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Ponas Pipas
„Negali apsimesti, kad skaitai. Tave išduos akys. Taip pat ir kvėpavimas, nes knygos užburtas žmogus paprasčiausiai pamiršta kvėpuoti.“
Tikrais istoriniais įvykiais paremtas romanas nukelia į saulėtą atogrąžų salą Ramiojo vandenyno pietuose, netoli Australijos. Uždarą ir ramų vietinių gyvenimą sudrumsčia pilietinis karas, suniokojamas visas žmonių turtas – namai, drabužiai, buities reikmenys. Dingus mokytojai, vienintelis per neramumus saloje likęs baltasis – ponas Votsas – tampa naujuoju vaikų mokytoju. Išdėstęs jiems įprastus dalykus ponas Votsas kiekvieną dieną atverčia Ch. Dickenso romaną „Didieji lūkesčiai“.
„Didieji lūkesčiai“ užburia vaikus, o knygos personažas Pipas tarsi atgyja – jis supažindina su niekada nematytu baltųjų pasauliu ir leidžia bent fantazijose pabėgti nuo uždaro ir neramumų talžomo gyvenimo visų užmirštoje saloje. Niekas nė neįtaria, kad „Didieji lūkesčiai“ pakeis visų salos gyventojų likimus.
Lloyd Jones – Naujosios Zelandijos rašytojas (g. 1955 m.), išleides daugiau nei dešimt knygų ir pelnęs ne vieną prestižinį apdovanojimą
208 pages, Hardcover
First published September 25, 2006
446 people are currently reading
8078 people want to read
About the author
Lloyd Jones
102 books148 followersLloyd 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 Pip (2007). He is also the author of a collection of short stories, Swimming to Australia (1991).
In 2003, he published a children's picture book, Napoleon and the Chicken Farmer, and this was followed by Everything You Need to Know About the World by Simon Eliot (2004), a book for 9-14 year olds. He compiled Into the Field of Play: New Zealand Writers on the Theme of Sport (1992), and also wrote Last Saturday (1994), the book of an exhibition about New Zealand Saturdays, with photographs by Bruce Foster. The Book of Fame (2000), is his semi-fictional account of the 1905 All-Black tour, and was adapted for the stage by Carol Nixon in 2003.
Lloyd Jones won the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book) and the Kiriyama Prize for his novel, Mister Pip (2007), set in Bougainville in the South Pacific, during the 1990s. He was also shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. In the same year he undertook a Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers' Residency.
In 2003, he published a children's picture book, Napoleon and the Chicken Farmer, and this was followed by Everything You Need to Know About the World by Simon Eliot (2004), a book for 9-14 year olds. He compiled Into the Field of Play: New Zealand Writers on the Theme of Sport (1992), and also wrote Last Saturday (1994), the book of an exhibition about New Zealand Saturdays, with photographs by Bruce Foster. The Book of Fame (2000), is his semi-fictional account of the 1905 All-Black tour, and was adapted for the stage by Carol Nixon in 2003.
Lloyd Jones won the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book) and the Kiriyama Prize for his novel, Mister Pip (2007), set in Bougainville in the South Pacific, during the 1990s. He was also shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. In the same year he undertook a Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers' Residency.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,438 reviews
November 8, 2018
For the love of everything holy. I'm adding to this review because 1) apparently it pops up as a frequently read review for the novel and 2) apparently people have a LOT of feelings about this review and feel very strongly they should tell me exactly how and why I am wrong about it. And look, I would be 100% for that if it were debate about the text and interpretative merit etc (and there are a few commenters who do get into that, and that's an interesting debate to have because, truly, there is not one authoritative reading of a text). But many of the comments that pop up trend along lazy assumptions about me as a reader-- the "you clearly just don't get it" variety or the most recent "you clearly doesn't know history." That's possible, but I'm re-posting here to say I think I do get it, but I think the novel did "it" poorly, and that I do know the history, and that's why I wish the novel did a better job with it. There was also a "this is just over-analysis" clap-back, which, yes? That is the exact point of literary analysis, so you got me there.
My original review remains in its entirety below. At the time, I didn't add a lot of layers to it because the book merited very few in my opinion, and because there were other books to read and other shit to do. But sweet mother mary, I'm adding some layers now because people's feelings about my review keep popping up in my Goodreads notifications, and whereas I rightly treat the rest of the internet as the cesspool of anonymous commenters and trolls that it is (and thus pay it no mind), Goodreads is a scared place and I will not let such shenanigans stand. Je refuse!
Let me put some presuppositions to rest before the entirety of Goodreads comes at me about how/why wrong I am about this novel: I am very much aware, if not overly-schooled, in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea history, including the bloody civil war that spanned the late 80's and 90's on Bougainville Island. In my current work, I'm more keenly aware of how the peace accord (signed only in 2001) still is very relevant for the human rights situation regionally. At any rate, that's not to say I couldn't learn more, but I very much get that this book is a sort of historical fiction, or in the very least rooting itself in a history-- in doing such, it's giving us a different way to understand/see history, and the way that some people survived (and survive) the horrors of war, conflict, and loss. I just don't think it's doing it particularly well AND I think it's doing it through a particularly troubling lens (but more on that later). Another relevant piece: I have a PhD in literature with an emphasis in gender and race studies and I taught literature for many years (before a career change) and used sections of this very text before. This doesn't mean that I definitely "right" about this (or any) book, or that my opinion is better or smarter than others' opinions, but it means that I used to read, think about, and write about books for a living, and that now (outside of academia), I still think about many texts critically and thoughtfully (for exceptions, please see my reviews of fantasy series which boil down to "I love this and don't care why").
And so, when I say I hated this book (which I very much did), I say it in a context in which 1) I get there is a history behind this book that this book is trying to reflect and 2) I think a lot about how books try to achieve certain ends and whether or not they get there. To me, Mr. Pip told a history poorly, superficially, and with a troubling lens.
For all its allusion to complexity, the novel does not move far beyond stereotypes and relies on literary cliches: you have a mysterious, wise/cooky older white man, a suspicious black mother figure, an absolutely flat (character) machete-wielding rebel (who should just wear a "bad guy" sign to put a nail in that coffin). The children are drawn to Pop Eye (Mr. Watts) for no apparent reason other than their affinity for all thing white ("we had grown up believing white to be the color of all important things"). Which itself could be an interesting deconstruction of the power of white mythology (and colonial influence). But the novel never challenges or deconstructs this affinity for whiteness, only reinforces it with the focus on Pop Eye and a sentimental adherence to the lessons of Great Expectations--a Victorian, English novel written by a white, male author, can teach- cultural context be damned.
It presents to us (and in the plot, to the island), Dickens' Great Expectations as a sort of civilizing sacred text, bringing vast imaginative opportunities to otherwise "simple" island life. The white, wise teacher (with a white, wise text) becomes the moral instructor for the children of the island, and their back-woodsy parents as well. And he is (soft-spoiler) then queued up for an act of great, white heroism by the end.
It's a book about the transformative power of fiction, and thus asks us to take the power of literature very seriously-- which is exactly what I'm doing when I say I think it's reductive, heavy-handed, has tinges if not overt overtures of colonial nostalgia, and has a questionable "gaze" (told through the eyes of a local, black 13-year-old girl, but one who affects the gaze of a white reader).
Look, this book was shorted for the Man Booker prize, and loads of people, including some literary critics and clearly many goodreads readers, really liked it. That's great-- I don't think they're dummies or racist asshats for thinking so. But I disagree that the book transcends anything other than a tired post-colonial theme of self-reinvention through white eyes.
I also thought the pacing was bad. The end.
*** original review***
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 novel was like the literary version of that horrific Mel Gibson movie "Apocolypto" (or however you spell it) which was basically a 2 hour long version of "ooooh, look at the savages and how savage they are! Aren't they savage!!". To add insult to injury, the only "civilizing" force on the island is a white man who sprinkles down the magic of white civilization, imagination, and joy by reading Great Expectations. Look, I loved Tale of Two Cities, but Great Expectations? Come on. Someone needs to tell this author we've moved on from Colonialism (or at least we try to pretend we have). We call it "Post-Colonialism" now. We don't write about people of other races as though only we and our white civilization can save them, like they are only there for us to be saved, like they are only brutalized victims or brutal victimizers. And we definitely don't do it while self-righteously clinging to Great Expectations as a panacea for human understanding. Very "Shakespeare in the Bush" only without the actual intentions of finding anything out about the power of literature, instead it just reads as the power of the white ego.
My original review remains in its entirety below. At the time, I didn't add a lot of layers to it because the book merited very few in my opinion, and because there were other books to read and other shit to do. But sweet mother mary, I'm adding some layers now because people's feelings about my review keep popping up in my Goodreads notifications, and whereas I rightly treat the rest of the internet as the cesspool of anonymous commenters and trolls that it is (and thus pay it no mind), Goodreads is a scared place and I will not let such shenanigans stand. Je refuse!
