Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones
I am currently involved in a national Teacher's Reading Challenge, in which books by New Zealand authors gain double points... so you'll be seeing a few more Kiwi authors over the next few months.
This book, which was nominated for a Booker prize but didn't win, was lent to me by a co-worker who had just finished it. Her comment to me was that it felt a bit like a Pacific To Kill a Mockingbird, in the way the protagonist (a young girl) was witnessing dramatic and 'adult' events but interpreting them through the eyes of an innocent child. This is an apt description.
For the Teacher's Reading Challenge, I wrote a few notes on my thoughts while reading: "sweet - happy - nice - interesting - OMGWHATSHAPPENINGMAKEITSTOP!! - epilogue."
This is also an apt description.
Mister Pip is told through the eyes of Matilda, a young girl from Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. When a civil war breaks out and a lot of the men of the village disappear to join the rebellion, the teaching duties in the village are taken on by Mr Watts, the only remaining white man in the village. Not thinking he has much to offer, Mr Watts reads to the class from Great Expectations, 'introducing' them to the main character, Pip, as well as 'Mr Dickens.' This puts Mr Watts at odds with some of the local women, particularly Matilda's (overly) religious mother.
Matilda writes the name 'Pip' in the sand on the beach, and when soldiers arrive in the village, they begin to think that both Pip and Mr Dickens are inhabitants of the village. The book Great Expectations has gone missing, making it impossible for the villagers to prove that Pip is only a fictional character, and the villagers are accused of hiding Mr Pip. Slowly the tension builds up, until finally violence erupts in a quite horrific way.
I think the violence strikes harder than in some books because it is such a contrast to the way the book has 'felt' until that point. There are a few coarse words earlier on, but other than these the first two thirds or so of the book is incredibly innocent and child-centric. The sudden explosion of disturbing violence destroys that innocence, both for Matilda and the reader - and really, that's the point! In some ways, I was reminded of Life of Pi, and the disturbing 'real' version of events that occurs near that book's conclusion.
Overall, I enjoyed Mister Pip. Perhaps it is the 'Dickens-ness' of the book, perhaps it is the local connection (both to NZ through the author and Mr Watts, and to the greater Pacific region through the setting and, particularly, Matilda. Perhaps it is just that most Booker books have been (in my opinion) worse than this finalist (not that I've read the one, The Gathering, that beat Mister Pip yet).
Know that elements of the book are horrific. Like, truly horrific.
And that post-violence, the book never really regains the focus and interest it had in the first two-thirds.
And then, it might be an enjoyable read.
Completed 9 December 2023.
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