Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

[kitty_kitty]

Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones

Synopsis
'You cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wallpaper is in flames.' Bougainville. 1991. A small village on a lush tropical island in the South Pacific. Eighty-six days have passed since Matilda's last day of school as, quietly, war is encroaching from the other end of the island. When the villagers' safe, predictable lives come to a halt, Bougainville's children are surprised to find the island's only white man, a recluse, re-opening the school. Pop Eye, aka Mr Watts, explains he will introduce the children to Mr Dickens. Matilda and the others think a foreigner is coming to the island and prepare a list of much needed items. They are shocked to discover their acquaintance with Mr Dickens will be through Mr Watts' inspiring reading of Great Expectations. But on an island at war, the power of fiction has dangerous consequences. Imagination and beliefs are challenged by guns.Mister Pip is an unforgettable tale of survival by story; a dazzling piece of writing that lives long in the mind after the last page is finished.

I loved this book in fact i would have read it in one sitting but there was torchwood to watch.

I really enjoyed this but although i found some bits disturbing such as Such as brning of Mr Watts possesions and the murder of Mr Watts and the rape and murder of Matildas mother

What do other people think?

[Kell]

I've not read it yet, but I bought it just last weekend and hope to get to it fairly soon (ie within the next couple of months - LOL!). It just really grabbed my attention and I think that reading this might even make reading the Dickens (which I intend to do at some point) a little easier and more fun!

[Louiseog]

I really enjoyed it, great read and easy too! Made me feel sad too, reminded me of Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn and can't think why!

[JudyB]

Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones



I really enjoyed this but although i found some bits disturbing such as Such as brning of Mr Watts possesions and the murder of Mr Watts and the rape and murder of Matildas mother

What do other people think?


I enjoyed the book but was shocked by the same bits - I really didn't see them coming.

[Janet]

It’s taken me ages to read this book - but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. Far from it - another great book for 2008.

The deaths also came as a complete surprise to me - and I must admit to being quite upset by them.

However, one slight criticism - at the end, Matilda criticises the building in the South East of England, claiming that “I could tell them the landscape from Great Expectations is gone, that it’s fabled marshes lie beneath motorways and industrial estates” is simply not true! I played on those marshes as a child and they’re still there today, in all their glory!

I guess this is just ‘author’s license’ on Mr Jones’ part?!

[Freewheeling Andy]

I agree with all of that (except the amount of time it took me to read the book), Janet.

[I don't know how much of this needs spoiler tags, but just in case...]


As I mentioned in my bloggy thing, I tend to find books about books to be awkward, forced, and generally a lack of imagination on the part of the author; and desperately self-referential. This doesn't have that failing in the slightest.

I was wondering about the marshes, too, by the way, because I've cycled along past Erith along the Thames, and they definitely seemed to be there; as are the marshlands further out on the Isle of Grain and around Cliffe.

The way the book accelerates in time towards the end reminds me of something I've found frustrating in other books (particularly Captain Correlli), but again it works here because of the way the book ends.

I love the multiple levels of Pip, too. Not that I've ever read Great Expectations, but that seems to not be a problem. The Mr Watts as Pip, and then Matilda as Pip, as well as Pip as Pip, all work. They're all kind of family-free; all have a sort of benefactor; you don't really know how much of each story is true and how much is exaggerated for effect (as Matilda describes Dickens doing to all his characters).

[Freewheeling Andy]

Oh, and 2 more things, not in my Spoilered post:

(1) What a great book. Well worth reading. Interestingly different yet easy to read. I quite often think people will struggle with some books I like, and advise them away. I don't think there's anyone who should be afraid of this

(2) The other Lloyd Jones book I read, Biografi, was also great.

[sammy981]

Fantastic book and well worth reading but likewise, certain parts did shock me! Has anyone read any of Lloyd Jones' other books? I'm interested to know if they're as good etc...

[Spooncat]

Loved this book , it will stay with me:jump: I read it in 2 days!

[Ravenwood]

Yes, a wonderful book, so easy to read, funny and shocking at times. I had a hard time placing the setting within the last twenty years, partly because it seemed so colonial, but also because I had no memory of the events described (bless Wikipedia for a quick history lesson of Papua New Guinea for the woefully ignorant like me).

[kb.marsh]

I've just started this book and so far am enjoying it :blush: