By: Lloyd Jones Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Dial Press Trade Paperback Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 272 Publication Date: May 20, 2008 Release Date: May 20, 2008
Product Description: 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.
Popeye "Everyone called him Popeye." Thus begins Mister Pip, an eloquently written story about how profoundly literature can influence lives. As Popeye evolves into Mr. Pip, the personalities and character traits of the islanders also emerge. Mother and daughter, war and resistance, husband and wife, civilization and nature, life and death, black and white, nurturance and abandonment - these are dichotomies around which this novel plays out. Mister Pip is narrated by a young woman looking back upon her teen years on a remote Pacific island, who begins to come of age under the tutelage of the substitute school master. His true name is Mr. Watts, and he is the only white person on the island, having married one of its inhabitants. Every day, he reads part of Great Expectations to his mixed-age pupils, and the world opens up to each of them in a different way.
Dramatic, evocative, and filled with hope, sorrow, and a touch of mystery, Mister Pip has deservedly won numerous literary prizes. This is an important book with a timeless, unforgettable message.
an unusual find bought this book in New Zealand because it was shortlisted for a prize. found an amazing story that weaves together the challenges of life in the developing world with the power of literature to take us all beyond ourselves and allow us to construct new understandings.
Island fever If there's one thing this book did for me it was a desire to read Great Expectations just because of the way the author uses it as an important prop for his island based story. This was a mix of Lord of the Flies and Treasure Island though it remained a mystery right to the end. It's probably one of the most unusual books I have ever read but I liked it because it was a story told honestly with no frills and it was set in a part of the world among people I would not be familar with. This in itself attracted me to the book. It certainly set the scene for me and I transported myself totally into the story and for the duration of the read I was on that island. It also reminded me of the Life of Pi for some reason. You could just imagine a scenario where people are faced with moral decisions but the gruesome event towards the end of the book took me completely by surprise. This was an unusual, easy read but a rich and rewarding experience.
Not Interesting Perhaps, in some way, this could be considered good literature. But, there is one thing it certainly ISN'T, and that is interesting. It's also not "sheer magic," as the back of the book attests. Be wary.
Take Me Away - Mister Pip tells shows how a story can change your life and how books can take you away in your imagination and alter your existence. Matilda lives in a simple village, violence erupts all around. Soldiers violate the village where the villagers live in fear. Mr. Watts the only white man in the small village takes over as teacher and reads Great Expectations aloud to the children. This has a great impact on Matilda and the children, and even the mothers get in on the act and share thoughts and ideas of their own to the children in the classroom a feat they undertake with great importance.
I haven't read Great Expectations and it didn't hamper my reading of this novel-although it did make me want to read it...
Great Expectations and Pip in particular, change Matilda's life - they help her survive and carry her further in life and give her a purpose. Mr. Watts is her idol and serves as a mentor.
I enjoyed the island life at it's peaceful times and the way the village Moms related knowledge to the children such as how to tell the weather from watching a crab.
This book gives us a glimpse at what it must be like to live in a village where the supplies are re-routed by rebels, where a sleeping mat or a single pencil is a most treasured item. The children in the village had never seen a building, but they try to imagine Dicken's London and it takes them away.
It does take a more violent turn toward the end but you read it and come to your own conclusions regarding the strengths and weaknesses of this book. I think you'll enjoy the experience.
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