only negative comment about this novel is that the last 30 pages or so, after the climax, seem rahter rushed. But all is forgiven when the book as a whole is considered.

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"You cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wallpaper is in flames."Mister Pip is a short book, little more than a novella but still manages to deliver a considerable emotional impact. Set amongst a little known recent civil war this sad tale of loss, betrayal and hope is an affirmation of the power of storytelling on, in this case, a young girl's imagination.When civil war breaks out on the Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville, all those who can leave does so. Those who are left behind struggle to maintain their simple village existence in a war zone, repeatedly raided by soldiers and rebels in turn.The book centres around Matilda, a thirteen year old girl whose father has long since left for Australia in search of employment and where she along with her mother was due to him before the escalating fighting made that impossible. With the school closed Matilda and all the other village children struggle to fill their free time and ignore the dangerous situation they are all trapped in until one day an unlikely source volunteers to reopen the school and teach them.His name was Mr Watts but the villagers called him ‘Pop Eye’ for the way his eyes bulged out of his head. He is also the last white man on the island. Dressed in a white linen suit he, along with his wife Grace, has long been a source of fascination for the locals. Despite having no teaching experience Mr Watts tells the schoolchildren he wants their schoolroom to be ‘a place of light. No matter what happens’. He invites various villagers to come into the classroom and give the children the benefit of their experience but also produces a copy of Dicken's 'Great Expectations' which he reads to them a chapter at a time.As the book progresses the children are shown the ability of stories to transport us to another world, to Victorian England where they are able to escape the violence and uncertainty of their own lives. Each night the children retell the days reading to their equally engrossed families meaning Pip and his life become increasingly real for them.Matilda in particular takes Pip to her heart feeling them to be kindred spirits. She too knows about having an absent father. However, her mother, Dolores, is distrustful of Mr Watts questioning the educational value of stories over real-life skills and as a zealous Christian she views Mr Watts and his stories as a subversive, godless, influence on the children, yet almost against her wishes she too is engrossed with the story of Pip.As the villagers are increasingly exposed to the brutality of the war around them Matilda draws further into the world of Dickens and wonders whether she will have to choose between her mother’s world and Mr Watts’. When soldiers come to village a misunderstanding leads to their leader to believe Pip to be a real person, a spy for the rebels, who the villagers are protecting. The soldiers return on three separate but when the villagers are unable to produce Pip they are subjected to ever increasing brutality with dire consequences for Mr Watts. Matilda will witness loyalty and betrayal, heroism and vengeance, and will be surprised by what she she discovers about the people closest to her.Short-listed for the 2007 Booker Prize and despite it's brevity, roughly 220 pages, packs a considerable punch. The action comes thick and fast and although the humanising importance of storytelling is the most obvious theme it is certainly not the only one. Colonial and post-colonial attitudes also come to the fore. The rebels are fighting for self-determination against invaders from the capitol. Matilda’s father left the island to seek employment in Australia, an experience that has inevitably changed him whilst Mr Watts’ wife, Grace, herself an islander who returned deeply altered by the outside world. Similarly the missionaries who gave Dolores and her prayer group their unquenchable faith causes them to battle for the heart and mind of Matilda and the other children against a more secular view of the world represented by Mr Watts’. Likewise the now defunct copper mine is seeping pollution into the local environ yet the villagers still miss the income and opportunities that it provided.By Australian government estimates, the civil war took 15,000-20,000 lives, and was the worst conflict in the Pacific since the Second World War, and yet was barely noticed by the rest of the world but unlike that conflict this book deserves to be more widely read and known. Sometimes the best things come in small packages and this is certainly a little gem

[bungo_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lovable, but sad. Reads like a true story.

