Mister Pip

By Lloyd Jones

In a novel that is at once intense, beautiful, and fablelike, Lloyd Jones weaves a transcendent story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the power of narrative to transform our lives.

On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with most everyone else, only one white man chooses to stay behind: the eccentric Mr. Watts, object of much curiosity and scorn, who sweeps out the ruined schoolhouse and begins to read to the children each day from Charles Dickens’s classic Great Expectations.

So begins this rare, original story about the abiding strength that imagination, once ignited, can provide. As artillery echoes in the mountains, thirteen-year-old Matilda and her peers are riveted by the adventures of a young orphan named Pip in a city called London, a city whose contours soon become more real than their own blighted landscape. As Mr. Watts says, “A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe.” Soon come the rest of the villagers, initially threatened, finally inspired to share tales of their own that bring alive the rich mythology of their past. But in a ravaged place where even children are forced to live by their wits and daily survival is the only objective, imagination can be a dangerous thing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 31, 2007
• ISBN: 9780440337164

Reviews for Mister Pip

[nancynova · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Part fable and part true, set on the island of Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea during a civil war. Matilda's village is black, except for one white man, Mr. Watts, He decides to educate the children, using Dicken's Great Expectations. Because it's such a treat and doled out in small doses, the story appeals to the children, making Pip almost real. Unfortunately, this has disastrous consequences when the rebel fighters and the red soldiers discover their village.

[lovinglit · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have long put off reading this book on account of disliking the cover. What I fool I was. But I do like to be proven foolish if it means I get a great reading experience. And this was just that. Young Matilda is a smart girl. She lives in a small isolated village in Papua New Guinea with her mother. Most of the young men of the village are absent, either gone for money-making or more likely living in the jungle, part of the groups of rebels who are fighting the "red-skins", the government militia, for control of their island paradise and the mining rights that come with it. Matilda and the other village kids find an unlikely teacher in Mr Watts, the only white man around. The story of his being there is unravelled amongst the story of island life in the grips of civil war, and it is all intertwined in his reading aloud and study of the classic story Great Expectations. Mr Watts is a reluctant teacher, but quietly passionate goodness and more vocally so about the story of Great Expectations. Matilda is enthralled by Dickens' Pip, and as the villagers are caught in the middle of the rebels and the red-skins, this character takes on a significance that no one could see coming. Let's just say it is not all roses.The writing is measured and calm, it is the voice of a girl whose story it is. For this reason, as with most books voiced by young people, I found a slight lack of depth to the story. But that same spare voice and factual telling was so appropriate for someone's telling of such an emotionally loaded story. I loved it.

[ireadthereforeiam · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have long put off reading this book on account of disliking the cover. What I fool I was. But I do like to be proven foolish if it means I get a great reading experience. And this was just that. Young Matilda is a smart girl. She lives in a small isolated village in Papua New Guinea with her mother. Most of the young men of the village are absent, either gone for money-making or more likely living in the jungle, part of the groups of rebels who are fighting the "red-skins", the government militia, for control of their island paradise and the mining rights that come with it. Matilda and the other village kids find an unlikely teacher in Mr Watts, the only white man around. The story of his being there is unravelled amongst the story of island life in the grips of civil war, and it is all intertwined in his reading aloud and study of the classic story Great Expectations. Mr Watts is a reluctant teacher, but quietly passionate goodness and more vocally so about the story of Great Expectations. Matilda is enthralled by Dickens' Pip, and as the villagers are caught in the middle of the rebels and the red-skins, this character takes on a significance that no one could see coming. Let's just say it is not all roses.The writing is measured and calm, it is the voice of a girl whose story it is. For this reason, as with most books voiced by young people, I found a slight lack of depth to the story. But that same spare voice and factual telling was so appropriate for someone's telling of such an emotionally loaded story. I loved it.

[kmstock · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An engaging story about a girl growing up on Bougainville, in the midst of the war there, and the influence of Great Expectations on her life. Enjoyable, but I somehow felt as though it could have carried on - as though it was only part of a book, maybe because it is quite short.

