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justsortofreading 's review for:
Mister Pip
by Lloyd Jones
Setting: Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea
Author: Born in New Zealand
Mister Pip is a novel set in the tropical island of Papua New Guinea. It is in the 1990s and the island is struck by a civil war. All the white people have left, except for one - Mr. Watts. Matilda, the main character, narrates the story of how Mr. Watts takes up the task to teach school children. His classes consist of reading out loud [b:Great Expectations|2623|Great Expectations|Charles Dickens|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161110563s/2623.jpg|2612809] by Charles Dickens and the adventures of Mr. Pip fascinate the children. However, not everyone approves of the novel (including Matilda's mother) and the islands inhabitants is affected by cruelty of a civil war.
The book itself is very poetic and beautiful. The descriptions are sometimes gorgeous and Jones also bring about the cultural differences between the islands inhabitants and Mr. Watts. Matilda's voice seem honest and innocent but at the same time, since there is a war going on, you catch glimpses of the horror that is to come. The novel didn't fail in both touching me, making me smile and shocking me and making me want to cry.
This could have been an amazing read and even a 5 star. It had the language, the plot, the characters and everything that a good book need. The reason why I gave it 3 stars however, is because of the inconsistency. The second half of the book felt rushed and different and whilst I'm sure the author did so on purpose, I felt that it was out of place and perhaps too sudden. I'm also a bit critical about the stereotypical views that are brought forward regarding the characters.
Quotable Quotes
"I had found a new friend. The surprising thing is where I’d found him - not up a tree or sulking in the shade, or splashing around in one of the hill streams, but in a book. No one had told us kids to look there for a friend. Or that you could slip inside the skin of another. Or travel to another place with marshes, and where, to our ears, the bad people spoke like pirates."
"At night we listened to gunfire. There were no battles. This was the loose gunfire of rambos drunk on jungle juice trying to scare the redskins. They took aim at the stars and blasted up through the tree-tops."
"You cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wall paper is in flames. "
"I suppose it is possible to be all of these things. To sort of fall out of who you are into another, as well as to journey back to some essential sense of self. We only see what we see. He was whatever he needed to be, what we asked him to be. Perhaps there are lives like that—they pour into whatever space we have made ready for them to fill."
"I had discovered that the plainest house can crown a fantasy or daydream. An open window can be tolerated. So can an open door. But I discovered the value of four walls and a roof. Something about containment that at the same time offers escape."
"Dreams are nervy things—all it takes is for one stern word to be spoken in their direction and they shrivel up and die. "
"We were young. Everyone was young in those days. That’s the main complaint you hear from people who are getting old. You stop seeing young people. You begin to wonder if there are any left and whether there were only young people when you were young."
Author: Born in New Zealand
Mister Pip is a novel set in the tropical island of Papua New Guinea. It is in the 1990s and the island is struck by a civil war. All the white people have left, except for one - Mr. Watts. Matilda, the main character, narrates the story of how Mr. Watts takes up the task to teach school children. His classes consist of reading out loud [b:Great Expectations|2623|Great Expectations|Charles Dickens|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161110563s/2623.jpg|2612809] by Charles Dickens and the adventures of Mr. Pip fascinate the children. However, not everyone approves of the novel (including Matilda's mother) and the islands inhabitants is affected by cruelty of a civil war.
The book itself is very poetic and beautiful. The descriptions are sometimes gorgeous and Jones also bring about the cultural differences between the islands inhabitants and Mr. Watts. Matilda's voice seem honest and innocent but at the same time, since there is a war going on, you catch glimpses of the horror that is to come. The novel didn't fail in both touching me, making me smile and shocking me and making me want to cry.
This could have been an amazing read and even a 5 star. It had the language, the plot, the characters and everything that a good book need. The reason why I gave it 3 stars however, is because of the inconsistency. The second half of the book felt rushed and different and whilst I'm sure the author did so on purpose, I felt that it was out of place and perhaps too sudden. I'm also a bit critical about the stereotypical views that are brought forward regarding the characters.
Quotable Quotes
"I had found a new friend. The surprising thing is where I’d found him - not up a tree or sulking in the shade, or splashing around in one of the hill streams, but in a book. No one had told us kids to look there for a friend. Or that you could slip inside the skin of another. Or travel to another place with marshes, and where, to our ears, the bad people spoke like pirates."
"At night we listened to gunfire. There were no battles. This was the loose gunfire of rambos drunk on jungle juice trying to scare the redskins. They took aim at the stars and blasted up through the tree-tops."
"You cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wall paper is in flames. "
"I suppose it is possible to be all of these things. To sort of fall out of who you are into another, as well as to journey back to some essential sense of self. We only see what we see. He was whatever he needed to be, what we asked him to be. Perhaps there are lives like that—they pour into whatever space we have made ready for them to fill."
"I had discovered that the plainest house can crown a fantasy or daydream. An open window can be tolerated. So can an open door. But I discovered the value of four walls and a roof. Something about containment that at the same time offers escape."
"Dreams are nervy things—all it takes is for one stern word to be spoken in their direction and they shrivel up and die. "
"We were young. Everyone was young in those days. That’s the main complaint you hear from people who are getting old. You stop seeing young people. You begin to wonder if there are any left and whether there were only young people when you were young."