Let me put some presuppositions to rest before the entirety of Goodreads comes at me about how/why wrong I am about this novel: I am very much aware, if not overly-schooled, in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea history, including the bloody civil war that spanned the late 80's and 90's on Bougainville Island. In my current work, I'm more keenly aware of how the peace accord (signed only in 2001) still is very relevant for the human rights situation regionally. At any rate, that's not to say I couldn't learn more, but I very much get that this book is a sort of historical fiction, or in the very least rooting itself in a history-- in doing such, it's giving us a different way to understand/see history, and the way that some people survived (and survive) the horrors of war, conflict, and loss. I just don't think it's doing it particularly well AND I think it's doing it through a particularly troubling lens (but more on that later). Another relevant piece: I have a PhD in literature with an emphasis in gender and race studies and I taught literature for many years (before a career change) and used sections of this very text before. This doesn't mean that I definitely "right" about this (or any) book, or that my opinion is better or smarter than others' opinions, but it means that I used to read, think about, and write about books for a living, and that now (outside of academia), I still think about many texts critically and thoughtfully (for exceptions, please see my reviews of fantasy series which boil down to "I love this and don't care why").
And so, when I say I hated this book (which I very much did), I say it in a context in which 1) I get there is a history behind this book that this book is trying to reflect and 2) I think a lot about how books try to achieve certain ends and whether or not they get there. To me, Mr. Pip told a history poorly, superficially, and with a troubling lens.
For all its allusion to complexity, the novel does not move far beyond stereotypes and relies on literary cliches: you have a mysterious, wise/cooky older white man, a suspicious black mother figure, an absolutely flat (character) machete-wielding rebel (who should just wear a "bad guy" sign to put a nail in that coffin). The children are drawn to Pop Eye (Mr. Watts) for no apparent reason other than their affinity for all thing white ("we had grown up believing white to be the color of all important things"). Which itself could be an interesting deconstruction of the power of white mythology (and colonial influence). But the novel never challenges or deconstructs this affinity for whiteness, only reinforces it with the focus on Pop Eye and a sentimental adherence to the lessons of Great Expectations--a Victorian, English novel written by a white, male author, can teach- cultural context be damned.
It presents to us (and in the plot, to the island), Dickens' Great Expectations as a sort of civilizing sacred text, bringing vast imaginative opportunities to otherwise "simple" island life. The white, wise teacher (with a white, wise text) becomes the moral instructor for the children of the island, and their back-woodsy parents as well. And he is (soft-spoiler) then queued up for an act of great, white heroism by the end.
It's a book about the transformative power of fiction, and thus asks us to take the power of literature very seriously-- which is exactly what I'm doing when I say I think it's reductive, heavy-handed, has tinges if not overt overtures of colonial nostalgia, and has a questionable "gaze" (told through the eyes of a local, black 13-year-old girl, but one who affects the gaze of a white reader).
Look, this book was shorted for the Man Booker prize, and loads of people, including some literary critics and clearly many goodreads readers, really liked it. That's great-- I don't think they're dummies or racist asshats for thinking so. But I disagree that the book transcends anything other than a tired post-colonial theme of self-reinvention through white eyes.
I also thought the pacing was bad. The end.
*** original review***
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 novel was like the literary version of that horrific Mel Gibson movie "Apocolypto" (or however you spell it) which was basically a 2 hour long version of "ooooh, look at the savages and how savage they are! Aren't they savage!!". To add insult to injury, the only "civilizing" force on the island is a white man who sprinkles down the magic of white civilization, imagination, and joy by reading Great Expectations. Look, I loved Tale of Two Cities, but Great Expectations? Come on. Someone needs to tell this author we've moved on from Colonialism (or at least we try to pretend we have). We call it "Post-Colonialism" now. We don't write about people of other races as though only we and our white civilization can save them, like they are only there for us to be saved, like they are only brutalized victims or brutal victimizers. And we definitely don't do it while self-righteously clinging to Great Expectations as a panacea for human understanding. Very "Shakespeare in the Bush" only without the actual intentions of finding anything out about the power of literature, instead it just reads as the power of the white ego.
February 3, 2013
Re-reading a firm favourite can be salutary, a cure for that breathless over-enthusiasm that marked the initial reaction. I'm not sure if anything can recapture the emotional punch in the solar plexus this book gave me the first time round. Appalled outrage at the fact that the civil war in the 1990s on the island of Bougainville which blasts devastation through the narrator's life was barely reported in any Western media; shocked horror at the atrocities (all based on fact); painful, gut-wrenching empathy with the main characters; that gasp of recognition as the plot unfurls; nail-biting concern for the fate of Matilda; deep tenderness and appreciation for a whole book dedicated to the power of narrative; joy at those few funny or uplifting moments; satisfaction at a well-rounded finish.
A second read will usually reveal the stitching, it is rarely the same seamless slide. It can be like seeing the winches, pulleys and traps that are necessary to create a stage illusion, either your admiration for the cunning construction is confirmed, or you're left wondering how you ever fell for it.
Or can it be a bit of both?
What carries this novel is that absolutely convincing voice. That deceptively simple voice. Straightforward, unsentimental, modest, unsophisticated. Short, easy sentences in plain English. So easy to read that it's easy to overlook the pulleys and ropes. The narrator, Matilda, has a wondrous eye for the telling detail: how it's only the dogs and chickens that have names that hide from the helicopters with the people in the jungle. She reads body language, she sees her mother: When she dug in her heels all her heft raced to the surface of her skin. It was almost as if there were friction between her skin and the trailing air. Hardly the language of a 13 year old, but it slips through, it works, why ever not. Maybe it's the grown-up Matilda talking there.
The plot is beautifully worked. What at first seems to risk turning into cliché, the transformative power of an inspirational teacher à la Mr Chips or Mr Keating is first undermined and then complicated, turning into a Shakespearian tussle with guilt, revenge and redemption. One slight caveat: it founders a little after the shock of the worst atrocities. Matilda has to get out, how that is managed is just a little messy and wet and reminiscent of The Mill on the Floss. But that was my only quibble, not enough to really detract from the sum.
What I did notice this time was that occasionally it got a bit preachy. Some of the Big Themes were flagged up a little too obviously, a bit too clearly signposted. It's not going to be one of those where you can discover more and more: it's all there on the surface for you, ready to pick up like a shell from the beach. That's fine: it is a wondrous thing of beauty with an iridescent, pearly sheen that will sit on your shelf and whisper to you again when you hold it to your ear.
A second read will usually reveal the stitching, it is rarely the same seamless slide. It can be like seeing the winches, pulleys and traps that are necessary to create a stage illusion, either your admiration for the cunning construction is confirmed, or you're left wondering how you ever fell for it.
Or can it be a bit of both?
What carries this novel is that absolutely convincing voice. That deceptively simple voice. Straightforward, unsentimental, modest, unsophisticated. Short, easy sentences in plain English. So easy to read that it's easy to overlook the pulleys and ropes. The narrator, Matilda, has a wondrous eye for the telling detail: how it's only the dogs and chickens that have names that hide from the helicopters with the people in the jungle. She reads body language, she sees her mother: When she dug in her heels all her heft raced to the surface of her skin. It was almost as if there were friction between her skin and the trailing air. Hardly the language of a 13 year old, but it slips through, it works, why ever not. Maybe it's the grown-up Matilda talking there.
The plot is beautifully worked. What at first seems to risk turning into cliché, the transformative power of an inspirational teacher à la Mr Chips or Mr Keating is first undermined and then complicated, turning into a Shakespearian tussle with guilt, revenge and redemption. One slight caveat: it founders a little after the shock of the worst atrocities. Matilda has to get out, how that is managed is just a little messy and wet and reminiscent of The Mill on the Floss. But that was my only quibble, not enough to really detract from the sum.
What I did notice this time was that occasionally it got a bit preachy. Some of the Big Themes were flagged up a little too obviously, a bit too clearly signposted. It's not going to be one of those where you can discover more and more: it's all there on the surface for you, ready to pick up like a shell from the beach. That's fine: it is a wondrous thing of beauty with an iridescent, pearly sheen that will sit on your shelf and whisper to you again when you hold it to your ear.
May 23, 2022
“Poetic, heartbreaking, surprising. Matilda is a young girl in Bougainville, a tropical island where the horror of civil war lurks. Mr. Watts, the only white person, is the self appointed teacher of the tiny school where the only textbook is the Dickens novel Great Expectations. Storytelling, imagination, courage, beauty, memories and sudden violence are the main elements of this extraordinary book.” a praise by Isabel Allende
What a terrific and touching work of fiction!
The power of words cannot be measured. They can bring wonderful consequences but also disastrous.
And we forget how much an adult can influence a child.
