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Mister Pip

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 8,067 ratings · 1,263 reviews

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,...more

Paperback, 240 pages

Published January 10th 2008 by John Murray (first published 2006)

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Mar 30, 2009 Daniel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Daniel by: Carole (via Rose)

Shelves: books-about-books, 2009

My friend Rose, who also is reading "Mister Pip," early on described the book as schmaltzy, and I am inclined to agree. Treacly might be another good word. And the book often comes across as condescending toward anyone who isn't white, though I'm sure Lloyd Jones didn't mean for it to be.

If "Mister Pip" is ever turned into a movie, it's a given that the role of Mr. Watts will go to Robin Williams, in his inspiring-teacher mode but wearing that fucking clown nose from "Patch Adams." Without givin...more

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Nov 01, 2007 Conrad rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, owned, pacific-islands

This is when two and a half stars would be handy. I really couldn't stand this book for a couple of reasons when I first started reading it. It has a narrative voice that sounds like an oldish adult trying to sound like a five year old. Jones writes in staccato sentences that are occasionally poetic but more often tend toward a voice I will refer to as Tragic Deadpan, a voice that was also used to disastrous effect in Octavia Butler's writing. It is uniquely unenlightening on the plight of the P...more

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Jan 02, 2008 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a fascinating book ostensibly about an isolated island in the south Pacific and its inhabitants caught in a war over a copper mine. The lone white man on the island decides to help the children through the tension by reading from Great Expectations, and various repercussions follow. But, the story is so much more. In fact, I think I'll need to read it again to really understand it. Right now, I'd say it's about the power of stories and how they shape our lives; how they provide context a...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Merilee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a nearly perfect book, especially right after reading the original Pip (Great Expectations). A white NZ man introduces the black children of the tiny island of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea to Great Expectations against a background of civil war with the "redskins" from the larger island. I don't want to give any of the plot away and I recommend that you do not read the jacket cover. This is an intensely moving, lyrical book.

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Jul 07, 2009 Jana rated it 2 of 5 stars

I bought this book solely because I liked its cover. And it was shortlisted for Man Booker in 2007. So I thought it was good.

I mean, the only thing that I liked, was this whole general idea. About native people living on this exotic post-colonial island which is struck by civil war between the rebels and redskin army with their helicopters flying above the palm trees, and how white world doesn’t give a shit, and relations among the villagers and their relations with the war situation and everyd...more I bought this book solely because I liked its cover. And it was shortlisted for Man Booker in 2007. So I thought it was good.

I mean, the only thing that I liked, was this whole general idea. About native people living on this exotic post-colonial island which is struck by civil war between the rebels and redskin army with their helicopters flying above the palm trees, and how white world doesn’t give a shit, and relations among the villagers and their relations with the war situation and everyday domestic things.

And the only white person on the island is Mr. Watts, called Mr. Pip, who is really no teacher at all, but is the only one who is capable to teach local children. So, he gives them life lessons from the only book on the island, Great Expectations. Ok. Not a cliché. God Save the Queen.

The thing that I really disliked was how badly 1st person narration was written. So, this is why I say, whole general idea was really good – it had huge potential, but when I read it through the eyes of 14 years old Matilda, one of the local girls, uuuuu, it just sucked. Author forced me to watch through her eyes, and I was really empathetic-less :). But put like this, I was just annoyed, picture bad.

I couldn’t relate with her in any possible way. In no way. I couldn’t picture her being this poor native girl, because some of her thoughts were completely westernised. She made many assumptions but they were not very well interpreted.

Most of the times I was just convincing myself to finish it – because I was reading Lloyd Jones' words, which is fair enough because he’s the author, but, it’s just that, his words, not some blimmin' Matlida's words.

The language was simple and quite likeable (which is contradiction to everything above), but I had such strong and bad shifts from Dickens’ white England to this oceanic island that it made me pretty angry overall. Because I so hoped it would be good. It never did.

That was my impression of the first 150 pages. And then last 50 came. And my opinion changed. My thoughts about Matilda changed completely. It was like I was reading a different book. That annoyance from the beginning toward narration, plot, people, book, Mr. Watts ... that disappeared. Not completely, because I still had 150 pages behind me, but...

