- Cover of Mister Pip
I spent last week recovering from a nasty virus that swept through our family with much devastation. And as a result I am falling farther and farther behind in my reviews, so I wanted to post a review/discussion of Mister Pip which I picked up at a library sale recently to start the week off.
I will admit to some difficulty getting my thoughts down on this one, but I must push on if I am to get anything done. I enjoyed the book but just can’t seem to organize my thoughts and reactions all that well. Perhaps writing this post will help.
As I am lazy allow me to steal the story summation from the Washington Post review:
On an island called Bougainville in the early 1990s, civil war rages. Rebels have taken up arms, and soldiers helicopter in from nearby Port Moresby to reestablish New Guinea’s sovereignty over the island. All the whites have fled except one: Mr. Watts, a New Zealander married to a local woman. He offers to replace the departed teacher and reopen the village school; on the second day of class, he begins to read Great Expectations aloud.
Suddenly, the village’s children have a refuge from the incomprehensible conflict engulfing their world. “We could escape to another place,” declares Matilda, the 13-year-old narrator. “It didn’t matter that it was Victorian England. We found we could easily get there.”
Unfortunately, the refuge only lasts so long. Soon Mr. Watts, Pip and the island’s tragic fate are intertwined and Matilda will be forced to deal with the consequences.
For me the story can be divided into three parts: the initial narration of Matilda leading up to Mr. Watts reading Dickens and the unfolding of her love of Dickens/Pip; the dark turn when the violence of the war comes to the island in an ugly way; and lastly Matilda’s post-island life and career.
I was totally captivated by the first section, found the second section harsh but beautiful in its own way, but the final section left me a little cold.
