Mister Pip

     " 'Tomorrow', I told my mum, 'we meet Mr. Dickens.' ...'This Mr. Dickens, Matilda, if you get the chance why don't you ask him to fix our generator.'"

The Mr. Dickens young Matilda is going to meet at her school on the remote Pacific island of Bougainville is not a bringer of much needed supplies and expertise, but the creator of "Great Expectations", the story which, ultimately, will give Matilda permission to change her life.

     Lloyd Jones's remarkable novel Mister Pip is set on an island divided by civil war. The only white man, Mr. Watts, re-opens the school and teaches the children the little he knows, but it is his reading to them of Dickens's classic novel which educates them more powerfully than a standard curriculum ever could.

     In the face of terrible violence, cultural diversity becomes unity and the imagination a tool for survival. The parallels between Pip's story and Matilda's allow her "to see the possibility of change, to welcome it into our lives," and when she's caught in a flood and saved from death by a fallen tree, she understands that "Your ship could come in at any time, and that ship could take many forms. Your Mr. Jaggers might even turn out to be a log."

     Jones explores loyalty, resentment and betrayal, many-faceted identity, and escape as the flipside of containment in this book which is sad, poignant and direct, and leaves a lasting impression.

     Read what John has to say about it here

 

Comments

[tara]

The cover of this book is so striking! I just love it. The inside of it sounds interesting, too. ;-)

[John Self]

Thanks for the link K! You seem to have liked Mister Pip just as much as I did. I think it could be a bit of a sleeper hit...

[Nancy]

Thank you for this wonderful site and for finding it though reviewing everything about Lloyd Jones and Mr.Pip. I started the book last night and would like to read it straight through--what a gift.I am keeping my fingers crossed that it wins the Booker Award!!