And we forget no to take things for granted.
This book was, in my opinion, mesmerizing.
I loved the writing and the concept of the storyline. The characters are incredibly wholehearted.
The pace is very slow, regardless, I was completely hooked from the very beginning, and adding a parallel to “The Great Expectations”, by Charles Dickens, who is one of my favourite authors, made it even more enthralling. But I was devastated at the end.
An excerpt: “I wasn’t prepared to break my promise to Mr. Watts, but I felt my mum needed some mental preparation. The only way I knew how to help her was to tell her about Mr. Jaggers’ visit to Pip in the marshes. This is the part of Mr. Dickens’ story that has always stayed with me. The idea that your life could change without warning was very appealing.”
An excerpt: “This is something we all take for granted, but no matter how bad things get, the moment you are denied air you fight for it. You know at last what you need. You need air.”
From Wikipedia: The Bougainville conflict, also known as the Bougainville Civil War, was a multi-layered armed conflict fought from 1988 to 1998 in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) between PNG and the secessionist forces of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), and between the BRA and other armed groups on Bougainville.
P.S. Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Overall Best Book
Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (South East Asia and South Pacific Region) Winner of the Montana Medal for Fiction
Finalist for the Man Booker Prize
What a terrific and touching work of fiction!
The power of words cannot be measured. They can bring wonderful consequences but also disastrous.
And we forget how much an adult can influence a child.
And we forget no to take things for granted.
This book was, in my opinion, mesmerizing.
I loved the writing and the concept of the storyline. The characters are incredibly wholehearted.
The pace is very slow, regardless, I was completely hooked from the very beginning, and adding a parallel to “The Great Expectations”, by Charles Dickens, who is one of my favourite authors, made it even more enthralling. But I was devastated at the end.
An excerpt: “I wasn’t prepared to break my promise to Mr. Watts, but I felt my mum needed some mental preparation. The only way I knew how to help her was to tell her about Mr. Jaggers’ visit to Pip in the marshes. This is the part of Mr. Dickens’ story that has always stayed with me. The idea that your life could change without warning was very appealing.”
An excerpt: “This is something we all take for granted, but no matter how bad things get, the moment you are denied air you fight for it. You know at last what you need. You need air.”
From Wikipedia: The Bougainville conflict, also known as the Bougainville Civil War, was a multi-layered armed conflict fought from 1988 to 1998 in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) between PNG and the secessionist forces of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), and between the BRA and other armed groups on Bougainville.
P.S. Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Overall Best Book
Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (South East Asia and South Pacific Region) Winner of the Montana Medal for Fiction
Finalist for the Man Booker Prize
November 1, 2007
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 Papuan masses, though I can now rest assured that I should be glad not to be a member of that immiserated bunch. Worst of all, toward the beginning the novel reads like Dead Poets Society-type teacher schmaltz. (Being a teacher does sensitize one to the presumption that a good teacher is a combination of Erasmus, Steve Martin, and Mother Teresa.)
But the ending was really good, in an inconclusive, life-sucks, Coetzee kind of way. I wasn't expecting it to go in quite the direction that it did; I certainly wasn't expecting it to be as horrifyingly violent, especially since a lot of it is more YA than Bookeresque. It also made me go directly on to my fourth attempt to read Bleak House, no small feat.
Anyway, read it and let me know what you think. And maybe you can explain to me why everyone is saying this book takes place on some anonymous island, when we are told that (a) the village in question has copper mines nearby, (b) the place is within boating distance of the Solomons, and (c) the main character's father worked in Arawa? All of which narrow it down to Bougainville?
But the ending was really good, in an inconclusive, life-sucks, Coetzee kind of way. I wasn't expecting it to go in quite the direction that it did; I certainly wasn't expecting it to be as horrifyingly violent, especially since a lot of it is more YA than Bookeresque. It also made me go directly on to my fourth attempt to read Bleak House, no small feat.
Anyway, read it and let me know what you think. And maybe you can explain to me why everyone is saying this book takes place on some anonymous island, when we are told that (a) the village in question has copper mines nearby, (b) the place is within boating distance of the Solomons, and (c) the main character's father worked in Arawa? All of which narrow it down to Bougainville?
January 2, 2008
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 and meaning and explanation in circumstances that can provide none of this. This is one to keep on your shelf and go back to. The writing is powerful and the characters are hard to shake, even after you've finished the book.
April 13, 2009
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.
February 27, 2011
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.
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.
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.
March 30, 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 giving too much about "Mister Pip" away, the only consolation for those of us who dislike Robin Williams would be Mr. Watts' ultimate fate. That actually might make the movie worth seeing.
Also, and this is just a pet peeve of mine, but I'm getting pretty tired of supposedly inspiring novels that focus on the act of reading and how much literature enhances our lives. Look, I know being a dedicated reader is something of a rarity these days, but that doesn't justify the number of books out there that glorify the act of reading. Just as we don't need dozens upon dozens of movies about film-making nor do we need countless television shows about the production of television shows, we also don't need this many books about reading. It comes across as book porn, and it's wearying.
OK, rant over. Despite all my complaints, "Mister Pip" is skillfully written, with some nice descriptions of Matilda's island and the people who live on it. I just didn't care for the book's theme nor how cloying it often is.
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 giving too much about "Mister Pip" away, the only consolation for those of us who dislike Robin Williams would be Mr. Watts' ultimate fate. That actually might make the movie worth seeing.
Also, and this is just a pet peeve of mine, but I'm getting pretty tired of supposedly inspiring novels that focus on the act of reading and how much literature enhances our lives. Look, I know being a dedicated reader is something of a rarity these days, but that doesn't justify the number of books out there that glorify the act of reading. Just as we don't need dozens upon dozens of movies about film-making nor do we need countless television shows about the production of television shows, we also don't need this many books about reading. It comes across as book porn, and it's wearying.
OK, rant over. Despite all my complaints, "Mister Pip" is skillfully written, with some nice descriptions of Matilda's island and the people who live on it. I just didn't care for the book's theme nor how cloying it often is.
July 23, 2011
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.
May 27, 2016
Wow! I didn't expect this when I started reading. What a well told story.
There are opposites throughout: idyllic island surrounding/Victorian London; peaceful island/rebels & militia; Great Expectations/no expectations. The juxtapositions are harsh and affective.
Mr. Watts, the only white man on the island, takes it upon himself to teach the children during times of war after the school has been closed. He uses Great Expectations as a textbook, teaching the children of a world beyond their own, asking them to open their imaginations. The parallels & similarities between the two worlds are wonderfully interwoven as the story reveals itself.
Mr. Watts will stay with me. What a wonderful character. Flawed and yet perfect at the same time.
There are opposites throughout: idyllic island surrounding/Victorian London; peaceful island/rebels & militia; Great Expectations/no expectations. The juxtapositions are harsh and affective.
Mr. Watts, the only white man on the island, takes it upon himself to teach the children during times of war after the school has been closed. He uses Great Expectations as a textbook, teaching the children of a world beyond their own, asking them to open their imaginations. The parallels & similarities between the two worlds are wonderfully interwoven as the story reveals itself.
Mr. Watts will stay with me. What a wonderful character. Flawed and yet perfect at the same time.
May 4, 2016
Mister Pip written by Lloyd Jones focuses on the power of imagination and the ability of literature to act as an escape from reality. Mr. Watt is one of the few remaining white men after the war begins on the island of Bougainville. He becomes a teacher for the native children of the island and uses Charles Dicken's Great Expectations to teach the children about the importance of imagination. Pip is significant to Jones's novel because he is the main character of Great Expectations that Mr. Watts uses to show the children about foreign ideas and morals. Mister Pip expresses the conditions of war, tension between people of different races, and the importance of education.
Mister Pip emphasizes the relationship between Mr. Watts, a white man, and the native islanders of Bougainville, black people. There is lots of tenstion between the adult islanders, including Dolores, Matilda's mom, and Mr. Watts. Meanwhile the children of the island, especially Mr. Watts star pupil, Matilda, all get along with and look up to Mr. Watts. Mr. Watts uses Great Expectations to teach the children about a world they do not know. He shows them a world they can escape to. This is helpful as the island is in a time of war which largely affects the quality of life for the islanders.
Living in a place of war largely consumes Jones's plot. The war turns friends against each other, such as when an islanders brother returns from the rambo camp and the community is "scared the redskins [will] discover him, which would make [them] a rebel village" (Jones 82). The fear of what the redskins are capable of keeps the islanders from offering help to the rebel group. This expresses the power of fear to readers and sheds light on a mostly unexperienced topic.
Tension between white people and black people in this book provides commentary on not belonging. This is seen when Mr. Watts comments on "being as lonely as the last mammoth" (Jones 112). Both racial groups feel like they do not belong amongst the other due to emphasis that society puts on the color of their skin. This idea is also known in todays society, feeling different or having a sense that one does not belong is common and relatable. This intensifies the bond the reader feels to Mister Pip's characters and amplifies the books message of war, equality, and imagination.