[hardlyhardy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anyone who believes that literature is more than just good stories will be entranced by "Mister Pip," the 2006 novel by Lloyd Jones, a New Zealand writer. It tells about an aging white man named Tom Watts who lives on a small island off the coast of New Guinea with his native wife. Although he has no experience as a teacher, he is asked to become the teacher for the children of the island.Watts considers Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" to be the greatest novel ever written, so he uses his copy of the book as his school's only textbook. Reading the novel to his class, one chapter each day, he makes it the basis for wide-ranging discussions.The narrator of "Mister Pip" is Matilda, a girl in her early teens who becomes Watts' best student. Her devotion to "Great Expectations" and Pip, the book's main character, puts her in the middle of a conflict between Watts and her mother, a devout woman who distrusts this white man with strange ideas. After the book is lost, thanks to the actions of the mother, Watts has his class reconstruct "Great Expectations" one fragment of memory at a time. One child recalls one incident from the story, while others remember different things.When soldiers engaged in a civil war on the island come to the village and demand to have the man named Pip brought before them, he cannot be shown to be just a character in a book because the book cannot be found.Tragedy follows, but Matilda eventually realizes her own great expectations, becoming a Dickens scholar after escaping to Australia."Mister Pip" is a notable novel about love and sacrifice, as well as about the power of great literature to sway people's lives.

[maggieflo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Matilda is a 13 year old girl on the island of bougainvillea, which becomes a victim of the rebellion in Port Moresby. Everyone has fled the island, including Matilda's father who is working for a mining company in Australia.The only remaining white man on the island, Mr Watts, opens the schools house and reads Great expectations to the children. There is an ongoing conflict between Matilda's mother and mr. Watts regarding the presence of God And the devil. The story ends in tragedy when rebel soldiers arrive to dispatch local Rambos. Although the story ends happily for Matilada, it is a different fate for many others. Matilda learns the truth about Mr. Watts when she visits his former wife in New Zealand. Good story. I have not read Great Expectations. Knowing the story would help. This wii now be on my To Read list.

[booklove2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I happen to love Great Expectations, so I wanted to read this one. I read recently that a few experts don't think Great Expectations is the best Dickens book. I keep thinking about it because I happen to think it's pretty darn good. I'm not sure, but the other copy I recently found of Mister Pip at the library book sale and is now buried in my shelves somewhere had a 'young adult' sticker on it. I hope not! This was brutal. Yet another example that all the YA books make me cry and the 'adult' books hardly ever do. I wanted to read this sooner rather than later because I've heard there is a movie being made, and I also know who one of the actors might be. Well, that sometimes ruins a book for me and it kind of did with this one. Matilda is a great character (and the name alone reminded me of Roald Dahl's Matilda, which seems fitting, I guess.) The last white man on an island reads Great Expectations to children as a way to distract them from war. But then it gets brutal fast. Very very brutal. I think what Jones was trying to say was... man, those Victorians had it easy. And it almost made me wish I was re-reading Great Expectations.

[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.

[laurenbdavis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I adored this book. Devoured it. Jones understands character like few other writers. MISTER PIP is narrated by Matilda, a young girl living on a copper-rich tropical island, torn apart by war. All the whites have fled, save for Mr. Watts, an odd old duck in a filthy linen suit who sometimes sports a red clown's nose. He is married to a mad local woman whom his pulls about in a wagon. With the sound of artillery in the distance, Mr. Watts cleans out the ruined schoolhouse and begins reading Dickens' classic GREAT EXPECTATIONS to his students (Matilda among them). Drunken militias lurk in the forests, wielding machetes, fire and horror, and yet Mr. Watts continues reading, continues building a wall of words against the impending terrors. A war story, a coming of age story, a love story -- this is, above all, a novel ABOUT books, and the power of books to expand understanding, develop morality and transform lives. It is also a brilliant (and I don't use that word lightly) character piece about a man whose "survival weapon was story." MISTER PIP was shortlisted for the Man Book Prize, and won the commonwealth Writer's Prize. It deserves all the accolades its received. Highly recommended.

[joanneds · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really loved this book. It was a book that swept me up through its many layers and explores how stories are able to transform lives and can provide a needed escape. The story is narrated by Matilda, who is a young girl living in a village on a Pacific Island, while a civil war is going fought over a copper mine in the 1990s. Matilda and the other children from the village are taught in a school by Mr. Watts, who is not a teacher, but is the last white inhabitant of the village. He reads them Great Expectations and the story goes from there. I would definitely recommend this book.

