"Mr. Pip" by Lloyd Jones

Having read some reviews, I realized, to my surprise, that many people blame this novel for exessive intertexuality (which is the basis of all postmodern literature, by the way). Indeed, some believe that this postmodern feature comes from some kind of literature crisis and shows the inabily of modern authors to produce anything genuine and original (therefore such desire to quote and interpret the classics). But if we think about it carefully we'll find out that throughout the history literary texts were always connected with and influenced by each other. Many authors of Renaissance borrowed their plots from the works of ancient Greeks and Romans, while the Romanticists took inspiration in folklore fables and fairy tales. As for me, even if Mr. Pip IS a compilation of already knows classic pieces, it is surely a very clever one.

So if we focus on something positive a reader can take from this book, what shall that be?

Firstly, there is a small secluded island in the Pacific Ocean torn by civil war. In its seclusion the setting resembles the island in Golding's “Lord of the flies", where anything can happen. Mr. Pip, the only white person on the island, decides to act as a teacher for the children of the village and gathers them in the shabby and forsaken school building to share his humble knowledge of the world which includes reading one of the masterpieces of British culture - "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens...

Then there is the narrator, of course, a young girl, whose name alludes both to the famous “Waltzing Matilda" song where the title means basically “travelling on foot with all your things in a bag behind your back" (and the story of the girl is indeed a travel, at one point of which she is left with almost nothing) and to the famous heroine of Roald Dahl hinting how quick-minded and clever the character is, even though the circumstances of her childhood didn't give her many education opportunities.

Now there is an interesting point of view to the narration as Matilda tells about her childhood being already an adult and the reader soon finds out that the narrator is not quite reliable for her ability to describe the events is limited not only by peculiarities of child's perception but also by the mental distance from the period described. There are obviously certain details which, after all those years, she either can't or doesn't want to remember.

Then there is Mr. Watts, whose image is even more vague as all we know of him is basically Matilda's point of view. Was this point, this perception true to reality? What facts do we really know about the teacher (or rather the persion who played the teacher's role)? Those questions should be addressed to the readers. The author creates a certain suspense giving out facts of Mr. Watts's life one by one, so that the readers can't make up their minds about him up to the very end and even then they discover that the factual information is still very insufficient and (very likely) some details of the image have been added by the readers themselves. Should that mean that the main aim of the author was not in describing the characters but rather in letting the readers take part in their creation?

From here we come to one of the main problems of the novel – the issue of perception. Throughout his book Lloyd Jones shows the process of perception of Dickens's “Great Expectations”. It is perceived not only by the main character, but by other children in the class (and here the perception already differs immensely, as when children begin to retell the story, you can clearly see that each one focused on different situations and events and all can remember different details), by their parents whom they retell the story, inevitably changing it with each new telling, and finally by the soldiers who listen to Mr. Watts's personal story mixed with events and descriptions from the novel. And finally there is a reader on the other side who listens to all these retellings and gets a new perception and impression of “Great Expectations” himself. I confess having been caught in this game myself for when I was reading the novel of Dickens I was already seeing it in connection with other Dickens's works as well as with other Victorian novels and historical background so I focused on social and psychological issues touched in it. But listening and re-listening to “Great Expectations” together with Matilda and her school mates I got quite a new impression about it, an impression close to the one you receive reading Shahirizada's tales for the first time, it began to feel like something fascinating and almost otherworldly as it must have seemed to the children who had hardly seen any other books before and didn't know much of the world outside their island.

Therefore the question arises – where is the real Dickens's novel among all these impressions? And can a novel at all be real? Is there a true perception and interpretation of the Pip's story and if there are so many miscellaneous views on it, which one should we believe? The truth is however that once a novel or any other piece of writing is finished, it becomes a living being. And living its life, being evaluated by critics and interpreted by readers it evolves and changes and Great Expextations of Dickens's time are not a bit like the issue of 2019, as it is not the same in London and on a New Zealand island. Each new reader imagines Pip and Estella in a unique way and uses his or her imagination to add new details to Miss Havisham's house. Not that it is impossible to find out how Dickens saw his characters and what opinions he wanted to express (although this is rather difficult indeed). The fact is that it is not necessary and that is what Lloyd Jones tries to show us. Paraphrasing the famous proverb, art is in the eyes of the beholder. In the end it is always about the beholder, and not the author. It is not only about what the author wanted to show but what the reader (listener/spectator) chose to see.

Another topic the auhor explores is the force of imagination and its influence upon the people's lives. For different characters of the novel imagination becomes either a bless or a curse, for it is a powerful thing which can be used both in positive and negative ways. Matilda’s ability to create a new reality within her head and bring the literary characters to life helps her to go through the cruelty of war reality and stay sane while both Mr. Watts and his wife basically ruin their lives playing their roles up to the point when real and imaginary can no more be separated any more and from where there is no way back.

Actually not only the Wattses are playing roles, the author quite supports Shakespearean statement that the whole world is a stage and most of his characters try out different roles, be it a role of a teacher or modern-time Pip, a priest or a Biblical queen. So which of two – reality or imagination – is more important for Jones’s personages? Hard to tell, for everybody acts differently but it is easy to understand such escapism: it is totally imposed by the cruelty and insanity of the world surrounding them.

Still there is one thing that is even more dangerous and unpredictable in this novel and that thing is ignorance. Sadly enough, in every war ignorance becomes a major driving force as people who don’t know much about the world surrounding them and who don’t care to think about it are very easy to manipulate believing blindly everything they are told as long as the person who wants to persuade them is eloquent enough. Many dictators of previous century made an excellent use of this idea and New Zealand’s civil war was not an exclusion. The author mentions that many soldiers on both sides were teenagers or young men who have not received sufficient education and very likely had been deceived by false ideals which resulted in the saddest of all armed conflicts for it is always the most painful to watch a brother going against his brother and the nation which has lived peacefully for so many centuries before falling apart.

So if I stopped philosophizing and returned to the novel itself I would say I liked it very much not only because I appreciated the author’s style and the complexity of its structure but also because it made me very emotional which hasn’t happened for a while with my other reads and I’m grateful to Lloyd Jones for some really quality reading. And if other readers look focus on the message and problems touched in this book rather than looking for action in it, I’m sure they will enjoy “Mr. Pip” as well.