Another perspective was given. Why is it like this?, found its answer. I was surprised and eventually closed the book with a smile. Not really a happy one, because it’s not a happy book, but I smiled because I finally understood Matilda. And that is soothing. (less)

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Apr 13, 2009 Greg rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Unconvincing narrator, condescending, patronizing, less than successful end. Other than that it's an OK story. Note to middle aged white guys - think twice before writing as 13 year old black island girl.

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Sep 23, 2007 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

On an unnamed tropical island, war disrupts the lives of young Matilda and she classmates. When almost all of the whites living on her island, including the school teachers, flee the conflict, only the reclusive Mr. Watts remains. Married to a local girl, Mr. Watts takes over schooling the island's children. However, lacking any curriculum or experience, his teaching revolves around reading aloud from Dickens' Great Expectations. The kids are enthralled, despite having no real understanding of t...more

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Sep 29, 2009 Tarah rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I *hated* this book. Let me tell you why: this novel read like this: look at this poor, uneducated island, and these poor, noble-savage ignorant and simple black people who are caught in the middle of a violent conflict between the savage black rebels who will eventually sell you out and the even more savage redskins (no joke, "redskins") who terrorize you, rape you, and machete you into pieces they will then feed to a pig. The violence, indeed, the whole setting, seemed wildly superfluous. The...more

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Alexa Hmm a few things struck me with your review. Firstly, the violence that is portrayed in book is all rather necessary in explaining how detached Matild...more
Jun 05, 2010 07:24pm

Tarah Thanks for your thoughts, Alexa. It's been a while since I've read the book, so I'm a bit fuzzy, but am game to continue the conversation here. I'm no...more Thanks for your thoughts, Alexa. It's been a while since I've read the book, so I'm a bit fuzzy, but am game to continue the conversation here. I'm not actually fundamentally disagreeing with what you are saying in terms of the details of the book. The violence in the book can be used to show how detached Matilda is. And the "redskins" are named by their (native) adversaries. And we might reasonably argue that Mr. Watts as white in a non-white society can serve to show how different perspectives can open up your mind, etc. So, sure, I'm can certainly be with you on these points. But those things don't lessen my concern with some of the bigger picture questions about the novel. We might ask: what else does such violence do other than help show us how detached Matilda is? (Does it, for example, lead us to a certain understanding of a whole group of people?). Or, if one native group calls another "redskins," how does the novel help us make sense of that, or does it? What greater purpose does that serve in the narrative? Take the last point, for example, that Mr. Watts as a white person in a non-white setting shows that opening your mind to new ideas can free you psychologically/mentally. Let's agree that this freedom is a good thing (I think it's easy enough to say that's true, and that the novel wants us to agree that it's true). What's troubling to me as a reader is that it is the native non-white population that needs to learn such freedom from Western wisdom. It takes Charles Dickens (channeled through Watts) to bring any sweetness and light to the imaginations and minds of the native people. And I find that a bit morally distasteful. Don't get me wrong, I believe in the power of literature. I teach literature for a living, in fact. But in a book where such power is coded as Western/white power, something that if only-these-poor-ignorant-native-nonwhite-people-could-read-it-would-really-change-their-lives, etc... I find that broader message from the novel that doesn't sit well. It would be interesting if there was more of a sense as to Mr. Watts's transformation. Obviously we're meant to understand that Dickens, and _Great Expectations_ in particular, has dramatically transformed him and given him a type of mental freedom that he wants to share with others (with good intentions, etc.), but what we don't get is that there is any kinetic cultural exchange going on. Mr. Watts seems to bring a lot to the natives, but doesn't really take anything from them (e.g. wisdom, perspective, good/bad ideas, whatever). His job in the novel is to channel out only, not receive anything in. And the native people's job is to either learn from him, or ignore the wisdom he brings (to their own peril).

Your last point I think is very interesting, in that Mr. Watts stands apart from Western Civilization in that he is willing to 'get involved' (or circumstantially caught up in) a situation the rest of the world seems happy to ignore, but again my concern here is less that he is a good/bad person, and more that he is the beacon of decency and goodness in a novel where all the other characters (who are all native) lie, rape, kill around him, or, in the best case scenario, are unable to actualize their own mental/psychological freedom without a guiding light from a white man (Watts) imparting the wisdom of another white man (Dickens).

Again, these broader themes in the novel don't mean your observations are untrue. But what it does mean is that we need to think about novels on multiple levels, because they are working on multiple levels, and sometimes the implicit lessons from the novel are more troubling than the explicit ones. For me, in this novel, that was certainly the case.(less)
Jun 08, 2010 11:46am

Tarah In prepping for class today, I was re-reading a fantastic essay by Binyavanga Wainaina, happily made popular on Youtube (narrated by Djimon Hounsou)....more
Aug 17, 2011 12:48pm

Feb 27, 2011 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, fiction

I've had this book on my shelf for a few years now, and when New Zealand came up as the first country in the Travelling the World challenge, it seemed like fate that I'd waited this long to read it. Well, the author's a Kiwi but the book is actually set on the small tropical island of Bougainville, near Papua New Guinea, in the 1990s. It's the kind of tropical island where communities live in small villages by the beach, amidst the jungle, living off fish and coconuts, chicken and pigs.

Matilda...more I've had this book on my shelf for a few years now, and when New Zealand came up as the first country in the Travelling the World challenge, it seemed like fate that I'd waited this long to read it. Well, the author's a Kiwi but the book is actually set on the small tropical island of Bougainville, near Papua New Guinea, in the 1990s. It's the kind of tropical island where communities live in small villages by the beach, amidst the jungle, living off fish and coconuts, chicken and pigs.

Matilda lives with her mother; her father got a job with the mine and, when it closed, moved to Queensland for a new job in Townsville - they haven't seen him since, though postcards and occasional gifts still arrive. When the small island descends into war between islanders protesting the environmental impact and poor compensation to the landowners by the copper mine, and armed soldiers (called "redskins" by the islanders), Matilda's small community does its best to continue on as always, even though their young men and boys are leaving to fight with the rebels and they have to hide in the bush every time a helicopter comes by.

Amongst these deeply black-skinned islanders is one white man, nicknamed "Pop Eye", who lives in the old missionary house with his possibly crazy wife, Grace. Pop Eye - or Mr Watts - takes it upon himself to teach the village's children in the old abandoned schoolhouse. There are no resources for the children, but Mr Watts brings an old copy of Great Expectations, which he reads to the kids. The story - and the setting - is completely foreign to them, but it engages their minds to the fullest and sparks their imaginations. Matilda especially thinks of the characters in a personal way, and takes a keen interest in Pip, writing his name in the sand and decorating it with shells.

When the soldiers come through and take down the villagers' names, the one person unaccounted for is this Pip whose name they found on the beach. Ill, malnourished and looking almost insane, the soldiers are determined to find this missing villager, who they believe is a rebel the village is hiding. They are unable to believe in Pip being a fictional character, and the book itself is missing. Without the book, Mr Watts gives the children a new task: to remember the book, and resurrect it.

The political and historical backdrop is essentially just that, a backdrop, to the real themes of the novel - but it is one of those skilfully depicted, moving and deeply tragic backdrops that provide more than context to the main story. Set in any other time or place, Matilda's story of awakening imagination and the freedom it brings would have little impact, or much less anyway. The juxtaposition of this comparatively frivolous story of the orphan boy and his great expectations against the frightening reality of armed soldiers and rebels terrorising villagers, of the blockade preventing resources from reaching them, of the lack of international interest in what was happening on their island, is powerful, complex and fascinating. On a smaller scale, Matilda experiences the conflict between her mother, a god-fearing woman, and Mr Watts, an atheist.

