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Nov 01, 2007

Conrad rated it:

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...

7 comments like (14 people liked it)

Mar 30, 2009

Daniel rated it:

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 f More...

22 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Erik rated it:

A lovely and yet harrowing story that will charm and break your heart simultaneously, this brilliant novel is told from the point of view of a young girl whose island home is disrupted by civil war. Into her life comes Mr. Watts, an eccentric and mysterious man who introduces the children of the island to Victorian England through Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations. This is a fiercely intelligent and thoughtful read that never fails to surprise and affect the reader.

0 comments like (12 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2007

Megan rated it:

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 o More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jul 07, 2008

Nathan rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2010

Jana rated it:

I bought this book solely because I liked its covers. 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 postcolonial 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 situatio More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Sep 11, 2007

Jason rated it:

(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 More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2008

Julie rated it:

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...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2008

Teresa rated it:

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 More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 13, 2009

Greg rated it:

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.

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2010

Marialyce rated it:

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...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 21, 2008

Christen rated it:

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

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2012

Del rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 17, 2010

Andy rated it:

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 m More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Sarah rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 19, 2008

Robin rated it:

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

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 26, 2008

Jan rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2008

Andrea rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 26, 2008

Angela rated it:

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 par More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2009

Patrick rated it:

Takes place on a small island off of Papua New Guinea in the early 90's during a period of rebellion. Mr. Pip is a white man teaching native children using Great Expectations as a text book. This is a charming, fascinating, but sometimes violent book.

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Aug 08, 2011

Mel added it

Sometimes not knowing a great deal about a book is not such a bad thing. So maybe anyone reading this should stop here!

It's been very enlightening to have the opportunity to read the reviews here, because there seems to be a real divide between those who thought it was too slow & those who thought it moved much too quickly. I can understand both points of view.

The practicalities of the book are that in course of the war between Bouganville separatists and the PNG authorities, all Europeans leave More...

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Jan 28, 2011

Margherita Dolcevita rated it:

E dire che prometteva così bene...
Già, classico libro che le ha tutte per essere pressoché perfetto: protagonista, ambientazione, poi c'è il professore un po' matto, Dickens, Pip che entra nella vita della bambina, tutto questo è bellissimo e caspita avrei dato il voto massimo.
Però no. C'è dell'altro.
L'isola su cui è ambientato il libro si chiama isola di Bougainville. Alzi la mano chi sapeva che negli anni '90 è stata teatro di sanguinosi eventi dovuti a una rivoluzione separatista?
...
Nessuno More...

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Mar 29, 2009

Rose rated it:

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 t More...

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Mar 19, 2009

Kevin rated it:

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 fro More...

0 comments like

Dec 12, 2008

Noel rated it:

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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Nov 07, 2011

Tracy rated it:

At its heart, Llyod Jones’ Mister Pip is a story about stories. It is an intricately crafted tale - sewn together out of bits of fact, fancy, and fable - that also questions the role of story and storytelling by positioning the reader in the sometimes uncomfortable liminal, gray-space between reality and imagination.

Mister Pip is narrated by thirteen-year-old Matilda, a resident of Bougainville, a South Pacific island caught in the grip of civil war. After a blockade forces the evacua More...

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Aug 26, 2011

Andrea rated it:

This novel is a very interesting opening into some intruiging questions about race, identity, the dance we all do as children in regards to our parents.

The premise and narration can be a bit contrived at points, but what the author throws out to reader through his words is an artful discussion on race and identity--both identity from a racial point of view (I don't have the book at hand but there is a poignant utterance in the book something like "I only feel white when there ar More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 21, 2011

Applegarth rated it:

Set during modern day, the 1990's, on an island in the South Pacific that is in the midst of an unwanted war, made it difficult for me to identify with the main character, Mathilda, and her primitive and endangered life. But I was intrigued and continued to read, and I am so glad that I did! What developed was an endearing relationship between Mr. Watts, the only white man on the island, and Mathilda, a young black islander eager for learning. I loved reading about a man, who was not a teacher b More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 09, 2011

Emmie rated it:

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 e More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 08, 2011

Amy (SpedBug) rated it:

Welcome to Bougainville, a small island in the South Pacific. There's a civil war causing unrest on the island and Pop-Eye, the only white man living there, is causing unrest between Matilda's and her mother. Pop-Eye, or Mr. Watts, volunteers to teach the island children when there is no one else to do it, but he he's an odd man. It's not just the color of his skin and his eyes, which seem to be trying to pop out of his head that make him odd. No, Mr. Watts is known to pull his wife, Grace, in a More...

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