Mr Pip-Watts-Dickens

Behind the times as usual, I’ve read this much-hyped book long after everyone else. When it first came out I was intrigued by the idea that the plot revolved around Great Expectations, a favourite book, and by the pretty cover by Petra Borner. As you see, it matches my current knitting!

The reader is jumped straight into a mysterious world. Where exactly is the island? Who on earth are the redskins? (I never did work that one out). Matilda the narrator and her mother live in a village terrorized alternately by rebels (against what?) and by the redskins. The Only White Man On The Island, known as Pop Eye, then as Mr Watts (his real name) and finally as Mr Pip, takes on the children’s education by reading them Great Expectations and so leading them into a world completely beyond their experience. So far, so good and interesting. Lloyd Jones lost me for a while around page 143, when Mr Watts begins a serial telling of his life story and the story of his marriage to strange Grace. The tale, as recounted by him, of the attempts by husband and wife to reconcile their black/white differences by writing messages on the walls for their baby daughter left me completely cold. I am more impressed by the civilisation which produced Charles Dickens than by any amount of native wisdom. This sounds like cultural imperialism; sorry, I can’t help it.

I also have a problem with the narrative voice. (  Spoiler )

Hiding behind the sofa

Not Dr Who, but the Wimbledon final which is proving too much for my nerves. Play has just stopped again and I don't see how they can finish the match this evening. I want Nadal to win... Edit: Thank goodness it's over! What a pair of gladiators. The wind, the rain, the dark and still whenever one of them was knocked down he just got up again. Pity one had to lose. I'm exhausted and I was just watching.

It's not just the tennis that's been putting the wind up me. I had just sat down with my knitting for the start of play when I saw a pair of antlers above the window sill. There was that deer again and I followed him round the house and snapped him in the act of eating the strawberry leaves he has taken such a fancy to.

( more deer pictures and scare story )