As we progressed through the book something happened to me. At some point I felt myself enter the story. I hadn't been assigned a part - nothing like that; I wasn't identifiable on the page, but I was there. I knew that orphaned white kid and that small, fragile place he squeezed into between his awful sister and lovable Joe Gargery, because the same space came to exist between Mr. Watts and my mum. And I knew I would have to choose between the two. (pp.46-7)

Not only does the novel express the importance of imagination and of having the words to express yourself, but it also shows the timeless quality of great fiction. As western students we routinely moan about having to study Shakespeare, never really understanding the relevance because the teacher doesn't get it either; it's just on the curriculum. But these stories survive and live on in our imaginations for many reasons, not least of all the "universality" of their stories (within a white, Anglo/Western/European context, mostly) - Matilda and Mister Pip show that even a black person from a tropical island who can't even picture English marshes or pork pies, can relate to the core themes of a story, the essentials, the characters and their relationships. It's a shared human experience, isn't it? Take the essential elements of the story and transpose them to an African country, or an Asian one - would they necessarily change all that much? This is part of what keeps these stories alive at the academic level, I'm sure.

As a story, it's simply and beautifully told in Matilda's older voice, and while you might think that by looking back and writing this story as a young, well educated woman, she would provide more adult insight and context, I loved that she shared her story as the child she was when it happened; that is, with her child's understanding. There are moments when Matilda will explain things, but you never lose the impression of her as a child and young teenager, experiencing all these things. You really come to believe in her and her world, and care deeply for them all.

Mr Watts - or "Mister Pip" as he was, in one sense - is another strong character, as is Matilda's mother. Mr Watts is a curiosity in the village, an oddity, as is his wife Grace who grew up on the island but left to continue her education, returning years later a broken woman in the company of a quiet white man. He's a familiar character to us not least because he's identifiable, being white and of "our" world, but also because he embodies that subtle, sardonic persona that you can find in Dickens and other western works. Yet, through Matilda's eyes, we see and feel his strangeness, and our own. It's quite wonderfully done.

It's a surprisingly quick read, if you have the time to sit down with it and not be distracted, and it's easily accessible to younger readers. I would say it's a benefit to have read Great Expectations first, to better understand the details from the story that are talked about between Mr Watts and the children, and also because there are spoilers in this for the older book. If you haven't read the Dickens book, this might encourage you - I hope so, it's worth reading.
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Jul 07, 2008 Nathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who love Dickens

Recommended to Nathan by: The NY Times Book Review, I think.

Shelves: lies, victorians-r-krazy

When I was in high school I played Pip in a reader's theatre production of "Great Expectations," so for about three months I basically lived with this book, developing a script, and then performing huge chunks of the text in performance night after night. The process kind of changed my life, and Great Expectations is the most important book to me, in terms of the role it played in my life. This book is about a similar experience, except it takes place on Bouganville Island during the violent civ...more

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Nov 21, 2008 Christen rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 17, 2010 Andy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Andy by: The cover

Shelves: 2010, prize-winners

Picked up due to the bright colours on the cover. Mister Pip is a rich and engrossing story told from the point of view of Matilda during civil war on a small pacific island. Without a normal routine or life the only white man on the island teaches the children from Great Expectations.

It's subtle and rich, particularly when detailing the feelings that reading can evoke, providing an alternate reality and support system. The characters are developed and complex and the underlying menace and outri...more

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Sep 11, 2007 Jason Pettus rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

(The entire full-length review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

So once again it's time for the Booker Prize, which for those who don't know is basically the British version of the Pulitzer, and in fact an award that a lot of people consider a lot more important than the Pulitzer, and a lot more indicative of the best that culture had to offer that particular year. And for those who don't know, only books that have been written and published wi...more (The entire full-length review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

So once again it's time for the Booker Prize, which for those who don't know is basically the British version of the Pulitzer, and in fact an award that a lot of people consider a lot more important than the Pulitzer, and a lot more indicative of the best that culture had to offer that particular year. And for those who don't know, only books that have been written and published within the "British Commonwealth" are eligible for a Booker, which means that most Booker nominees tend to have a strong British flair to them as well; and seriously, it doesn't get much more British in tone than the first of the 2007 Booker nominees to be reviewed here at CCLaP this year, New Zealander Lloyd Jones' Mister Pip, which in fact many consider the favorite to actually win it all this year. It is an odd and delicate book, one I wouldn't normally otherwise read, if not for wanting to cover as many Booker nominees as I can this year; and now that I'm done with it, I'm not sure whether to call it brilliant or a fey little mess, or perhaps a unique little creature in-between.