Lloyd Jone's book also comments on the importance of education. This idea is expressed through Mr. Pip who gives himself to the children of the island, and encourages the elders of the island to share their knowledge with the young. Jones emphasizes the importance of literature through Mr. Watts emphasis on the importance of Great Expectations. For example, Matilda comments that, "No one had ever told us kids to look there [in a book] for a friend. Or that you could slip inside the skin of another. Or travel to another place. . ." (Jones 24).
Lloyd Jones uses his novel Mister Pip to bring the experience of living in war to america's door. He expresses the effect feeling different can have on a man's behavior, and analyses the way literature can help readers escape the misfortune of their lives.
Mister Pip emphasizes the relationship between Mr. Watts, a white man, and the native islanders of Bougainville, black people. There is lots of tenstion between the adult islanders, including Dolores, Matilda's mom, and Mr. Watts. Meanwhile the children of the island, especially Mr. Watts star pupil, Matilda, all get along with and look up to Mr. Watts. Mr. Watts uses Great Expectations to teach the children about a world they do not know. He shows them a world they can escape to. This is helpful as the island is in a time of war which largely affects the quality of life for the islanders.
Living in a place of war largely consumes Jones's plot. The war turns friends against each other, such as when an islanders brother returns from the rambo camp and the community is "scared the redskins [will] discover him, which would make [them] a rebel village" (Jones 82). The fear of what the redskins are capable of keeps the islanders from offering help to the rebel group. This expresses the power of fear to readers and sheds light on a mostly unexperienced topic.
Tension between white people and black people in this book provides commentary on not belonging. This is seen when Mr. Watts comments on "being as lonely as the last mammoth" (Jones 112). Both racial groups feel like they do not belong amongst the other due to emphasis that society puts on the color of their skin. This idea is also known in todays society, feeling different or having a sense that one does not belong is common and relatable. This intensifies the bond the reader feels to Mister Pip's characters and amplifies the books message of war, equality, and imagination.
Lloyd Jone's book also comments on the importance of education. This idea is expressed through Mr. Pip who gives himself to the children of the island, and encourages the elders of the island to share their knowledge with the young. Jones emphasizes the importance of literature through Mr. Watts emphasis on the importance of Great Expectations. For example, Matilda comments that, "No one had ever told us kids to look there [in a book] for a friend. Or that you could slip inside the skin of another. Or travel to another place. . ." (Jones 24).
Lloyd Jones uses his novel Mister Pip to bring the experience of living in war to america's door. He expresses the effect feeling different can have on a man's behavior, and analyses the way literature can help readers escape the misfortune of their lives.
August 17, 2010
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 outright horror which permeate are counterd by a very humane atmosphere. By the time you near the end you've invested so much into the characters that you get hit for six by the turn of events and subsequent emotions. I had a sense of numb shock mirroring that of certain characters near the end. Powerful emotions and a worthy read.
Also makes me want to pick up Great Expectations (which I've never read).
Won the 2007 Commonwealth Writer's Prize and shortlisted for the Booker the same year.
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 outright horror which permeate are counterd by a very humane atmosphere. By the time you near the end you've invested so much into the characters that you get hit for six by the turn of events and subsequent emotions. I had a sense of numb shock mirroring that of certain characters near the end. Powerful emotions and a worthy read.
Also makes me want to pick up Great Expectations (which I've never read).
Won the 2007 Commonwealth Writer's Prize and shortlisted for the Booker the same year.
May 10, 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 there's little doubt it's anywhere else -- and mostly concerns the fate of a tiny village caught up in conflict between soldiers and rebels who fight for undisclosed reasons. In the village is a single white man, Mr Watts, who becomes the village children's teacher, using Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" as his text book.
Through the perspective of one girl, forced to tread a thin path between her mother's "make-believe" (the Bible and the natural world) and Mr Watt's make-believe world (Pip and Dickensian London), we get a unique view of the world.
Other reviewers have criticised the book for using language well outside the realm of its childhood narrator. But I was okay with that, and there is a logical explanation for it once you get to the end of the book.
There are definitely surprising (perhaps, more accurately, *shocking*) moments. A couple of times I stopped and had to re-read, but I don't want to say anymore because this is a story you just have to go with and let it unfold for you.
Can't wait to see the movie. ;)
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 there's little doubt it's anywhere else -- and mostly concerns the fate of a tiny village caught up in conflict between soldiers and rebels who fight for undisclosed reasons. In the village is a single white man, Mr Watts, who becomes the village children's teacher, using Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" as his text book.
Through the perspective of one girl, forced to tread a thin path between her mother's "make-believe" (the Bible and the natural world) and Mr Watt's make-believe world (Pip and Dickensian London), we get a unique view of the world.
Other reviewers have criticised the book for using language well outside the realm of its childhood narrator. But I was okay with that, and there is a logical explanation for it once you get to the end of the book.
There are definitely surprising (perhaps, more accurately, *shocking*) moments. A couple of times I stopped and had to re-read, but I don't want to say anymore because this is a story you just have to go with and let it unfold for you.
Can't wait to see the movie. ;)
December 5, 2010
We had to read part of this for Uni and I thought I would finish it. There was the fact that it won the Man Booker that put me off slightly, but I've plodded on regardless.
This was a disturbing book, much more disturbing than I thought it would have been when I started out or from the fragment I was to read for Uni. It is not the sort of book that one really likes. It is mostly well written and the story mostly moves along at a pace that sustains interest – often better than this – but there are things about the story that are very distressing and so as a ‘coming of age’ book it is all a bit too sharp edged to be ‘enjoyed’. I thought this was going to be a Mr Chipps book - and it was in part - but it becomes a much darker vision towards the end.
But then fiction is not just about enjoyment and neither are civil wars, so I guess this was to be expected. I never seem to expect this though.
At the end I kept thinking of Heart of Darkness – I don’t plan to spoil this book if you are planning to ever read it, so I won’t go into details. All the same, I hadn’t expected to be reminded so strongly of Heart of Darkness or for quite as much of an inversion of the end of that novel to be quite so obvious.
I do like the idea that literature – in as far as it is ‘great literature’ – has the power to move despite the distance of time and space and culture that separates the reader and the writer. However, I’ve never really enjoyed Dickens – I say that knowing that is a kind of heresy. I got half way through Great Expectations – the book this book uses as its cornerstone – and became so irritated with Pip’s voice and Dickens’s habit of telling me how to feel that I tossed it across the room and never finished it. So, if I was in the place of Pop Eye there would have been little chance of my reading the kids Great Expectations in the first place and even if I did make that mistake I would be hardly likely to immediately start it over again once I’d come to the end.
The nice part of this book is the attempted recreation of Great Expectations by the school kids and the third telling of the story at night. Like I said, I won't spoil it for you. All the same, I do like the idea of the joint construction or reconstruction of texts and this was handled better in this book than I would have given it credit for when I started reading the text.
There are really strange things about this book that nearly stopped me reading it. Not least is the very, very strange idea that it takes a white man to teach an effectively pre-literate society how to tell stories to their children about their own local environment. This just seemed silly to me, I'm afraid - and one of the times I struggled to suspend disbelief. The other obvious problem with the suspension of disbelief in how the story is told is actually resolved really well in the novel.
There were things I really liked and really disliked about this novel - but I'll just go with 3 stars and be damned.
This was a disturbing book, much more disturbing than I thought it would have been when I started out or from the fragment I was to read for Uni. It is not the sort of book that one really likes. It is mostly well written and the story mostly moves along at a pace that sustains interest – often better than this – but there are things about the story that are very distressing and so as a ‘coming of age’ book it is all a bit too sharp edged to be ‘enjoyed’. I thought this was going to be a Mr Chipps book - and it was in part - but it becomes a much darker vision towards the end.
But then fiction is not just about enjoyment and neither are civil wars, so I guess this was to be expected. I never seem to expect this though.
At the end I kept thinking of Heart of Darkness – I don’t plan to spoil this book if you are planning to ever read it, so I won’t go into details. All the same, I hadn’t expected to be reminded so strongly of Heart of Darkness or for quite as much of an inversion of the end of that novel to be quite so obvious.
I do like the idea that literature – in as far as it is ‘great literature’ – has the power to move despite the distance of time and space and culture that separates the reader and the writer. However, I’ve never really enjoyed Dickens – I say that knowing that is a kind of heresy. I got half way through Great Expectations – the book this book uses as its cornerstone – and became so irritated with Pip’s voice and Dickens’s habit of telling me how to feel that I tossed it across the room and never finished it. So, if I was in the place of Pop Eye there would have been little chance of my reading the kids Great Expectations in the first place and even if I did make that mistake I would be hardly likely to immediately start it over again once I’d come to the end.
The nice part of this book is the attempted recreation of Great Expectations by the school kids and the third telling of the story at night. Like I said, I won't spoil it for you. All the same, I do like the idea of the joint construction or reconstruction of texts and this was handled better in this book than I would have given it credit for when I started reading the text.
There are really strange things about this book that nearly stopped me reading it. Not least is the very, very strange idea that it takes a white man to teach an effectively pre-literate society how to tell stories to their children about their own local environment. This just seemed silly to me, I'm afraid - and one of the times I struggled to suspend disbelief. The other obvious problem with the suspension of disbelief in how the story is told is actually resolved really well in the novel.
There were things I really liked and really disliked about this novel - but I'll just go with 3 stars and be damned.
October 31, 2018
Unforgettable, thoroughly humane, and deeply emotional. Altogether a splendid novel.
March 25, 2019
The transformative power of a book is the prime takeaway from this book and I'm happy to provide a quote or two.
Freedom, by its very definition, means we are given the right to our beliefs. Perhaps I keyed in on it in the book because I see people in my country attempting to deny others this freedom. They attempt to demonize those with whom they disagree, and more. This happens on both sides of the political spectrum. I simply wish it were not so.
Anyway, I thought I needed something light (or at least lighter) after my last book, and I was lulled into a false sense of security. What could be more wonderful than a man reading Great Expectations to a group of children? There are some very dramatic and very dark pages in this. They were entirely appropriate to the novel, I just wasn't expecting them. As can be seen in the quotes above, the prose is not in the least difficult and I felt that this was geared to a younger audience - despite those very dark pages. This definitely belongs in my 5-star group of reads and had it been placed after a different book I might think it solidly so.
During the blockade we could not waste fuel or candles. But as the rebels and redskins went on butchering one another, we had another reason for hiding under the cover of night. Mr. Watts had given us kids another world to spend the night in. We could escape in another place. It didn't matter that it was Victorian England. We found we could easily get there. It was just the blimmin' dogs and the blimmin' roosters that tried to keep us here.and
"It is hard to be a perfect human being, Matilda," he said. "Pip is only human. he has been given the opportunity to turn himself into whomever he chooses. he is free to choose. He is even free to make bad choices."To escape to different place is a prime reason for reading, no doubt about it. The second quote is a prelude, it seems to me, to the second takeaway. One of the characters in Mister Pip believes it is OK to do whatever necessary to deny others the freedom to believe as they choose. It is impossible to say how bad such a choice is, and, in the book, it has irreparable ramifications.
Freedom, by its very definition, means we are given the right to our beliefs. Perhaps I keyed in on it in the book because I see people in my country attempting to deny others this freedom. They attempt to demonize those with whom they disagree, and more. This happens on both sides of the political spectrum. I simply wish it were not so.
Anyway, I thought I needed something light (or at least lighter) after my last book, and I was lulled into a false sense of security. What could be more wonderful than a man reading Great Expectations to a group of children? There are some very dramatic and very dark pages in this. They were entirely appropriate to the novel, I just wasn't expecting them. As can be seen in the quotes above, the prose is not in the least difficult and I felt that this was geared to a younger audience - despite those very dark pages. This definitely belongs in my 5-star group of reads and had it been placed after a different book I might think it solidly so.
September 21, 2015
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.
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.
November 21, 2021
A few minutes research is all it takes to discover that the bones of this story are all based on historical events on the real island of "Bougainville". In the conflict there, troops from the mainland were referred to as "redskins" by people on the island — a label which attracts much condemnation by reviewers here. It is important to note that Jones did not invent this label or import it from North America; it was a term used locally by one dark-skinned group to refer to another dark-skinned group who they perceived as being different. (In this context, what is a "colonial" attitude is certainly a matter for debate. One could argue that reviewers are imposing a colonial attitude by asserting a right to police the language and condemn a word which was traditionally used. Who has the privilege of deciding when a word is offensive? Surely context matters).
But enough of that. Let's get to the book itself.
I grew up with Great Expectations, as it were, so maybe that is why I especially enjoyed this novel of discovery — characters who discover themselves by discovering a book. Who among us has not had that experience!
But enough of that. Let's get to the book itself.
I grew up with Great Expectations, as it were, so maybe that is why I especially enjoyed this novel of discovery — characters who discover themselves by discovering a book. Who among us has not had that experience!
November 30, 2022
3.5 stars
December 2, 2018
Mister Pip is regarded as something of a New Zealand literary classic and regularly appeared on the annual Whitcoulls Top 100 list (which is supposedly voted for by readers) although not for several years now. I was therefore quite surprised to discover that it was only published in 2007 when a copy finally crossed my path on loan from a friend. It was also shortlisted for the Booker prize that year, losing to The Gathering by Anne Enright, a book I have never heard of. It was also on my radar because a colleague was the set doctor for the movie adaptation starring Hugh Lawrie, although I never got round to seeing it. Having looked the trailer up, I would now be keen to.
Set in early 1990s Bougainville, an island in the Western Pacific controlled by Papua New Guinea, and mined for copper by Australia, but whose inhabitants are ethnically closer to Solomon Islanders, the story is narrated by Matilda, from an adult perspective, but 13 as it begins. The island has been decimated by civil war between the PNG forces, known as redskins, and local rebels, nicknamed rambos, poorly trained and often barely adults. Anyone who can has left, including all the whites, except one eccentric old New Zealander, Mr Watts, referred to scathingly as Pop-eye by the locals, who is married to Grace, a villager who left the islands when young and returned not quite right in the head.
With no teachers, the village children have nothing to do, until Mr Watts steps up and offers to impart what he knows, which turns out to be mostly how to read them Great Expectations, “the greatest novel by the greatest English novelist of the 19th century”. Enchanted, Matilda, whose father left to work in the Australian mines when she was 11, and whose bitter mother is more dedicated to the bible than to the emotional needs of her only daughter, feels that she has a real friend in Pip. Discovering another world is an escape from the privations of life behind the blockade and Matilda feels torn between her admiration for her quietly atheist teacher and the disapproval of her mother. When the redskins and their monstrously irritable leader take over the village, a simple misunderstanding, a vindictive act, misplaced pride and shame have horrific consequences.
This was a moving read which stirred my emotions more effectively in the early stages, but by the climax was so numbing in its violence that the final part of the book, a sort of extended epilogue, felt kind of wrong to me, although it does neatly explain how Matilda comes to tell her tale. Mister Pip has some very polarised reviews with the leading one here on GR a scathing attack on its handling of the racial aspects and appropriateness of Charles Dickens as the paragon of literature. I’ve never been much of a Dickens fan, having been tortured with GE for my English Lit O-level (I got a D, I’ve never been any good at analysing themes and hidden meanings, I read what I like.) I do however remember enough to see the parallels with Matilda’s story and I did enjoy learning more about Bougainville, a place and a conflict shamefully ignored by the Western World, a fact noted sadly by Matilda several times. This is very different to my usual type of book, but I’m glad to have read it at last.
Set in early 1990s Bougainville, an island in the Western Pacific controlled by Papua New Guinea, and mined for copper by Australia, but whose inhabitants are ethnically closer to Solomon Islanders, the story is narrated by Matilda, from an adult perspective, but 13 as it begins. The island has been decimated by civil war between the PNG forces, known as redskins, and local rebels, nicknamed rambos, poorly trained and often barely adults. Anyone who can has left, including all the whites, except one eccentric old New Zealander, Mr Watts, referred to scathingly as Pop-eye by the locals, who is married to Grace, a villager who left the islands when young and returned not quite right in the head.
With no teachers, the village children have nothing to do, until Mr Watts steps up and offers to impart what he knows, which turns out to be mostly how to read them Great Expectations, “the greatest novel by the greatest English novelist of the 19th century”. Enchanted, Matilda, whose father left to work in the Australian mines when she was 11, and whose bitter mother is more dedicated to the bible than to the emotional needs of her only daughter, feels that she has a real friend in Pip. Discovering another world is an escape from the privations of life behind the blockade and Matilda feels torn between her admiration for her quietly atheist teacher and the disapproval of her mother. When the redskins and their monstrously irritable leader take over the village, a simple misunderstanding, a vindictive act, misplaced pride and shame have horrific consequences.
This was a moving read which stirred my emotions more effectively in the early stages, but by the climax was so numbing in its violence that the final part of the book, a sort of extended epilogue, felt kind of wrong to me, although it does neatly explain how Matilda comes to tell her tale. Mister Pip has some very polarised reviews with the leading one here on GR a scathing attack on its handling of the racial aspects and appropriateness of Charles Dickens as the paragon of literature. I’ve never been much of a Dickens fan, having been tortured with GE for my English Lit O-level (I got a D, I’ve never been any good at analysing themes and hidden meanings, I read what I like.) I do however remember enough to see the parallels with Matilda’s story and I did enjoy learning more about Bougainville, a place and a conflict shamefully ignored by the Western World, a fact noted sadly by Matilda several times. This is very different to my usual type of book, but I’m glad to have read it at last.