[ceridwynr · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thought this was a brilliant novel. The switch from idyllic exotic setting to terrifying and devastating violence was harsh and disturbing. I enjoyed the way the change in Matilda’s innocence was echoed in me as a reader, even though I found the chapter where the violence and murders were described very difficult to read.I enjoyed how visceral everything was, and how having a young woman as a narrator allowed the reader to be drawn into the world that is the only thing she knows. This would be an excellent book to use in the YA vs Adult question as the reader is very close to Matilda, but the themes and description of the results of guerrilla war make it difficult to label this book anything but adult literature.I’m really interested to know how much Lloyd Jones identifies with Mr Watts and whether he ever spent time in Bougainville, because it would have been so easy for him to narrate the novel (well, apart from the obvious plot issues). But making him the outsider is just one of the genius strokes of how the novel is narrated. I was concerned about a middle-aged white NZ male using a young, black, Pasifika female as narrator but I think it works really well and doesn’t feel at all colonised or patronising (until Matilda leaves the Pacific and comes to Australia and then into the white world, when it becomes much more stilted).The setting is the conflict in Bougainville in the very early 1990s – a small backwater island ignored by much of the world, but fighting for independence from Papua New Guinea and the ravages of Australian mining corporations. The conflict is so recent and yet so unknown it is easy to think of Matilda’s island as some idyllic Pacific island for a long time, even though the hints of disaster and violence occur throughout the novel. Telling the story through a fictionalised narrator allows the reader to discover it as the story happens rather than giving a sequence of dates and political actions that have little human impact. In Mr Pip 'Great Expectations' is used as a civilising/educative force for the children of the island (which has the potential to be cringingly awful given a post-colonial analysis) but instead it becomes something escapist, in both the positive and negative aspects of that word. Because Mr Watts also gets the parents of the students to pass on their own knowledge it widens the way the story holds the audience.I’m not very familiar with 'Great Expectations' – I breezed through it lightly as a teenager, not really enjoying Dickens’ language. But, in Mr Pip, it seems to be to be a placeholder for great transformative work, that talks about story as universal to all people. Of course, the plot of Mr Pip follows 'Great Expectations' in some ways, but I think Mr Pip uses it as a representation, it’s a novel that many people know and therefore one that can be used as a springboard to themes of making something of yourself, of overcoming obstacles of birth and location to grow and understand.

[ladyn_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mister Pip is a wonderful book. I was gripped from the first page. Lloyd Jones writes with such wonderful description, and captures the narrative voice of a young girl, who's experiences lie no further than her small island, brilliantly. The only book at Matilda's school is Great Expectations. She finds a friend in Pip, and in following Dickens' story discovers a world beyond her own. Jones draws parallels between the lives of Matilda and Pip, but they are never intrusive - and perhaps not even always noticable.I found the use of metaphor and simile expertly executed, leaving the reader with a vivid appreciation of the Matilda's life.The story is at once heartfelt, beautiful and brutal. My one criticism is that I was not satisfied by the end. It seemed a little rushed and sudden compared with the careful development of the rest of the book. However, Mister Pip comes highly recommended.

[casualfriday_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an odd but compelling little book about an eccentric old man, Mr. Watts, who reads Great Expectations to a group of Pacific Island children whose lives have been shattered by civil war. The book is narrated by a young teen-aged girl, Matilda, who is so entranced by the character of Pip that it makes her mother jealous. When combatants (we are never told precisely who these fighters are; the two sides are called simply “redskins” and “rambos”) arrive on the island, they demand to meet this mysterious Mister Pip and do not believe that the villagers cannot produce him.Jones’s prose is simple and beautiful. The voice of Matilda is lyrical, but not precious. Her mother, Dolores, is a marvelous character. My only reservation is that the violence late in the book creates a tone that contrast so starkly with the book’s overall tone that it did not work for me. Doubtless Jones intended to shock his reader out of their dreams, but to me it seemed over the top.

[strandbooks_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Since I recently read Great Expectations I decided to pick this up. It follows a teenage girl, Matilda, on a small remote island in the south pacific. Due to conflict they are cut off from the rest of the world and live in fear of the fighting that is occuring (I don't know much about the history in this part of the world, and the author doesn't go into detail beyond Matilda's understanding of it). There is one eccentric white man left that becomes the children's teacher. He reads Great Expectations to the kids partly as an escape from their situation, but also to learn about themselves. The plot gets somewhat choppy at times, yet that is how life would be in the wartime situation that these villagers are facing.

[syrion_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Mister Pip is a strange novel. It's imperialist and racist, but cloaks it well enough that many intelligent and progressive people like the story it tells. Look at that story: young native kids are taught to have an imagination by the merest exposure to the great art of the British Empire. Somehow, Dickens has some relevance to their lives, and they come to appreciate the author and the storyteller--their aged, sagacious White Teacher--more than they do their own parents' stories. Of course, in the end, the White Teacher is destroyed by ignorant savages. That's the way all of these stories must end.

[bellettres · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I had a hard time sticking with this book. I enjoyed our book group's discussion of the novel, but would not rank it anywhere close to a favorite.