"Mister Pip" by Lloyd Jones - book for August 2008

[Clare Bookclub Mod]

“Mister Pip” is set in the 1990s during the blockade and civil war in Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. It is narrated by a young girl named Matilda whose father fled the island some years earlier. All the white people have also left, except for the eccentric Mr. Watts, who stays behind and teaches the children. Each day he reads to them from Charles Dickens's classic “Great Expectations." While war rages around them they are enthralled by the adventures of a young orphan named Pip in a city called London. Reading Dickens represents salvation and when the only copy of the book disappears, the children try desperately to re-create the story from memory. Mr. Watts recounts Pip's tale in nightly installments, embellishing it with stories from his own life. However, events take a turn for the worse when soldiers mistakenly believe that Pip is a rebel fighter.
Simply yet beautifully written, this is a great read. Lloyd Jones was the worthy recipient of the 2007 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for “Mister Pip” and also received a 2007 Man Booker Prize nomination.

[booklover]

I loved this book. Simple and moving and affecting. A great demonstration of the power of stories and reading and the imagination. I was hooked and totally drawn into the world and the memory of it stays with me. I loved Great Expectations too, a book that made a big impression on me and loved the juxtaposition of the cold English marshes and the tropical beaches.