Mister Pip
CDN$ 15.33
A Real Keeper of a Story - If you re like me, reading a good novel involves getting intricately involved in the life and times of its main characters. The internationally acclaimed New Zealand novelist, Lloyd Jones, has produced just such a literary gem that grants the reader a chance to get up close with various types who are struggling to define themselves in the story. The setting is a war-torn island off Papua-New Guinea, where the locals are beseiged on all sides by foreign troops, rebels, and aimless do-gooders like the Watts who have wandered in from somewhere south. The story involves Matilda and her mother trying to cope while the father is working in eastern Australia. Along comes Mr. Watts, who suddenly appears in the local village as the new school teacher. The single, solitary lesson for that year consist of Watts retelling Dickens s Great Expectations as it focuses on the life of Pip. He tells it so well that he succeeds in making Matilda actually conceive Pip as a real person in her very parochial existence. The adventures of Pip as he tries to make sense of his chaotic life in Victorian England start to play out as a reference in Matilda s equally uncertain life. The past quickly becomes the present as the children start to see Pip s prospects as being theirs in the future. The old cultural traditions and superstitions of the island get cast aside as even the older generation start to take an interest in this unfolding story. Just as it is wrapping up, the violence of the modern age intrudes on this little fantasy world that is starting to form. The island is attacked by rebel forces and Matilda s sense of hope bound up in this new found identity called Pip is destroyed. All written records that the children have pieced together from Watt s improvised story-telling gradually disappear in a series of devastating raids. Years later, when Matilda gets her life back together, she takes some time out to visit her past and discover the truth about her infatuation with the character Pip. The reader, at this point, should be prepared for a bit of an eye-opening jolt as Matilda learns something about her past that makes her a stronger person going into the future. A great and thought-provoking read especially for those who like a Dickensian-style story.