Mister Pip
by Lloyd Jones (Dial; $20)
The New Yorker - October 22, 2007

In the midst of a savage civil war, an adolescent girl on the remote island of Bougainville, “where the most unspeakable things happened without once raising the ire of the outside world,” is engrossed by the struggle between art, in the form of her eccentric white teacher’s reading of “Great Expectations,” and religion, represented by her mother’s “beloved pidgin Bible.” It’s not much of a contest—Matilda’s heart is instantly captured by Pip—but it precipitates a violent dénouement that leads to her eventual escape. The fablelike simplicity of Matilda’s telling belies the complexity of the novel, which takes several subtle and unexpected turns. Most gratifying is the increasing strength and clarity of Matilda’s voice as she recounts the journey she makes after leaving the island, one that leads to researching a Dickens thesis in the British Library and, ultimately, repudiating his style: “I learned there is a place for embellishment after all. But it belongs to life—not to literature.” ♦