[mrn945_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Every once and a while a book will come along that affects you in a profound and moving way. I believe Mister Pip is one of those books.There was something really lovely about this novel. Mr. Jones managed to take a horrific situation - a civil war - and turn it into something beautiful and sensitive. There is a real feeling of humanity in the way he describes the characters and their lives. Despite all of the horror and sadness going on around the families, the focus is on the relationships between Mathilda and her mother, Matilda and her absent father, and Mathilda and her teacher.As Mathilda learns more about the outside world, she discovers ways to escape her surroundings. As per the title of the book, she does this through exploring the world of Charles Dickens Great Expectations and the world of Pip. Through Pip, Matilda discovers how to live and explore. Pip helps her death with the death and sadness around her - he becomes more than just a character, he becomes an integral part of her being.Eventually Mathilda leaves her world to discover another. However, she always carries with her the lessons she learned from Mister Pip and her old teacher back on the island. As a life-long lover of books, I can relate to how Mathilda clings to this character throughout her life. Even though her feelings towards Mr. Dickens and Pip change a bit as she grows, they are still this anchor to her childhood on the island.This may be one of the best books I've read in awhile. Now, I know I say that a lot, but I've been on a really good reading streak lately (in terms of quality, not quantity). This is one book though that I immediately added to my collection, and which I will probably return to in a few years fondly, lovingly. It really was quite amazing.

[cbjames_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There should be a designated sub-genre for books about books, a German word for it at least. Like Bildungsroman. Our new "German word" novel will be defined as a work of fiction where-in the reading of a particular book figures heavily as a plot element or forms a part of the overall narrative structure.In Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones the love of literature can change your life, save your life, or cost you your life. An entire village is destroyed because of one classic novel. The power of literature.Matilda, the narrator, lives with her mother in their village on one of the Solomon Islands during the 1980's, a time of civil war. The women and children who remain at home while most of the village men have gone off to find work or to fight in the war are isolated from world events and most of the modernity. They have little knowledge of anything beyond their own village. Until Mr. Watts, a white man who married one of the village girls when she went away to college, takes over the teaching duties in the village school. He brings some knowledge of math and science and a battered copy of Charles Dicken's novel, Great Expectations. He reads one chapter a day to the students, stopping to explain the words and the world of Dicken's England as he goes. The children are enthralled. So much so, that Matilda's mother begins to fear she is losing her daughter to the stories of Mister Pip.What begins as an amusing, charming story, in spite of its civil war setting, takes a turn for the violent when soldiers arrive. I cannot go further without risking a spoiler except to say that identity will play a key role in the rest of the novel, just as it did in Great Expectations. Which brings me back to the issue raised in the opening above. If we can find the correct "German word" to go with our definition, we'll need to come up with a set of exemplars, characteristics that help us evaluate how good a "German word" novel Mister Pip is. I'm going to argue that it's quite good. On the surface, Great Expectations teaches Matilda a lesson about taking charge of one's own destiny, about the possibility of becoming someone new, someone you choose to be. Mr. Watts has done this himself by moving to the island village just as Pip did it by moving to London in Great Expectations. Matilda will make her own attempt in the closing pages of the novel. But closer inspection of Mister Pip reveals a much greater depth of connection with Great Expectations. An excellent "German word" novel must do more than simply feature a character who reads and is moved by classic literature. It must integrate classic literature into itself. Mister Pip is full of connections with Great Expectations. The more I look the more I find. Each novel opens with a brief dissertation on how a main character came to have his unusual name. Both novels deal with people who try to leave their early upbringing behind them. Both novels feature a mother figure who tries to use a 'daughter' to get revenge on a man. Both mother figures die by violence. Miss Havisham dies from the burns she suffered when her wedding dress caught fire while Matilda's mother is the cause of her village's destruction by fire. In both cases, each women brings about tragedy through their own stubborn behavior. Matilda's mother and Miss Havisham share the same character. I could argue that Matilda's mother is one part Miss Havisham and one part Mrs. Gargery, Pip's hardened older sister who raises him 'by hand.' Both novels feature education throughout many chapters and in both education will alienate the protagonists from family members they love. Both feature protagonists who must conceal the identity of a strange man who wants to help them. Both feature an attempt to escape the authorities by boat in their closing chapters and both attempts end with the same result. If a good "German word" novel reflects the classic literature its characters read within its own plot structure, then Mister Pip is a very good "German word" novel. Now if the Germans will just come up with the right word.

[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.

[drusus_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mister Pip is about the thirteen-year-old Matilda who lives on an island in the Pacific. There is a civil war somewhere on the mainland and the island is under constant threat. All the island's white men flee, but one Mr. Watts, who agree to be the village teachers. He begins to read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens for children. Children who are unaccustomed reader, is nevertheless very soon swallowed up by the book and the main character, Mr.. Pip. Matilda is fascinated by the book and the children's relatives are also involved in Mr.. Watt's narrative. Matilda's mother likes the other hand, not reading, as she says it interferes with more important in life, Christianity. When the book is finished reading it disappears without a trace, this not only helps consequences for Matilda, but for the whole village! Mister Pip is a beautiful, poetic narrative novel. It is not only a tribute to Great Expectations, but also to the proceeds of reading in general!