The novel is set at an unnamed third-world tropical island somewhere near New Zealand, one that works a lot like many third-world societies in Africa and Central America as well: a bloody dictatorship is in control of the government and major cities, an organized rebellion hides and fights in the outlying areas, and the small villages in the wilderness keep doing what they always do, no matter what's going on in the cities or with the people who don't like what's going on in the cities. As described with a kind of magical metaphorical slant by Jones, the village at the center of Mister Pip seems to be one of those lovely wonderful edens seen in a lot of "The White Man"s view of these societies -- a human version of The Lion King, perhaps, where every off-handed tale from a village mother just happens to be a beautifully-worded allegorical story regarding some modern liberal moral virtue or another, and you're just waiting for everyone to break into synchronized song and dance.

This is an early and big complication in Mister Pip, to tell you the truth...(less)

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Sep 06, 2008 Teresa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a good book on the whole, though not as fully realized as it could've been. I liked a lot of it, esp the themes of what narrative and story can do -- both positive and negative -- but near the end, it dragged and was repetitive, which is really, I thought, unacceptable in such a short book.

It wasn't explained how the narrator knew a certain character that appears near the end even existed. If it was supposed to be a surprise to the reader (it was), it still could've been explained bette...more

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Dec 03, 2010 Marialyce rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: december-reads-2010

This was such a lovely story of a teacher using Great Expectations as a teaching tool for his group of Pacific Island students. Mr Pip interweaves the book into his lesson with the children and makes one particular child, Matilda, begin a life long love of things that are Dickens. Mr. Watts (eventually Mr. Pip) has a wonderful way with his class and even enlists the parents of his students to add to their learning. Although there is some dislike on the part of Matilda's mother, she resolves it i...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Del Zimmerman rated it 4 of 5 stars

There are some books that actually make you feel like you are a better person for having read it. This is one of those books.

Mister Pip is the coming-of-age story of Matilda, a teenager living in New Guinea during the height of civil war in the early 1990s. Her two greatest influences are her mother and a self-appointed teacher Mr. Watts. The foil between the mother and Watts helps Matilda reveal an authentic, independent self after she watches the two struggle over ideas purported through relig...more

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May 09, 2011 Emmie Dark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

Goodness I loved this book. If I sound surprised -- I am. From the description I wasn't sure if it was going to be my kind of thing and I wasn't even sure I would bother reading it (which is kind of why I took it with me on the plane -- then I have no choice!).

But the story just wove its way into my head and wouldn't let go. It's even in first-person -- and I don't like first person -- but I didn't even really notice.

The story is set in Papua New Guinea -- it doesn't explicitly say that, but t...more

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Oct 12, 2010 Jennifer (aka EM) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jennifer (aka EM) by: Diane

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book is all about the ending--the inevitable trauma that you sense waiting in the wings from the first appearance of the "redskins" and the disappearance of all the village males into the jungle. This book is not about Charles Dickens, Great Expectations or the strange captivation the book and its teacher hold upon this group of isolated South Pacific-islanders in the midst of a civil war. And strangely, I think Mr. Pip might have been stronger had it leaned a little more heavily on Dickens...more

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Sep 30, 2009 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alex-award

If you haven't read Great Expectations, don't bother reading this adult novel or you'll be lost.[return][return]Matilda lives on some island off Australia in the early 1990s. She's black, poor, and doesn't know it. But the only white man in her village (who is married to a kind of crazy black woman) becomes their temporary teacher during a civil war and begins reading the classic Dickens novel to the schoolchildren. They begin learning storytelling skills and all about Dickensian England. The ki...more

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Jan 27, 2009 Chelsea rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Chelsea by: Hillary

Shelves: advance, booksandwords, fiction, recced, 2009, awardwinners

For the first time ever, I wish I had a half-star rating. (You've finally gotten to me, folks.) The writing was wonderful, and Matilda's voice blew me away (especially when I stop to think that a man wrote it), but it hurt. I didn't see it coming, and it really hurt.

