Mister Pip
by Lloyd Jones
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lloyd JonesEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-20
ISBN: 0385341075
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Book Reviews of Mister Pip
Book Review: Beyond My Expectations
Summary: 5 Stars
Mr Pip ,by LLoyd Jones, is an onion of a novel. By that I mean it is layered in an intricately woven manner to encompass a myriad of themes. At first it is a deceptively simple tale set on the lush tropical island of Bouganville where the native population,isolated and blockaded, are facing a civil war of deprivation and horror.Into the mix comes the only white inhabitant who remained after others fled,Mr Watts. He steps up to take over the abandoned schoolhouse and thus becomes the Pied Piper of Bouganville. Through his storytelling of Dicken's Great Expectations he provides a safe haven for the war stricken children . They immediately succomb to the power of the written word and are transported to Victorian England where they meet Pip who in some ways is like each one of them. Imagination takes them away from the immediate horror of civil war. Mr Pip becomes a savior of sorts especially to Matilda, the young Narrator. But Mr Watt's hold on the children causes issues with the parents who see his approach as a threat to religious beliefs and cultural allegiance. These differences of culture and dogmatic approach lead to a stand off between Mr Watts and Dolores, Matilda's mother. This clash will create unlikely heroes as the war encroaches and moral decisions must be made. There is great symbolism here for a world where races and cultures face major changes in an ever more global world. When the only copy of Great Expectations disappears and the soldiers demand to see a fictional Mr Pip,(who they believe to be a real spy) there are terrible reprecussions. Storytelling becomes the weapon of choice at first, as it soothes the savage rambos who are really just misguided school children at heart.The seven nights of Mr Watts' storytelling are a heroic vehicle to stall until an escape plan is put into effect. But storytelling has created a great dilemma too, as there is no real Mr. Pip to offer up to the demanding redskins who appear savagely and without warning. I will not divulge any more of the plot but suffice it to say that Great Expectations causes major life changing effects as Matilda moves into a future off the island. The novel is a homage to literature, to teachers who change destinies, to clashes of cultures and racial divides, to the horrors of war ,to the power of the written word , to the empowering value of imagination and to the religious and moral values that sometimes must collide and clash before there can be compromises. This small novel offers huge issues to ponder . Mr Jones has exceeded many expectations with this novel.
Summary of Mister Pip
In a novel that is at once intense, beautiful, and fablelike, Lloyd Jones weaves a transcendent story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the power of narrative to transform our lives.On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with most everyone else, only one white man chooses to stay behind: the eccentric Mr. Watts, object of much curiosity and scorn, who sweeps out the ruined schoolhouse and begins to read to the children each day from Charles Dickens?s classic Great Expectations.
So begins this rare, original story about the abiding strength that imagination, once ignited, can provide. As artillery echoes in the mountains, thirteen-year-old Matilda and her peers are riveted by the adventures of a young orphan named Pip in a city called London, a city whose contours soon become more real than their own blighted landscape. As Mr. Watts says, ?A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe.? Soon come the rest of the villagers, initially threatened, finally inspired to share tales of their own that bring alive the rich mythology of their past. But in a ravaged place where even children are forced to live by their wits and daily survival is the only objective, imagination can be a dangerous thing.
From the Hardcover edition.
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