[gwendolyndawson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Civil war has broken out on an island called Bougainville in the early 1990s. All the whites have fled except one: Mr. Watts, a New Zealander married to a local woman. Mr. Watts takes over as the only teacher at the village school, and he reads aloud Dickens' Great Expectations to his students. Great Expections becomes the village children's refuge from the conflict engulfing their world.This is more of a parable than a fully developed novel, and many of the characters seem like types more than richly drawn individuals. I like that the plot attempts to depict the life-changing power of literature, but the story is also a bit trite in many places.

[penguin7316 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A young girl's view of life during the blockade of Bougainville. The school is run by the last remaining white man in the area who uses Dickens' "Great expectations" to capture his young pupils and expand their horizons.

[heff100 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I couldn't like this book, despite the efforts it was making to be my friend. Twee, maudlin, embarassingly padded out to make it novella length, formulaic, often truly toe curling. It will probably win the Booker. If a book could change your life this would not be it (nor would Dickens for that matter).

[tibobi · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story takes place on the island of Bougainville during its 1990 struggle for independence. I did not know anything about Bougainville prior to reading this novel but Jones paints a very surreal picture as far as the island itself. The word that came to mind while reading the novel is "dreamlike" even though there is a violent element running throughout the book, there are distinct moments of feeling as if you are in a dream or a nightmare depending on how you look at it.The story centers around Mr. Watts and Matilda. Mr. Watts is the only white man on the island. He lives with a black woman named Grace. The two are often seen following one another but no one really knows much about him. After all the teachers leave the island, Mr. Watts decides to re-open the schoolhouse. The inhabitants of the island have mixed feelings about this. They are curious about this man, but they also question his ability to teach.At their first gathering, Mr. Watts takes out a copy of Great Expectations and begins to read passages to them. His intent is to introduce them to Mr. Dickens and that is just what he does. As the days pass and they get deeper into the book, Matilda, one of his pupils begins to talk about the book with her Mum back at their hut. Her Mum begins to question what is being taught to these kids and questions why specific parts of the book have not been removed.As if in preparation for this, Mr. Watts begins to invite the parents to come talk to the class and gives them the opportunity to "teach" the kids about a topic that they are familiar with. One mother does cooking, one discusses the life cycle of the Mayfly. All are welcomed and all are made to feel as if they contributed. Even though Matilda's Mum participates in these guest lectures, she continues to question the motives of this white man.I can't say much more without giving some of the story away, but the story begins to examine what is fiction and what is not and how interwoven their lives are with the lives contained between the pages of Great Expectations. Lloyd does a fantastic job of leading you along and lulling you into a sense of calm, only to shake you up and create visuals that you just cannot get out of your mind.Mister Pip is easy to read, yet has some very deep themes. I recommend some additional reading on the island of Bougainville. You can read a little about the island here.

[moniica_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Synopsis: Set in the Pacific Islands during a civil war over a copper mine, Mister Pip is narrated by a 13 year-old girl who suffers from the war along with her village. Mr Watts, the last remaining white inhabitant decides to reopen the school and teach the children and reads the story Great Expectations to them. The children, including Matilda, become obsessed with the story as it provides them some hope on their blockaded island. However, Matilda is the lucky one who managed to escape after the redskins returned after burning their possessions and destroying their homes, and in her new life in Australia she embarks on writing a thesis on the life-changing story Great Expectations. My Opinion: Easy to read due to the flowing writing style. Jones brings us into a world where storytelling provides the children a means of escape and meaning into their lives.

[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.

[gaskella_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

With its lovely cover, and the promise of Dickensian fun in paradise, I was easily lured into this novel. I'll admit that having missed most of the hype about it when it came out, I was expecting a soft and lightly humorous novel along the lines of the The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. It didn't take long for these fanciful notions to be dispelled and replaced with less cosy and rather greater expectations! The story is narrated by Matilda, looking back at the events that happened on Bougainville, her Pacific island home when she was fourteen. It's the 1990s, and there is civil unrest brewing on the island, which has yet to reach the end where Matilda lives. School has been shut for some time and everyone is surprised when Mr Watts decides to reopen it. Mr Watts, whom the kids all call Pop Eye, is the last white man living in the village. He promises to introduce the children to Mr Dickens - and initially their hopes are dashed when Mr Dickens is found to be a long-dead author. When Mr Watts starts to read Great Expectations to them, one chapter a day it piques their interest, for Mr Watts turns out to be a natural storyteller. Matilda and the other children take Pip to their hearts. The book allows their imagination to fly beyond their island boundaries and confirms to them that there is another world out there. Matilda's god-fearing mother is suspicious of Mr Dickens and the faithless Mr Watts, and their war of words is a highlight of the novel. However civil war intervenes with the arrival of the brutal `Redskins' who have seen a word Matilda spelt out in seashells on the sand - `Pip'. Demanding to see Pip, things rapidly turn nasty and the novel takes on sombre tone, and Mr Watts will prove that he is a good and decent man. The parallels with Dickens abound, but I must admit my limited familiarity with Great Expectations really comes from the classic black and white film with John Mills as Pip rather than the book, which I read at school. I think that if you know the Dickens well, this novel will fascinate on a different level - without that, I did feel inspired to read the Dickens properly sometime soon. It did evoke a picture of a life very different to our own successfully I thought - it would have been idyllic if not for the war. When the insurgents turned up, the pace upped a notch, and in the later stages there was a certain amount of convenient wrapping up at the end, which fell a little flat for me. It was an enjoyable read, and if a book can make you want to read Dickens, that must be alright!

