View source for Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

{{infobox1
|title=Mister Pip
|author=Lloyd Jones
|reviewer=Jill Murphy
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Beautifully written with not a word wasted, Great Expectations meets tropical island in this look at the love of reading, the terrors of war, post-colonialism and personal integrity. Highly, highly recommended.
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=240
|publisher=Hodder Murray
|date=January 2008
|isbn=978-0719569944
|cover=071956994X
|aznuk=071956994X
|aznus=0385341067
}}
You probably remember Bougainville from its secessionist conflict. During the island's struggle for independence from Papua Guinea, the New Guinean government employed Sandline International, a mercenary group, and the ensuing scandal brought down the administration. Bougainville eventually won itself an autonomous government, but not without cost.

''Mister Pip'' is set during this time. Papua New Guinea is blockading the island and most of the white professionals have packed up and left. The adolescent Matilda and her fellow islanders are left alone to face the violence of the insurgents - ''rambos'' and the harsh tactics of the government troops employed to put down the revolt - ''redskins''. But there is one white man left in Matilda's village. Mr Watts, known as Pop Eye, is married to an islander. The couple are figures of fun really - Pop Eye dons a clown's red nose to tow his wife around as she sits in a shopping trolley. Aside from thinking them completely barmy, nobody takes too much notice.

However, when the school closes, Pop Eye steps in. He has little practical information to impart to his new pupils, but he does have a book; Great Expectations. As he reads aloud to the children, he begins to show them new worlds - both real and imagined. And as their horizons widen, so the insurgency closes in...

It's just, y'know, utterly gorgeous. An old romantic at heart, I love a blend of fantasy and realism. I also enjoy it when beautiful words are crafted, like a melody, onto an underlying darkness. Think ''Walk on the Wild Side'' or any Stone Roses number for a musical equivalent. ''Mister Pip'' ticks all my boxes. It blends fantasy and reality, it does it with beautiful words and from the direct, honest point of view of a child. It describes perfectly the islanders' agonising wait for inevitable disaster. It speaks of the redemptive power of books, of race and the contradictions in post-colonialism. It turns a clear eye to the question of personal courage and integrity.

It could have been trite, schmaltzy even, but it isn't. There are more shades of meaning than you could shake a stick at, and ''Mister Pip'', I am sure, will repay second and third readings. I wonder if each reader will take something different from it, in their own private worlds, as well as absorbing the many and varied points of view on offer. Any avid reader, particularly one who came to books at an early age, will be entranced by it. Who can resist a novel that says, in its very first chapter:

''We had grown up believing white to be the colour of all the important things, like ice-cream, aspirin, ribbon, the moon, the stars. White stars and a full moon were more important when my grandfather grew up than they are now that we have generators.''

Ouch. I defy you not to love it.

You might also enjoy [[The Reluctant Fundamentalist]] by Mohsin Hamid, while another illuminating look at post-colonial affairs can be found in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's [[Half of a Yellow Sun]].

{{toptentext|list=Richard and Judy Shortlist 2008}}

{{toptentext|list=Top Ten Books For Your Auntie}}

{{toptentext|list=Top Ten War Novels}}

{{toptentext|list=Top Ten Adult Books That Teens Should Read}}

{{amazontext|amazon=071956994X}}
{{amazonUStext|amazon=0385341067}}

From the shortlist for the 2007 Booker prize for fiction we have also reviewed:

[[The Gathering by Anne Enright]]

[[The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid]]

[[On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan]]

[[Animal's People by Indra Sinha]]

{{commenthead}}
{{comment
|name=Magda
|verb=said
|comment=Oh, I didn't know that the "redskins" were mercenaries (read the
Blackwater book recently but was rather disappointed, actually) - I tried
to work them out, but couldn't udnerstand why Papuan soldiers would be
called so.

What I liked in particular about Mr Pip was how the story was used and
reused, merging with the reality and with the local folklore to; and
shaping it and being shaped by it. Also, what some Amazon reveiwers
protested, how something fairly benign at first turned into an utter
horror, eventually.

Did you think that the post-island section was unnecessary, or rushed, or
something?
}}
{{comment
|name=Jill
|verb=replied
|comment=Yes, I think the last couple of dozen pages could have been, well, better. But the rest of it was so enchanting, I really didn't mind.
}}