The first half was lovely, with a gentle sense of humor and a lovely picture of what life was like on a backwards, isolated South Pacific island. And then. I don't want to give anything away, and I don't want to put this behind a spo...more

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Dec 19, 2008 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: realistic-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm definitely looking forward to the book group discussion of this book. Wow. I love so much of the basic premise: that a book has power, that it can change your life. So much of the book I'd love to quote here. So here's just one " I had always liked her, but now I admired Celia. I hadn't stopped to think that someone else might also treasure the book and actively inhabit that world. The quality of Celia's question meant that the book must also occupy her thoughts. Possibly Pip too. Mr. Watts...more I'm definitely looking forward to the book group discussion of this book. Wow. I love so much of the basic premise: that a book has power, that it can change your life. So much of the book I'd love to quote here. So here's just one " I had always liked her, but now I admired Celia. I hadn't stopped to think that someone else might also treasure the book and actively inhabit that world. The quality of Celia's question meant that the book must also occupy her thoughts. Possibly Pip too. Mr. Watts thanked Celia. Her comment, he said, provided us with an interesting insight into the parallel world the reader develops from the words on the page."

Definite spoilers ahead, so don't read until you've read the book.

Questions I had:
Why does Mr. Watts only read from Great Expectations? We learn early on, and then later when his house is emptied, that he has lots of books. Instead of picking another, they begin this one again. And they admit it is unsatisfactory in some ways. I wondered this as I was reading, and then later as I was considering it, and how personal this is for Mr. Watt's, and the narrator, I understood it a little better. For me the book would be Pride and Prejudice. Why do I go back to this every year even though there are books on my shelf that I haven't read? Though it's not exactly my story, I do love the humanness of the characters, their ability to realize their mistakes, the humor, and the romance.

Was anyone else disappointed to learn that Mr. Watts had edited the book for them? I was really disappointed by this. I liked how he would explain the unfamiliar terms/concepts to the students. Did he not trust them enough? Or was he just so afraid that they wouldn't like it? It makes me wonder, as the narrator does also, was Mr. Watts just acting? Does that matter?

What I loved: the power of story: the ability of a story to change a life, or allow one to change a life, or travel to another world; the power of storytelling as Mr. Pip tells his story; the lists he and Grace made, the stories contributed by the villagers at Grace's funeral.(less)

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Jun 06, 2008 Milan/zzz rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008

“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.”

This lovely (and so true) quote is from “Mister Pip”, Winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and Shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize written by Mr. Lloyd Jones.

If Pip sounds familiar to you that you’ve probably read “Great Expectation...more
“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.”

This lovely (and so true) quote is from “Mister Pip”, Winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and Shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize written by Mr. Lloyd Jones.

If Pip sounds familiar to you that you’ve probably read “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens and coincidence is surely not accidental. I must admit I’m not in that group as I haven’t read Mr. Dickens’ novel and at first I was afraid that will have an impact on reading (and fully understanding) this novel however I was wrong. I might even shamefully admit that not knowing story of Disken’s Pip was actually advantage so that I could easily jump in the shoes of (barefoot!) Matilda, our 13 year old narrator.

The plot is settled on tropical island Bougainville, Papua New Guinea during civilian war which is approaching to the part of the island where they are. Central character of the novel is a teacher who is named Mr. Watts, Bougainville’s only white resident. As a consequence of the war the live on the island’s village is changing and one of the greatest change for our young narrator is that the schools is closed since the teacher has left the island. Until one morning Matilda’s mother yelled one morning “Get up Matilda! You’ve got school today!” since Mr. Watts decided to help the village and children by taking the role of the school teacher. At the very beginning he admits that he’s no educated to be a teacher and that there’ll be questions on which he will not be able to give answers but he promises that he’ll do his best to be good teacher. Since there is no formal education to be had, he improvises the curriculum that comes most easily to him: with “Great Expectations”, which, incidentally, is the greatest novel by the greatest English writer of the nineteenth century, Charles Dickens” and he starts reading one chapter per day feeding children’s hungry imagination and giving them a ticket into another world, so different than the one they live in.

As the students’ interest mounts, so do their parents’ misconceptions. Told of the new importance of a Mr. Dickens on the island, the parents send in requests that Mr. Dickens procure antimalaria tablets, generator fuel, beer, wax candles and so on.
Eventually parents decided to give their contribution to the education of their children. So we can be thought that “trust crabs first and above all others” or “to kill an octopus, bite it above the eyes” and so on but of course this can’t last forever, especially not on the island where is raging civilian war. Under this circumstance the impact of “Great Expectations” on the life of children (Matilda) is even greater: it gives her a shelter because “Stories have a job to do. They can’t just lie around like lazybone dogs. They have to teach you something.”

