Name: Mister Pip
SKU: msc5s5
Price: 250.00 ZAR
Availability: SoldOut

Mister Pip

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R250.00

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Heritage Trades1073

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Condition

New

Location

South Africa

Product code

msc5s5

Bob Shop ID

644791404

Hodder & Stoughton, 2007, hardcover, 220 pages, condition: as new.

Re-reading a firm favourite can be salutary, a cure for that breathless over-enthusiasm that marked the initial reaction. I'm not sure if anything can recapture the emotional punch in the solar plexus this book gave me the first time round. Appalled outrage at the fact that the civil war in the 1990s on the island of Bougainville which blasts devastation through the narrator's life was barely reported in any Western media; shocked horror at the atrocities (all based on fact); painful, gut-wrenching empathy with the main characters; that gasp of recognition as the plot unfurls; nail-biting concern for the fate of Matilda; deep tenderness and appreciation for a whole book dedicated to the power of narrative; joy at those few funny or uplifting moments; satisfaction at a well-rounded finish. A second read will usually reveal the stitching, it is rarely the same seamless slide. It can be like seeing the winches, pulleys and traps that are necessary to create a stage illusion, either your admiration for the cunning construction is confirmed, or you're left wondering how you ever fell for it.

Or can it be a bit of both?

What carries this novel is that absolutely convincing voice. That deceptively simple voice. Straightforward, unsentimental, modest, unsophisticated. Short, easy sentences in plain English. So easy to read that it's easy to overlook the pulleys and ropes. The narrator, Matilda, has a wondrous eye for the telling detail: how it's only the dogs and chickens that have names that hide from the helicopters with the people in the jungle. She reads body language, she sees her mother: When she dug in her heels all her heft raced to the surface of her skin. It was almost as if there were friction between her skin and the trailing air. Hardly the language of a 13 year old, but it slips through, it works, why ever not. Maybe it's the grown-up Matilda talking there. The plot is beautifully worked. What at first seems to risk turning into cliché, the transformative power of an inspirational teacher à la Mr Chips or Mr Keating is first undermined and then complicated, turning into a Shakespearian tussle with guilt, revenge and redemption. One slight caveat: it founders a little after the shock of the worst atrocities. Matilda has to get out, how that is managed is just a little messy and wet and reminiscent of The Mill on the Floss. But that was my only quibble, not enough to really detract from the sum.

What I did notice this time was that occasionally it got a bit preachy. Some of the Big Themes were flagged up a little too obviously, a bit too clearly signposted. It's not going to be one of those where you can discover more and more: it's all there on the surface for you, ready to pick up like a shell from the beach. That's fine: it is a wondrous thing of beauty with an iridescent, pearly sheen that will sit on your shelf and whisper to you again when you hold it to your ear.

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