This is an odd but compelling little book about an eccentric old man, Mr. Watts, who reads Great Expectations to a group of Pacific Island children whose lives have been shattered by civil war. The book is narrated by a young teen-aged girl, Matilda, who is so entranced by the character of Pip that it makes her mother jealous. When combatants (we are never told precisely who these fighters are; the two sides are called simply “redskins” and “rambos”) arrive on the island, they demand to meet this mysterious Mister Pip and do not believe that the villagers cannot produce him.
Jones’s prose is simple and beautiful. The voice of Matilda is lyrical, but not precious. Her mother, Dolores, is a marvelous character. My only reservation is that the violence late in the book creates a tone that contrast so starkly with the book’s overall tone that it did not work for me. Doubtless Jones intended to shock his reader out of their dreams, but to me it seemed over the top.
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