And I’m afraid this is the place where book is lessening its impact because the dramatic events weren't dramatic whatsoever. I don’t know why; maybe that ascetic narration was precisely what Mr. Jones wanted avoiding by it all possible melodramatic elements. However for me it was just too fast and too flat.

As I said the plot is settled on the tropical island in South Pacific but the story is universal, the only local spice might be the stories about crabs and octopuses and when I said that I don’t mean in negative way. Dicken's novel introduces the life in Victorian England to Matilda, while Jones' novel introduces me the life on Bougainville during the civil conflicts and I would love that I could say that this is world removed from me as much as Victorian England is removed from Matilda. However I am familiar with the horrors of civilian war and that might be the reason why geography is irrelevant with “Mister Pip”. This is story about life on some remote island, it’s not about broken families and lost of the love ones; it’s not even about horrors of war … “Mister Pip” is “a love song to the power of the imagination and of storytelling. It shows how books can change lives.” (less)

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Aug 26, 2008 Jan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just finished Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones, which was quite good. It was a finalist for the Man Booker prize. It's about a young native girl on an island near Australia that is engulfed in a rebel war. All the white people have left the island, except for Mr. Watts, who is married to a native woman. Mr. Watts takes over teaching the children of the village and reads them "Great Expectations," enflaming their imaginations. Trouble comes for the whole village when government soldiers show up to in...more

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Jan 02, 2008 Andrea rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2007, fiction-general

A well-written book, good narrative. I think what I enjoyed the most was how Lloyd Jones consistently gave examples of how the location and moment in time you read a book in really does affect how you absorb it, and how it impacts your life or connects with you. I do love books that seem to offer some commentary on the act of reading itself. That said, I felt like the end was a little bit sensationalistic - which is not to say it lacked emotional heft, because I was certainly gripped, it just le...more

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Aug 26, 2008 Angela rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: booksilove, read-in-2008

Mister Pip reminded me of Life of Pi and of Bel Canto, which is pretty much the nicest thing I can say about any book.

The back of the book tells you as much as you need to know before you begin reading: On a remote island stricken by civil war, the only white man begins teaching children with the only book in the school: Great Expectations.

What follows is a nuanced story full of wonderful little lines I read over and over. Parts of the story broke my heart, a few parts fell flat, but all in al...more

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Mar 29, 2009 Rose rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mister Pip is a finely-crafted story written in a refreshingly modern prose. Lloyd's narrator and protagonist is a thirteen-year-old inhabitant of an unnamed south Pacific island. We meet Matilda when her island is in the midst of what a politician might call a "period of transition." The copper mines have closed and with them the short term of relative prosperity has come to an end. A war is being fought throughout the island and the village men have disappeared into the jungle to join the rebe...more

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Mar 19, 2009 Kevin Slater rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A great book dealing with the struggles of a young girl trapped in a civil war. Deals with multiculturalism and race, the art and power of storytelling, books as an escape and as a danger. It was frustrating at times to watch what the characters went through because of the simple misunderstanding that Mr Pip is a creation of fiction and not a real character. There's so much in this book, the relationship of Mathilda and her mother, how she cannot betray her mother even to save their homes from b...more

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Dec 12, 2008 Noel M. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Noel by: SJSU Campus Reading Program

I was fairly unimpressed with Mister Pip. The focus was misplaced for the majority of the novel and shifted near the end. I feel the real story lies in Mr. Watts, the mysterious white man who intrigues the reader throughout. Plus, it was lacking significant detail. Artillery is shaking this village yet the author did not cause me to sympathize, he was only stating facts. I was unable to feel the same compassion for Mathilda as she had for Pip. Despite its weaknesses, I feel this was a great exam...more

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Apr 19, 2013 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

No doubt it helps to have read GREAT EXPECTATIONS, by Charles Dickens, before reading MISTER PIP. I read Dickens too many years ago, so I read a plot summary to help me remember. I would suggest doing that, but it isn't absolutely necessary; I think doing so gave greater depth to the story in MISTER PIP.

