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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/543873.Mister_Pip?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Mister Pip" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175659801m/543873.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/543873.Mister_Pip?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Mister Pip</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/299121.Lloyd_Jones">Lloyd Jones</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6058355?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 3 of 5 stars (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...
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/147289?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Jason's review
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(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 ...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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