A good read for anyone who enjoyed Great Expectations. As a teacher of literature I have recommended this book for high school students to explore perspective and imagination....

I should confess at the start that Great Expectations is one of my favorite novels, and as the author employed this classic as a major plot device, well, he captured my interest at the title. There are many potential pitfalls in using this kind of literary convention and happily the author avoided them all. Speaking in the voice of a black New Guinean adolescent, Mr. Jones convincingly lures the reader into the spellbinding narrative of tragedy, hope, and growing up.

What I liked particularly was the unsentimental way the character Mister Pip was cast, and then reexamined from the perspective of the narrator's older self. But it is a tribute to Mr. Jones skill that the mystery of Mister Pip is altered by mature hindsight, but not diminished, nor is the enduring magic of Great Expectations.

This inspirational novel succeeds on every level: characterization, plot, emotional impact, intellectual appeal, and evoking the enchantment of the ordinary. And it stands as a heartfelt testament to the immeasurable value, and reward, of teaching.

On an island caught in the middle of a conflict it cannot escape, Mr. Watts was a diamond in the rough. This strange white man was a mystery to everyone until their fates had been sealed. With tension rising between the opposing sides of the war many people were able to flee the island. When the last boat was gone, no one was left to teach the children. No one except for the unknown Mr. Watts.

Mr. Watts ran an unconventional school. He had no personal knowledge to pass on to the children, but understood that they needed to learn. One technique he employed was almost "show and tell" meets "career day." One of the villagers came to class and shared anything they could with the kids. This may have been the best places to fish, a recipe, or a piece of the island's history. (As a sidenote, these visits to the schoolhouse were my favorite aspect of the book.) The only other way we saw Mr. Watts engage the children was by reading them a chapter per day from Charles Dickens's Great Expectations.

The story was recounted by a girl who was, at the time, a 13 year old living on the island. She lived with, and tested the patience of, her mother. Her father had left the island years before in search of work. Through Mr. Watts she developed a profound relationship with Charles Dickens, and more specifically Pip, the young protagonist in Great Expectations. And through Charles Dickens she developed a special relationship with Mr. Watts. Thanks to her we saw not only life in school, but how the village was directly affected by the fighting. When homes were burned and people were killed we saw how dire the situation was for the people stranded on the island.

This 13-year-old girl was still a child and should have been able to be one. She, like the other children, did not have that option. Her father was gone and she was always fighting with her mother. She had to witness things that no one, let alone a 13 year old, should ever have to see. Great Expecations became a fairy tale to her; a world into which she could escape. And Pip was her guide. From daily peaks into his story, Pip became as real to her as anyone else on the island, maybe even more so. And just as easily as any villager could have, Pip became the cause of a great misunderstanding with a group of men with guns who do not like misunderstandings.

Lloyd Jones gave us a beautiful story full of hope, disappointment and a very unlikely school teacher. He wrote with a balance of poetic imagination and narrative story telling that made me love this book.

Just felt the book to be a bit sloppy at part - things left unexplained, but not purposefully, but rather as if the writer forgot to develop those parts. Personally, I found the novel to be poorly written, stylistically, but that is a very subjective opinion and the girls in my book club liked the style. I was a little surprised that this was considered for a Booker Prize - really didn't find the storyline or the style all that compelling.

_Mr. Pip_ is a book you will never forget. You are transported onto a sea-island covered with exotic jungle and mountain terrain. Pip, of course, is from Dickens' _Great Expectations_; but Pip becomes another character of huge importance on the island. The main themes of the book are learning through the life/death cycle, escaping violence by reading, cultivating imagination, and questioning truth in everything. The writing couldn't be better--fluid and fluent, with special bits of attention to what words mean and how words affect lives.

If you enjoy _Mr. Pip_, you would might like _Mr. Timothy_, a novel about Tim Cratchit from _A Christmas Carol_. Remember, Tiny Tim did NOT die...