Mr. Pip, the title character, is really no one in the book, just an embellished character of Pip, a Dickens creation in GREAT EXPECTATIONS. Mathilda, a delightful girl in MISTER PIP, the actual p...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Althea rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mister Pip, which was short-listed for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, has been hailed as the most successful novel to come out of New Zealand.
The story takes place on Bougainville, the largest island in the Solomon Islands archipelago. We would be forgiven for expecting to find an idyllic Pacific island with swaying palm trees, coconuts, golden beaches and iridescent blue sea.
This is what a beautiful island should be like. As is the case in Lord of the Flies, Bougainville is no match for greedy, p...more Mister Pip, which was short-listed for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, has been hailed as the most successful novel to come out of New Zealand.
The story takes place on Bougainville, the largest island in the Solomon Islands archipelago. We would be forgiven for expecting to find an idyllic Pacific island with swaying palm trees, coconuts, golden beaches and iridescent blue sea.
This is what a beautiful island should be like. As is the case in Lord of the Flies, Bougainville is no match for greedy, power-hungry men.
Bougainville is a self-governing region in Papua New Guinea in the Pacific with a chequered history. Mineral wealth has been its misfortune, as has happened time and again in underdeveloped, exploited countries the world over.
The narrator is Matilda, a 13-year-old girl. It is the early 1990s, civil war is nearing her village and most of the men and older boys have gone. Only one white person remains on the island, Mr Watts, an eccentric character married to a local woman. He takes charge of the village school and, in the absence of any other teaching material, begins to read Great Expectations to the class. Matilda is transfixed. Pip’s story set in nineteenth century England becomes more real and fascinating to her than her own expectations.
The menace that lurks on the island is not that of the relatively innocent hungry convict, Magwitch, who so terrifies Pip.
The people of Matilda’s village know that they will be confronted by soldiers from both sides in the civil war that is decimating their island. They can expect to lose their homes, their livelihoods and their children to disease. They can expect to be accused of aiding and abetting the other side. Such “traitors” can expect to be taken up in a helicopter and thrown out. Rape, torture and death are ever-present threats.
It is small wonder, then, that Matilda and many of the other children love Great Expectations so much. The kindly, courteous Mr Watts encourages the parents to participate in their children’s education. These lessons are delightfully humorous cameos. The parents lecture their children on island lore and give helpful tips about such matters as fish bait, sex education and the significance of the colour blue. There is a wonderful sense of dignity about these simple men and woman, who try so hard to hold onto some sense of normality.
The soldiers suspect that the villagers are hiding someone called Pip. There is nothing the people can do to persuade them that Pip does not exist. Retribution is swift and horrific.
This incredibly powerful story is told in a most unusual way.
(less)

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About Lloyd Jones

Lloyd Jones was born in 1955 in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, a place which has become a frequent setting and subject for his subsequent works of fiction. He studied at Victoria University, and has worked as a journalist and consultant as well as a writer. His recent novels are: Biografi (1993); Choo Woo (1998); Here At The End of the World We Learn to Dance (2002); Paint Your Wife (2004);and Mister Pi...more

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Quotes from Mister Pip

“I had found a new friend. The surprising thing is where I’d found him – not up a tree or sulking in the shade, or splashing around in one of the hill streams, but in a book. No one had told us kids to look there for a friend. Or that you could slip inside the skin of another. Or travel to another place with marshes, and where, to our ears, the bad people spoke like pirates. ” — 70 people liked it

“For six days I didn’t get up except to make a cup of tea, or fry an egg, or lie in the skinny bath gazing at a cracked ceiling. The days punished me with their slowness, piling up the hours on me, spreading their joylessness about the room.

A doctor would have said I was suffering from depression. Everything I have read since suggests this was the case. But when you are in the grip of something like that it doesn’t usefully announce itself. No. what happens is you sit in a dark, dark cave, and you wait. If you are lucky there is a pinprick of light, and if you are especially lucky that pinprick will grow larger and larger, until one day the cave appears to slip behind, and just like that you find yourself in daylight and free. This is how it happened for me.” — 18 people liked it

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