Lloyd Jones Mister Pip The Text Publishing Company 2006
I'm coming to the conclusion in my old age that you can never say you’ve read a book if you’ve read it just once. At least, I can't say that about me. When I decided to write down a few thoughts about this book, it had been a couple of months since I'd read it for the first time, so I had to go back to it to remind myself of simple things; names of the characters etc.
I was immediately absorbed back into the book again, and though I'd enjoyed it (if that's the right word for something that tells you some things you don't want to know) first time around, it wasn't till the second time that I really let the rich earthiness of the tropics flow over me once again as it did in my own childhood in Queensland.
Maybe that's why I enjoyed the early part of the book more than the last few chapters, though saying this does too little credit to the author. He writes beautifully and consistently throughout.
The characters are drawn very well, from Matilda, the centre of the tale, giving us a first-person account of the world as it expanded and exploded around her, to the enigmatic people in her life. Her mother, a complex character of love, bitterness and betrayal, represents the best and worst of adopted western faith overlying the veneer of primal religion that really nurtures and gives meaning to the lives of the villagers. Mr Watts, (Pop Eye) - or as he becomes, Mister Pip - opens the eyes of the children to a strange new world – that of Pip in Great Expectations. His gentle way of teaching becomes an endearing quality as he looks after his wife, Grace.
The stories of the older villagers who are invited to the school to talk to the children in an adult show-and-tell are wonderful. There is nothing you can possibly anticipate in what they are about to say, and they do so in their own special way.
The odd thing about this book is that it made me realise for the first time ever that I had a lot in common with the Pip of Great Expectations, which I'd read a hundred times as a child. Fortunately in my personal story there were no Miss Havershams, but there were many of the warmer characters in Pip's life who I could identify. Maybe it was Matilda who jolted me into this recognition of myself; it certainly never occurred to me before. But that's my tale and doesn't belong here.
Over the charm of the story hangs the presence of the copper mine and the terrible things it did to the lives of these people. I guess we rarely if ever think about what our insatiable need for this metal does to the people who stand in the path of the mining companies who see them as a nuisance at best and a lethal threat when the chips are down. The Company can get the Government to call in troops to terrorise and butcher them; the dreaded 'redskins' – and the villagers are powerless to stop them. Resistance only makes things worse. And we benefit from this need for copper, and therein lies our guilt, for we are either ignorant of it or say it's out of our hands.
That is something that remains with me. Matilda pays our price; others like Mister Pip pay a worse one, even if ultimately she gets from her own labour some of the benefits as well.
And of course, she unearths the great mystery hidden until the end - the truth about Mister Pip and his wife, Grace.
Yes, definitely a thumbs up from me.
Denis Wright
@deniswright
deniswright.blogspot.com
I'm coming to the conclusion in my old age that you can never say you’ve read a book if you’ve read it just once. At least, I can't say that about me. When I decided to write down a few thoughts about this book, it had been a couple of months since I'd read it for the first time, so I had to go back to it to remind myself of simple things; names of the characters etc.
I was immediately absorbed back into the book again, and though I'd enjoyed it (if that's the right word for something that tells you some things you don't want to know) first time around, it wasn't till the second time that I really let the rich earthiness of the tropics flow over me once again as it did in my own childhood in Queensland.
Maybe that's why I enjoyed the early part of the book more than the last few chapters, though saying this does too little credit to the author. He writes beautifully and consistently throughout.
The characters are drawn very well, from Matilda, the centre of the tale, giving us a first-person account of the world as it expanded and exploded around her, to the enigmatic people in her life. Her mother, a complex character of love, bitterness and betrayal, represents the best and worst of adopted western faith overlying the veneer of primal religion that really nurtures and gives meaning to the lives of the villagers. Mr Watts, (Pop Eye) - or as he becomes, Mister Pip - opens the eyes of the children to a strange new world – that of Pip in Great Expectations. His gentle way of teaching becomes an endearing quality as he looks after his wife, Grace.
The stories of the older villagers who are invited to the school to talk to the children in an adult show-and-tell are wonderful. There is nothing you can possibly anticipate in what they are about to say, and they do so in their own special way.
The odd thing about this book is that it made me realise for the first time ever that I had a lot in common with the Pip of Great Expectations, which I'd read a hundred times as a child. Fortunately in my personal story there were no Miss Havershams, but there were many of the warmer characters in Pip's life who I could identify. Maybe it was Matilda who jolted me into this recognition of myself; it certainly never occurred to me before. But that's my tale and doesn't belong here.
Over the charm of the story hangs the presence of the copper mine and the terrible things it did to the lives of these people. I guess we rarely if ever think about what our insatiable need for this metal does to the people who stand in the path of the mining companies who see them as a nuisance at best and a lethal threat when the chips are down. The Company can get the Government to call in troops to terrorise and butcher them; the dreaded 'redskins' – and the villagers are powerless to stop them. Resistance only makes things worse. And we benefit from this need for copper, and therein lies our guilt, for we are either ignorant of it or say it's out of our hands.
That is something that remains with me. Matilda pays our price; others like Mister Pip pay a worse one, even if ultimately she gets from her own labour some of the benefits as well.
And of course, she unearths the great mystery hidden until the end - the truth about Mister Pip and his wife, Grace.
Yes, definitely a thumbs up from me.
Denis Wright
@deniswright
deniswright.blogspot.com
I enjoyed your review and appreciated your perspective. What does come out strongly in this book (and in my reread of Great Expectations) are the dichotomies, in part caused by expectations , and as you point out even in relation to the issues surrounding the copper mine. It is the good / bad, the sense / nonsense etc both in Pip's search for the meaning in life and perhaps, in those last chapters which I was disturbed by too in contrast to the rest of the book, Matilda's search for the meaning in Mr Pip.
ReplyDeleteThere is more of this in Half the Yellow Sun
Anne Powles