"Mister Pip" by Lloyd Jones is the wondrous coming-of-age story about Matilda Laimo, a 13-year old Papua New Guinean child living on the island of Bougainville. It is an enchanting, lyrical, lush, and politically powerful tale by a prize-winning author of world-standing literary ability. The book has already won the 2007 Commonwealth Prize for literature and is currently among thirteen titles longlisted for the 2007 Booker Prize. It has been sold for distribution in the United States for an unprecedented sum; even if the author fails to win the Booker Prize, it will still make him a millionaire. If the book wins the Booker Prize, it is destined to be a big-time modern literary and popular crossover bestseller.
The story is set in 1991. The mainland Papua New Guinean government is involved in a civil war with the inhabitants of Bougainville, a large island off its southeastern edge--an island abundant in gold and copper resources. The population and culture of Bougainville is more similar to the Solomon Islands archipelago. where it belongs geographically rather than to any of the diverse mainland tribes of Papua New Guinea. As the novel begins, the child is barely aware of the conflict. She is black, and she views the invading government forces as foreign redskins.
Matilda lives in a tranquil primitive coastal village of no more than 60 people. They live in dirt-floored huts, and easily get all the food they need from the surrounding bountiful jungle and ocean. But in 1991, everything changes when the government chooses to blockade the island. Subsequently, all white people, including the village's teacher, missionary, doctor, etc., take the last boat off the island. All leave except Mr. Watts, an eccentric white man living a reclusive life with his black island wife in an old missionary house near the village--a house completely hidden by tall grass left uncut for decades. As the blockade progresses, all supplies slowly go scarce, then disappear altogether. There are no more canned foods, no more gasoline for the electrical generators, no more medicines. Babies start dying once again from malaria. The island children, freed from school, are aimless. The island quickly and easily returns to the way that life has been lived there for thousands of years.
The author, Lloyd Jones, knows this subject first-hand--he served as a journalist in Bougainville "where the most unspeakable things happened without once raising the ire of the outside world." And that is indeed true. I consider myself well informed on world matters, yet before I read this novel and did some background research about the setting, I had no idea about the great inhumanity that this island endured during its 10-year-long civil war. The war ultimately cost the lives of more than 11% of the island's inhabitants...and the world, for the most part, completely ignored the events.
Violence does occur in this novel, and it is "unspeakable," but the author treats this subject carefully--we are spared undue shock, and it is not the focus. This book can, and will, appeal to all readers, including young adults.
The main story begins when Mr. Watts decides to reopen the schoolroom and become the village's temporary teacher. He teaches the children by reading aloud Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations." The children quickly become totally entranced. They fall in love with the books main character, Mister Pip. Lovingly, Matilda builds an oceanfront shrine to Mister Pip--a fictional character that has become more alive to her than anything else in her impoverished environment. But this simple act of love brings violence into her life and the life of her community. The government "redskins" see the shrine from their helicopters and are sure that Mister Pip is a hidden rebel leader.
For me the most wondrous aspect of this novel is the prose--completely fresh and original. There is a rhythmic quality to the writing that is wholly new, and hard to analyze. The prose has a lovely and lyrical overall simplicity. The writing compelled me inside the story; I became part of that alien, primitive world.
There is an important moral message within this novel. According to Mr. Watts: "to be human is to be moral, and you can't have a day off when it suits." Personally, it makes me think about the fact that we are all living on a large island--planet Earth. Like Bougainville, Earth is rife with conflicts and, for me, the most important are environmental degradation and global warming. Are we going to do the moral thing, even if it doesn't suit?
So far I have read two other novels shortlisted for the 2007 Booker Prize: "
On Chesil Beach: A Novel" by Iwan McEwan, and "
The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid. Each I have reviewed on Amazon, and recommend highly. They all are exceptional examples of modern literarature, and all have important messages to convey.