June 25, 2017
This book won a heap of awards in New Zealand, and was nominated for the Man Booker.
I can see why it was celebrated with awards, and while YA is not really my thing, this book was an enjoyable read.
Set in Bougainville, early the civil war, so somewhere in the 1988-92 range (before military peacekeepers were placed on the island), as told by Matilda, a fourteen year old girl, living with her mother. The local Australian-owned copper mine has been closed, and the expats have all left, except for one - Mr Watts. Matilda's father, who worked at the mine has also left, and is living and working in Townsville (Australia), where he went with his Australian employer on their departure.
The story starts shortly after the blockade, so mail, and imported foodstuffs are no longer available. Mr Watts steps in to teach the children, and he begins by reading out loud - Dickens' Great Expectations.
Through out the story, the children warm to Mr Pip and his story. They also learn about Mr Watts and his wife, a local woman who left the island on a scholarship, and returned with Mr Watts, but was never really accepted back into the community. This is all set to a background of the rebels, native Bouganvilleans who are largely made up of young boys from villages such as the one they live in, and the redskins - the Papuan soldiers who are opposing the independence movement of Bougainville.
Bougainville is ecologically and geographically part of the Solomon Islands, but not culturally or ethnically. (The Solomon's identify ethnically by the language they speak - and there are up to seventy ethnic groups, therefore they recognise no bond with the Bouganinvilleans).
In the ten years of civil unrest, 15000 people were killed. That events went so far before the Australian and New Zealand governments intervened is terrible, but eventually a peace agreement was brokered, leading to autonomy.
I had some concerns during reading that the descriptions offered by a young girl were 'wise beyond her years', but ultimately this is explained, and the writing was clever in weaving aspects of the story together, releasing information as it is required in quite a clever manner.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this. 3.5 stars, rounded up.
I can see why it was celebrated with awards, and while YA is not really my thing, this book was an enjoyable read.
Set in Bougainville, early the civil war, so somewhere in the 1988-92 range (before military peacekeepers were placed on the island), as told by Matilda, a fourteen year old girl, living with her mother. The local Australian-owned copper mine has been closed, and the expats have all left, except for one - Mr Watts. Matilda's father, who worked at the mine has also left, and is living and working in Townsville (Australia), where he went with his Australian employer on their departure.
The story starts shortly after the blockade, so mail, and imported foodstuffs are no longer available. Mr Watts steps in to teach the children, and he begins by reading out loud - Dickens' Great Expectations.
Through out the story, the children warm to Mr Pip and his story. They also learn about Mr Watts and his wife, a local woman who left the island on a scholarship, and returned with Mr Watts, but was never really accepted back into the community. This is all set to a background of the rebels, native Bouganvilleans who are largely made up of young boys from villages such as the one they live in, and the redskins - the Papuan soldiers who are opposing the independence movement of Bougainville.
Bougainville is ecologically and geographically part of the Solomon Islands, but not culturally or ethnically. (The Solomon's identify ethnically by the language they speak - and there are up to seventy ethnic groups, therefore they recognise no bond with the Bouganinvilleans).
In the ten years of civil unrest, 15000 people were killed. That events went so far before the Australian and New Zealand governments intervened is terrible, but eventually a peace agreement was brokered, leading to autonomy.
I had some concerns during reading that the descriptions offered by a young girl were 'wise beyond her years', but ultimately this is explained, and the writing was clever in weaving aspects of the story together, releasing information as it is required in quite a clever manner.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this. 3.5 stars, rounded up.
January 20, 2020
I always feel a little bad for rating a book 1 star when I didn't actively hate it (and most other times, let's be honest). But as it stands: I did not like this book and I would not have finished it, if it wasn't so short.
I'm of the opinion that anyone is allowed to write about anything, so when I say this book about a young black girl from Bougainville immediately read like it was written from a middle-aged white man, I mean this purely as a literary criticism. So yeah, the white man who becomes her teacher and reads Dickens to her, does smell a bit of a white savior. But I'd ignore this if I really was into the story. But I wasn't. It never really clicked or came alive to me. The prose itself is simple, does its job. I just didn't buy the characters or the story of a young girl and a whole class being so enthralled by "Great Expectations". It probably didn't help that I hated(!) that book myself. So yeah, then there's a little horror and a bit of death, and I felt nothing. Just not my cup of tea.
I'm of the opinion that anyone is allowed to write about anything, so when I say this book about a young black girl from Bougainville immediately read like it was written from a middle-aged white man, I mean this purely as a literary criticism. So yeah, the white man who becomes her teacher and reads Dickens to her, does smell a bit of a white savior. But I'd ignore this if I really was into the story. But I wasn't. It never really clicked or came alive to me. The prose itself is simple, does its job. I just didn't buy the characters or the story of a young girl and a whole class being so enthralled by "Great Expectations". It probably didn't help that I hated(!) that book myself. So yeah, then there's a little horror and a bit of death, and I felt nothing. Just not my cup of tea.
March 24, 2021
Que maravillosa lectura, este es un libro excelente para los amantes de los libros, todo gira como explica la sinopsis en torno a la gran obra de Dickens, grandes esperanzas y a su protagonista Pip.
Narrada en primera persona por Matilda, que es la gran protagonista de esta tierna y conmovedora historia, que está relatada antes, durante y después de la Revolución de la isla de Bougainville.
La novela está repleta de citas referentes a los libros, reflexiones maravillosas aparecen en muchísimas ocasiones de esas que te hacen pensar, subrayar y guardar.
Es una lectura mágica por momentos, pero habiendo una guerra de por medio no todo será tan bonito y lindo, aun con una guerra de por medio la novela es tremendamente bella y atractiva por la novelescas historias narradas contantemente, relatada con un suculento vocabulario.
En las clases que decide dar el Señor Watts ”Ojos Saltones” los niños tienen edades comprendidas entre siete y quince años, las clases son de lo más peculiares, además de leer los capítulos de grandes esperanzas, aprenderán muchas otras cosas más que les enseñaran a subsistir.
No voy a lastimar mucho de este libro, me sorprendió gratamente, me resulto afectuoso, enternecedor, relatado con mucha delicadeza, repleto de sabiduría, sin duda esta novela se me quedara por siempre muy adentro, una historia con alma y corazón, una lectura con sabor a libros.
Posdata: Pero nunca olvidéis que la historia que cuenta un libro no siempre es igual.
Extractos del libro:
Leía despacio para que oyésemos la forma de cada palabra.
Cuando leéis la obra de un gran escritor, estáis conociéndolo en persona.
Cuando el señor Watts llegó al final del primer capítulo, me sentía como si ese niño, Pip, me hubiera hablado personalmente. Un niño al que no podía ver ni tocar, pero a quien conocía de oídas. Había encontrado a un nuevo amigo.
Nadie nos había dicho que los amigos podían hallarse también en los libros.
Ni que podíamos meternos en la piel de otro. Ni viajar a otros lugares.
Lo triste de los árboles es que carecen de conciencia. Se quedan mirando sin más.
Una persona cautivada por un libro sencillamente se olvida de respirar.
Grandes esperanzas es uno de esos libros que permitió cambiar mi vida.
Experimenté una sensación extraña, como una fruta que no sabe que es fruta, y por lo tanto el objeto del apetito de alguien.
Un pensamiento fugaz puede llegar y marcharse con su licencia para sorprender.
Necesitábamos a un maestro, y el señor Watts lo fue. Necesitábamos a un mago para evocar otros mundos, y el señor Watts se convirtió en ese mago. Cuando necesitábamos a un salvador, el señor Watts desempeñó tal papel.
Narrada en primera persona por Matilda, que es la gran protagonista de esta tierna y conmovedora historia, que está relatada antes, durante y después de la Revolución de la isla de Bougainville.
La novela está repleta de citas referentes a los libros, reflexiones maravillosas aparecen en muchísimas ocasiones de esas que te hacen pensar, subrayar y guardar.
Es una lectura mágica por momentos, pero habiendo una guerra de por medio no todo será tan bonito y lindo, aun con una guerra de por medio la novela es tremendamente bella y atractiva por la novelescas historias narradas contantemente, relatada con un suculento vocabulario.
En las clases que decide dar el Señor Watts ”Ojos Saltones” los niños tienen edades comprendidas entre siete y quince años, las clases son de lo más peculiares, además de leer los capítulos de grandes esperanzas, aprenderán muchas otras cosas más que les enseñaran a subsistir.
No voy a lastimar mucho de este libro, me sorprendió gratamente, me resulto afectuoso, enternecedor, relatado con mucha delicadeza, repleto de sabiduría, sin duda esta novela se me quedara por siempre muy adentro, una historia con alma y corazón, una lectura con sabor a libros.