[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!

[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.

[donna828 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mr. Watts opened a door to another world when he opened the pages of Great Expectations and began reading. His makeshift school was on a tropical island near New Zealand with the sounds of war in the background. It had no textbooks--only the imaginations of the students and the experiences of the villagers who shared their everyday wisdom.This small book charmed me until the tone became ugly when the soldiers threatened the islanders. Instead of magic and storytelling, there was an atmosphere of fear and betrayal. Mr. Watts, the lone white man, became a pariah through no fault of his. Matilda, the 13-year-old narrator, faithfully recounts the story of the elusive Mister Pip, the consequences of ignorance, and how imagination was restored when all else was lost. Despite some horrific scenes, I still recommend the book. It is a must for Dickens' fans.

[finchesghost · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fans of Great Expectations, of which I am one, should enjoy this story. Seeing the power of fiction to alter peoples' lives is a great experience and should compel one to reflect on the effect literature has had on their own lives.

[smithsj01_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A nice fable with a few points for readers to reflect on, on completion. I found it difficult to get in to but eventually settled into Lloyd Jones' story. The book is set on a tropical island where Mr Watts is the only white man. I believe it could have been a little shorter as parts of the narrative are long winded and unnecessary. I enjoyed Matilda's quest throughout the novel; she is in turmoil for the truth and at times doesn't know who to go to - her mother or Mr Watts. The suffering in the novel is dreadful and yet I didn't feel enough was made of this. I found myself wanting to know more of that than the continual passages with the school children listening to Mr Watts read from `Great Expectations'. I actually found this played upon too much and the atrocities resulting from war did not seem to be the focus of the novel; taking a back seat at times. The novel itself is very well written which is one of the main reasons I was able to remain focused during the laborious sections. Having not read any of the short listed books for the Man Booker Prize I am unable to comment on its worth in that respect. I did find the ending very strange and out of synch with the rest of the novel.

[kewing_12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Unfolding slowly, written with beautiful simplicity, building plot and characters with complexity and emotional resonance--a captivating coming of age story. Appropriately, the denouement is long and lingering.

[pam1furney · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A sweet and sad story about imagination and finding literature in the wilds of Papua New Guinea. A lovely read.

[kvanuska_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

While I thrive on mulling over books, Mister Pip might win my prize for most mulled book this year. I finished Mister Pip in mid-August and blogged a bit about it here. However, each time I've sat down to write this review, I'd remember the ending and stop. Can a book's ending deflate an otherwise brilliant book? Well ... yes, unfortunately for Mister Pip, it can.Thirteen-year old Mathilda lives in a small village on an unnamed Pacific island that's caught up in a war to possess its copper-wealth. Separated from her father, who has gone to work in Australia, and stuck with her mother, a religious fanatic, Mathilda finds solace and escape in her daily school lessons with Mr. Watts, the island's only white man. Mr. Watt's lessons consists solely of reading Great Expectations to the class. As the war drags their village onto the battlefield, the villagers lose everything from dwellings to eating utensils to shoes. The more they lose, the deeper Mathilda digs into her memories of Great Expectations (for even the book is lost) to find peace and hope. The novel's climax took my breath away and left me weeping. Then we reached page 221 (paperback) and the line, "Why don't you tell me about your mum, Mathilda." And that is where the book needs to end to be a complete and utter success -- unique in voice and story, devastating in its power. Instead, for the next 40 pages, blanks were filled in which I didn't need to be filled and a future that was flat and predictably modern took over. Aarrghhh! Like the game-winning homerun ball caught in the tip of an outfielder's glove, this reader feels robbed. Almost ... almost...

[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.