Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones.

張貼日期：Jun 03, 2009 5:2:52 AM

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. Written in 2006 by a New Zealand writer, much of the book is related to a civil war that happened in the southern hemisphere in early 1990s in blockaded Bougainville, an island off Papua New Guinea, where the local mining and then political troubles make the background of the story. It is the period of time that is narrated by Matilda, who was then in her early teens. Mr. Watts, the only white man left in town tries his best to lead the children into the world of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, from which he reads a chapter a day to them. Despite its foreignness and strangeness—all the more difficult to comprehend in this environment, so different from 19th century England, and by kids who have been exposed to so little of any outside world -- the children (and especially Matilda) are captivated by the book. “It was always a relief to return to Great Expectations.

It contained a world that was whole and made sense, unlike ours.” Most of the success of the novel lies in the tone. It is not the teen Matilda that writes the account, but rather the university student Matilda, now far removed from Bougainville. Thanks to her lack of embellishment, the simplicity of the presentation makes the accounts utterly compelling. The living conditions on the island are as basic as can be imagined but Matilda regards it as a given, like so much else -- just as the world often seems to children, who accept whatever the conditions are without a real sense of what alternatives there are. The Dickensian alternative these children are presented with is undoubtedly foreign and yet it is something they can relate to. "Mister Pip is a powerful and humane novel from one of New Zealand top writers."