Posdata: Pero nunca olvidéis que la historia que cuenta un libro no siempre es igual.
Extractos del libro:
Leía despacio para que oyésemos la forma de cada palabra.
Cuando leéis la obra de un gran escritor, estáis conociéndolo en persona.
Cuando el señor Watts llegó al final del primer capítulo, me sentía como si ese niño, Pip, me hubiera hablado personalmente. Un niño al que no podía ver ni tocar, pero a quien conocía de oídas. Había encontrado a un nuevo amigo.
Nadie nos había dicho que los amigos podían hallarse también en los libros.
Ni que podíamos meternos en la piel de otro. Ni viajar a otros lugares.
Lo triste de los árboles es que carecen de conciencia. Se quedan mirando sin más.
Una persona cautivada por un libro sencillamente se olvida de respirar.
Grandes esperanzas es uno de esos libros que permitió cambiar mi vida.
Experimenté una sensación extraña, como una fruta que no sabe que es fruta, y por lo tanto el objeto del apetito de alguien.
Un pensamiento fugaz puede llegar y marcharse con su licencia para sorprender.
Necesitábamos a un maestro, y el señor Watts lo fue. Necesitábamos a un mago para evocar otros mundos, y el señor Watts se convirtió en ese mago. Cuando necesitábamos a un salvador, el señor Watts desempeñó tal papel.
February 27, 2015
'Mister Pip' is an amazing book filled with all sides of Life: the good, the bad, and the ugly. There is family, friendship, trust, acts of kindness and wisdom. There is an island, that is home, surrounded by nature and the sea. However, there are also some cringe-worthy, horror-inducing war atrocities. The novel doesn't beautify anything: it shows the inhumanity that war is and made me wonder whether war makes monsters or monsters make war.
The novel is written extremely well. Lloyd Jones is a very talented and ingenious author. The syntax used in 'Mister Pip' delivered the story and the tone perfectly. The ideas that are thought about, discussed, and implied, definitely provide food for thought.
I recommend 'Mister Pip' to people who want to read a novel that manages to be heartbreaking and horrifying, and charming, poetic and uplifting all at the same time.
The novel is written extremely well. Lloyd Jones is a very talented and ingenious author. The syntax used in 'Mister Pip' delivered the story and the tone perfectly. The ideas that are thought about, discussed, and implied, definitely provide food for thought.
I recommend 'Mister Pip' to people who want to read a novel that manages to be heartbreaking and horrifying, and charming, poetic and uplifting all at the same time.
October 27, 2021
رمان آقای پیپ ادای دینی به چارلز دیکنز و کتاب آرزوهای بزرگ است.
کتاب روایت دختری است سیزده ساله، به نام ماتیلدا اهل جزایر سلیمان درباره شخصی به نام واتس ملقب به Popeyes که بعدها وظیفه معلمی ماتیلدا و دوستانش را به عهده میگیرد.
در این بین وقایعی تلخ و فاجعهبار اتفاق میافتد که به شدت با ماجراها و شخصیتهای آرزوهای بزرگ در هم تنیده شدهاند.
آثار زیانبارجنگ و اختلافات قومی و نژادی در سرنوشت کودکان و آینده آنها از مهمترین دغدغههای نویسنده در این کتاب بوده است.
زبان رمان زبانی ساده است و موضوع و بیانی به یاد ماندنی دارد اما ترجمه، به متن آسیب جدی وارد میکند. جملهها، نارسا و مفاهیم گنگ است و مترجم نتوانسته به خوبی منظور نویسنده را برساند این نارسایی به خصوص در نیمه اول داستان آشکارتر است.
استفاده از لغات نامأنوس مثل: آبسنگ، تیرشیب و نوفه بدون هیچگونه توضیحی در پانوشتها و اشکالات نگارشی از دیگر نواقص کتاب است علی رغم اینکه چاپ دوم را خواندم ولی هنوز این اشکالات در متن باقی مانده بود امیدوارم در چاپهای بعدی این مشکل رفع شود.
یک ستاره به خاطره ترجمه کم کردم!
کتاب روایت دختری است سیزده ساله، به نام ماتیلدا اهل جزایر سلیمان درباره شخصی به نام واتس ملقب به Popeyes که بعدها وظیفه معلمی ماتیلدا و دوستانش را به عهده میگیرد.
در این بین وقایعی تلخ و فاجعهبار اتفاق میافتد که به شدت با ماجراها و شخصیتهای آرزوهای بزرگ در هم تنیده شدهاند.
آثار زیانبارجنگ و اختلافات قومی و نژادی در سرنوشت کودکان و آینده آنها از مهمترین دغدغههای نویسنده در این کتاب بوده است.
زبان رمان زبانی ساده است و موضوع و بیانی به یاد ماندنی دارد اما ترجمه، به متن آسیب جدی وارد میکند. جملهها، نارسا و مفاهیم گنگ است و مترجم نتوانسته به خوبی منظور نویسنده را برساند این نارسایی به خصوص در نیمه اول داستان آشکارتر است.
استفاده از لغات نامأنوس مثل: آبسنگ، تیرشیب و نوفه بدون هیچگونه توضیحی در پانوشتها و اشکالات نگارشی از دیگر نواقص کتاب است علی رغم اینکه چاپ دوم را خواندم ولی هنوز این اشکالات در متن باقی مانده بود امیدوارم در چاپهای بعدی این مشکل رفع شود.
یک ستاره به خاطره ترجمه کم کردم!
February 6, 2017
Beautiful, horrific, heartbreaking. And shameful that once again, the world looked away while atrocities were committed.
July 30, 2019
Inevitable comparisons...
When an uprising on the small island of Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea, leads to the school in Matilda’s village being left with no teacher, the one white man in the village, Mr Watts, takes on the role. Unqualified, he decides to inspire the children’s imaginations by reading them a chapter of Great Expectations each day. He also invites the mothers of the village to come to class and impart nuggets of local wisdom. But the uprising is coming ever nearer and soon violence will sweep into the village, changing life for some of the characters irrevocably...
This book was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2007. Astonishing. I can only assume this was for the worthiness of the message rather than any literary merit. The message is simple: literature provides a means to interpret life and to escape from reality. Oh, and war is hell.
I’ve said this before but clearly Mr Jones wasn’t paying attention. If, when you start to write your novel, you decide to constantly remind your readers of one of the greatest writers of all time, you’d better be sure your own writing will bear up to the inevitable comparisons. Jones not only reminds us of Great Expectations, he spends much of his book recounting large swathes of that one in grossly simplified terms. Even although Great Expectations is one of my least favourite Dickens’ novels, I spent most of my time wishing I was reading it rather than this. Where Dickens is marvellously imaginative, Jones is not. Where Dickens uses language with a lush extravagance, Jones does not. Where Dickens creates characters who, although exaggerated, contain an essential truth, Jones does not.
Not content with reminding us of Dickens, Mister Pip has many of the elements of the Dead Poets Society running through it too – the teacher who opens his pupils’ minds to a new way of thinking through unconventional teaching methods. I always found that film mawkish, and Mr Watts comes over as no more credible than the Robin Williams’ character. Heart Of Darkness pops up too in a rather odd way – since the book is written from the perspective of Matilda, one of the native islanders, it struck me as clumsily colonial that the most important, most influential character should be the one white man.
I’m really not a believer in the ‘write what you know’ school of thought. I believe all authors should be allowed to imagine themselves into different genders, races, cultures, ages, etc., if they choose. I prefer to say you should ‘know what you write’; that is, do your research, get beneath the skin of your characters, make them speak and think and act as they would rather than as you would. So in principle I have no problem with a middle-aged white man writing in the voice of a teenage black girl from an entirely different culture to his own. However, I never for one moment felt that the voice of Matilda rang true. In Great Expectations, Dickens writes as Pip, but tells us about his childhood in retrospect using an adult voice. Jones can’t seem to make up his mind – sometimes Matilda’s voice is clearly that of an educated adult looking back, but sometimes he tries to create a teenage voice for her and fails badly by allowing her to be aware of things her life experience would not have revealed to her at that time.
There were so many things that annoyed me about this. Matilda mentions her blackness about a million times, leaving me to wonder if black people living in almost exclusively black communities with little or no contact with the outside world really talk about their black arms, black skin, black feet, all the time. As a white child growing up in an exclusively white community, I certainly have no recollection of ever thinking of myself as white. Every time Matilda reminded me that she was black, it had the odd effect of reminding me that the author was white – he seemed more fascinated by Matilda’s skin colour than I could believe she ever would have been. I remember reading somewhere Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie saying that she never thought of herself as black until she went to live in America.
