Mister Pip in Kiwi Readers

Jun 11, 2014 Peter King rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nz

Not everyone would think of Charles Dickens' classic Great Expectations and the war on Bougainville Island (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainv... ) at the same time. Lloyd Jones did and we are all the richer for it.
The story is told in the first person by Matilda Laimo, a 14-15 year old girl living on the un-named island (Bougainville).
When the island is blockaded by Papuan forces in their fight against rebel leader Francis Ono, the sole remaining white man in Matilda's village (Mr Watts Not everyone would think of Charles Dickens' classic Great Expectations and the war on Bougainville Island (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainv... ) at the same time. Lloyd Jones did and we are all the richer for it.
The story is told in the first person by Matilda Laimo, a 14-15 year old girl living on the un-named island (Bougainville).
When the island is blockaded by Papuan forces in their fight against rebel leader Francis Ono, the sole remaining white man in Matilda's village (Mr Watts) steps into the role of teacher. He encourages the local parents to contribute their knowledge and experience while he reads the class through Great Expectations. As the fight between the Papuan forces and the rebels becomes more intense the children retreat into the fictional world of Dickens and drag their parents and the war with them, so much so that the Papuan military end up searching for Dicken's character, Pip.
The story is really about the role of myth and imagination in people's lives and the sacrifices people are willing to make for what feels true for them. Not only do people die for Pip but Matilda comes to live for him. I won't spoil the story but the brutality of the final confrontation is powerful stuff and a reminder that every war, no matter how seemingly small and contained it may be, is a tragedy for all humankind.
In terms of language the biggest problem any white man faces when he writes in the first person as a black girl is answering the question "who is speaking?". Jones' language is literary and highly literate and that sometimes grates with the knowledge that Matilda probably speaks Pidgin. On the other hand Matilda is a clever girl and Pidgin is not so much a language as a kind of elaborate insult (it is notable that in the joint colonial days of Vanuatu the English taught Pidgin while the French taught proper French). So is Jones writing as a clever girl would express herself if she had the same command of English as he does, or as Matilda's later self? The tricky thing here is that to increase the sense of immediacy Jones writes the Bougainville story entirely in the present tense, so grammatically this is no memory.
To be honest I still feel uncomfortable with the linguistic aspect of this story. It doesn't sound like Matilda (young or old). By contrast Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe (No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series) is a far better study of the cadence, the pre-occupations and the charm of his black female protagonist than Jones's work is.
While the development of the conflict in Bougainville is a classic example of Hegelian thesis, antithesis and synthesis there is also a unfortunate degree of weakness in the post-Bougainville epilogue. This is important because it is the only opportunity Matilda (and the reader) has to retrieve some meaning from the events she experienced as a teenager on the island. Matilda's pursuit of the origins of Pip and her own survival would have been far stronger had she been able to generalise from her own circumstances to the human condition, through a boyfriend or some other person (say from Sarajevo or the Congo) who suffered in the same way. Unfortunately no bridge to the rest of humanity arrives and the story simply collapses in on itself and returns to its isolated beginnings without any attempt to reach further.
This criticism is made not with the disappointment of a reader who was not entranced, transported, entertained, shocked and forced to think. Mister Pip is literally, figuratively and philosophically compelling. But more with the disappointment that such a powerful project should have had the courage of its convictions and seen its message through to the end. ...more

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Oct 01, 2011 Linda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

After reading this book a couple of years ago, I am now more intrested in the story, as I friend of mine is in Arawa, Bougainville. The filming has now finished on site. The locals were intrigued to have 'Hollywood' come to their village. I am looking forward to Hugh Laurie as the lead.
The book - well worth turning into a movie. ...more

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Jul 11, 2009 Heather rated it liked it · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book. An interesting read portrayed through a child’s eyes whilst growing up. Matilda talks of her life in a village on Bougainville during the civil war in the early 1990s.
A village caught between local teenage rebel forces and the government troops. Matilda describes how this local war impacts on her life and how a Teacher used Charles Dicken’s book - Great Expectations, to give the children hope and better things to believe in.. From the mundane through to unbelievable horror ...more

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