Mister Pip (edit title)

• Rated 0 stars

“I thoroughly enjoyed this tale, a story told through the eyes of a young girl on a tropical island that is under siege One white man lives on the island and he reads Great Expectations to the children; the narrator latches on to the character of Pip as if he was her close friend. Themes of violence, racism, jealousy, the power of literature to help escape from life and escape to another life, are some of the themes in this story. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“this is a moving book about an island girl whos world gets shattered wen it gets caught in a fight that its not really invovlved in. its about the casaulties of war, the acceptance of strangers and our differences, and the healing power of books. ending on a positive note this is a book that will leave you shocked yet at the same time uplifted.”

• Rated 4 stars

“This was my Book Club choice, and I really loved it, though it was not a happy read at all – the book is sad and shocking and quite compelling. I was fascinated by how cleverly Lloyd Jones wove the life and writing of Charles Dickens into his story of a girl growing up in Bougainville. It sent me back to Dickens’ work”

• Rated 4 stars

“The experience I gathered reading this books will remain in me for years. I love this uplifting tale of longing, enstrangement, brewing horror,the long term efect of a book and the power storytelling to save lives. I strongly recommend this. 4.5/5”

• Rated 5 stars

“So beautifully written its heartbreaking!”

• Rated 4 stars

“I had never heard of the island of Bougainville in the South Pacific, let alone of the civil war that raged there in the early 1990s. This was a fantastic book. Matilda, a native island girl, tells this story about a weird old white man who remains, after the teachers and all the white people have left the island, and reopens the school. He reads Charles Dickens' novel "Great Expectations" to the children and gets them to imagine a world outside their own violent reality. I recommend this book to everyone who loves a good story. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“This fit closely with the book Memoirs of a boy soldier. This story, however, is a story and written with a flair that keeps you intrigued. I found myself very interested in the characters. I need to read Great Expectations now, because the only downside was I am not familiar with that book so I couldn't make the connections the author/character had with Pip. It's a powerful story about coming of age, the misery of war and greed, the human side of soldiers, the fear so many live in that we are unaware of in this country. Race and identity is also covered. And of course, the ultimate love a mother has for her child. This is a great book for a book club - we discussed for a long, long time. It's a story you don't forget.”

• Rated 5 stars

“I think this would make a great book group discussion! A look at what reading can do to shape a person. A look at good people doing less than honorable things and then redeeming themselves.”

• Rated 4 stars

“I was skeptical about this book - the plot seemed a bit boring. But it's not at all. The writing style lulled me into a kind of gentle enjoyment and then suddenly, all in the same tone, shocking things happen in the book, so that I had to go back and reread to be sure that I got it right. Very original and well done.

Editorial review:
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.”