Then there’s the stuff Jones doesn’t explain, and the bits we’re presumably supposed to accept without thinking through how unrealistic they are. Matilda acts as interpreter at points between Mr Watts and various Papuans. How did this teenage girl who has never left her village and who has had a basic education at the local school acquire this ability? Why her, rather than any of the other kids who grew up alongside her? She finds it hard to explain the meaning of ‘black shoe polish’ to the villagers but oddly has no difficulty with the concept of ‘the coats of parking attendants’.
Pah! Enough! The story itself is fine – a straightforward account of the devastating effects of living through a brutal war. It therefore has some graphically violent scenes which some readers may find disturbing although, given the context, I didn’t feel they were inappropriate or overdone. (If anything, I felt he copped out in the end, choosing to avoid the worst brutality at the expense of realism.) But overall, I found little to admire in this one and find it hard to recommend.
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When an uprising on the small island of Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea, leads to the school in Matilda’s village being left with no teacher, the one white man in the village, Mr Watts, takes on the role. Unqualified, he decides to inspire the children’s imaginations by reading them a chapter of Great Expectations each day. He also invites the mothers of the village to come to class and impart nuggets of local wisdom. But the uprising is coming ever nearer and soon violence will sweep into the village, changing life for some of the characters irrevocably...
This book was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2007. Astonishing. I can only assume this was for the worthiness of the message rather than any literary merit. The message is simple: literature provides a means to interpret life and to escape from reality. Oh, and war is hell.
I’ve said this before but clearly Mr Jones wasn’t paying attention. If, when you start to write your novel, you decide to constantly remind your readers of one of the greatest writers of all time, you’d better be sure your own writing will bear up to the inevitable comparisons. Jones not only reminds us of Great Expectations, he spends much of his book recounting large swathes of that one in grossly simplified terms. Even although Great Expectations is one of my least favourite Dickens’ novels, I spent most of my time wishing I was reading it rather than this. Where Dickens is marvellously imaginative, Jones is not. Where Dickens uses language with a lush extravagance, Jones does not. Where Dickens creates characters who, although exaggerated, contain an essential truth, Jones does not.
Not content with reminding us of Dickens, Mister Pip has many of the elements of the Dead Poets Society running through it too – the teacher who opens his pupils’ minds to a new way of thinking through unconventional teaching methods. I always found that film mawkish, and Mr Watts comes over as no more credible than the Robin Williams’ character. Heart Of Darkness pops up too in a rather odd way – since the book is written from the perspective of Matilda, one of the native islanders, it struck me as clumsily colonial that the most important, most influential character should be the one white man.
I’m really not a believer in the ‘write what you know’ school of thought. I believe all authors should be allowed to imagine themselves into different genders, races, cultures, ages, etc., if they choose. I prefer to say you should ‘know what you write’; that is, do your research, get beneath the skin of your characters, make them speak and think and act as they would rather than as you would. So in principle I have no problem with a middle-aged white man writing in the voice of a teenage black girl from an entirely different culture to his own. However, I never for one moment felt that the voice of Matilda rang true. In Great Expectations, Dickens writes as Pip, but tells us about his childhood in retrospect using an adult voice. Jones can’t seem to make up his mind – sometimes Matilda’s voice is clearly that of an educated adult looking back, but sometimes he tries to create a teenage voice for her and fails badly by allowing her to be aware of things her life experience would not have revealed to her at that time.
There were so many things that annoyed me about this. Matilda mentions her blackness about a million times, leaving me to wonder if black people living in almost exclusively black communities with little or no contact with the outside world really talk about their black arms, black skin, black feet, all the time. As a white child growing up in an exclusively white community, I certainly have no recollection of ever thinking of myself as white. Every time Matilda reminded me that she was black, it had the odd effect of reminding me that the author was white – he seemed more fascinated by Matilda’s skin colour than I could believe she ever would have been. I remember reading somewhere Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie saying that she never thought of herself as black until she went to live in America.
Then there’s the stuff Jones doesn’t explain, and the bits we’re presumably supposed to accept without thinking through how unrealistic they are. Matilda acts as interpreter at points between Mr Watts and various Papuans. How did this teenage girl who has never left her village and who has had a basic education at the local school acquire this ability? Why her, rather than any of the other kids who grew up alongside her? She finds it hard to explain the meaning of ‘black shoe polish’ to the villagers but oddly has no difficulty with the concept of ‘the coats of parking attendants’.
Pah! Enough! The story itself is fine – a straightforward account of the devastating effects of living through a brutal war. It therefore has some graphically violent scenes which some readers may find disturbing although, given the context, I didn’t feel they were inappropriate or overdone. (If anything, I felt he copped out in the end, choosing to avoid the worst brutality at the expense of realism.) But overall, I found little to admire in this one and find it hard to recommend.
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February 3, 2017
I have so much to say about this fantastic book. When I was 6 years old, my mum remarried and we moved from NZ to a tiny island in the Torres Straight, between Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Australia, where my step father was a helicopter pilot. The reason we lived on this Island and not on PNG is because my stepfather said it was too dangerous for my mother and I (white, blonde) and that we wouldn’t last a week there. Lloyd Jones has captured so much about Island life in that region that it just took my breath away. Memories that I haven’t had for years, such as the torrential rain – when it comes – is warm, and everyone would go outside to enjoy it. The shock of completely black skin, white teeth and big hair, when you have never seen it before. The thickness of the jungle, and the lapping of the waves on the beach. The book didn’t mention turtles, but now I remember them.
At 6 years old I had no prejudice, so after the initial shock of walking into a school where I was clearly different from all the others (there were 3 white children in the school of a few hundred), I was talking pidgeon in no time and had an absolutely wonderful time there.
The violence of the Bougainville Civil war I also have no doubt was accurate. We had moved back to NZ by the mid 80’s, but my step father continued to work in PNG. He was one of the helicopter pilots that helped to evacuate the “company men” from the mine. Under fire. It is estimated between 15,000 to 20,000 Bougainvillean’s were killed. I don’t recall seeing anything on the news about it. It seems to have been an event that was either not deemed important or somehow didn’t reach mainstream news.
I loved the parallel story of Matilda and Mr Watts living through the life and times of Pip. I think if you haven’t read Great Expectations it will encourage you to start, and if you have, it’s a great reminder of some characters and events that you may not remember. I read Great Expectations last year and there were still some references that I had forgotten, so it was a great refresher.
The last thing I wanted to say about this book, is that it made me want to be a teacher. The simplicity of kids eager to learn and adults willing to share – with whatever knowledge they had, was truly inspiring. As my twin boys are on the eve of starting school for the first time, it makes me think so much more about what skills and experiences they will have, and how teachers have such a profound influence on our young minds and future lives.
I recommend this book. It is simple and complex at the same time. I give it 4.5 stars.
At 6 years old I had no prejudice, so after the initial shock of walking into a school where I was clearly different from all the others (there were 3 white children in the school of a few hundred), I was talking pidgeon in no time and had an absolutely wonderful time there.
The violence of the Bougainville Civil war I also have no doubt was accurate. We had moved back to NZ by the mid 80’s, but my step father continued to work in PNG. He was one of the helicopter pilots that helped to evacuate the “company men” from the mine. Under fire. It is estimated between 15,000 to 20,000 Bougainvillean’s were killed. I don’t recall seeing anything on the news about it. It seems to have been an event that was either not deemed important or somehow didn’t reach mainstream news.
I loved the parallel story of Matilda and Mr Watts living through the life and times of Pip. I think if you haven’t read Great Expectations it will encourage you to start, and if you have, it’s a great reminder of some characters and events that you may not remember. I read Great Expectations last year and there were still some references that I had forgotten, so it was a great refresher.
The last thing I wanted to say about this book, is that it made me want to be a teacher. The simplicity of kids eager to learn and adults willing to share – with whatever knowledge they had, was truly inspiring. As my twin boys are on the eve of starting school for the first time, it makes me think so much more about what skills and experiences they will have, and how teachers have such a profound influence on our young minds and future lives.
I recommend this book. It is simple and complex at the same time. I give it 4.5 stars.
July 30, 2011
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 religion and literature. Matilda is forced to think for herself and begins to see the world not in terms of black and white but in nuanced shades of color.
At times sweet and sentimental and others harsh and terrifying, the author Lloyd James does an amazing job of weaving this novel together, especially through the thread of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, which Mr. Watts uses to teach the island children. Any book lover will appreciate the way Watts harnesses the imagination of youth in a fantastic world and influences them to learn more about life than they ever could on their own.
Simply brilliant...
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 religion and literature. Matilda is forced to think for herself and begins to see the world not in terms of black and white but in nuanced shades of color.
At times sweet and sentimental and others harsh and terrifying, the author Lloyd James does an amazing job of weaving this novel together, especially through the thread of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, which Mr. Watts uses to teach the island children. Any book lover will appreciate the way Watts harnesses the imagination of youth in a fantastic world and influences them to learn more about life than they ever could on their own.
Simply brilliant...
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