Book review: Mr Pip
By Lloyd Jones Published by John Murray In Mr Pip, New Zealand author Lloyd Jones takes us on a journey to a coastal village on the Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville. Once there, we enter the life of Matilda, a girl in her early teens, and her fellow villagers during the civil war of the 1990s. At first, life goes on as usual. There might be a blockade imposed on the island but the village can still rely on its fish, chickens and fruit. The only difference is that the local mine has closed and all the white men have left. All but one: Mr Watts, aka Pop Eye, whose wife, Grace, is a native of the island. With the departure of the white men, the school is left unattended but children are soon called back to the classroom as Mr Watts decides to be their teacher. The fact that Mr Watts has never taught before and that he has admittedly ‘no wisdom’ doesn’t prevent him from understanding what the children need: a distraction from talk of gunfire, ‘redskin’ soldiers, rebel fighters and h...