Lloyd Jones - Mister Pip

Reviewed by Showhost Nov 2008
This book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2007
It's 1991, the story is set on a tropical island in the South Pacific. The main characters are Matilda & Mr. Watts. Matilda is a native, Mr Watts an eccentric white man who married a native and lives in the school house. He is often seen wearing a red nose and pulling his wife in a trolley, in which she is standing not sitting.
The island slowly starts to change as a civil was starting at the other end of the island starts to encroach on their lives. Matilda and other children have not had any schooling for 86 days.
One day Mr Watts, the only white man, re-opens the school. He reads to them from Dickens's 'Great Expectations' and re-reads. The children are mesmerised by this pother life, words they have never heard of. Island adults, relatives of the children, come in and recount their folklore to the children but for Matilda, nothing compares to 'Pip & Great Expectations'. She relates her life to his, how similar events are.
When the warring soldiers finally come to their village it is with tragic consequences as they search for this man they talk about - Pip. They are convinced the villagers are hiding him. Matilda explains that Pip is from a book but when the soldiers demand to see this book nobody can find it, so the soldiers punish them and when they return the punishment is harsher.
The story is really entwined around characters and events from Great Expectations. It is a slow moving book but has some harrowing events towards the end but they are recounted from a child's view - simplistic.
I wouldn't rave about the book or say you really must read it, so for me it wouldn't be my choice out of R&J's top 10.