Mister Pip in Around the World

Dec 29, 2015 Rusalka rated it liked it

Shelves: around-the-world, own, ylto-survey-says, asia, ylto-topplers, booker, pacific, kiwi

Let me do you a favour which no other review I have seen has mentioned. If you have not read Great Expectations, don't read this book yet. Maybe that is everyone assuming everyone has read Dickens, particularly Great Expectations. But as someone who has never read a Dickens novel, and has gotten all her Miss Havisham information off Jasper Fforde, a annoying amount went over my head. I understood the story, and the point. I just feel like if I knew about the references it would have made it a be ...more

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Jan 03, 2015 Jenny (Reading Envy) marked it as did-not-finish · review of another edition

Shelves: worldlit2015, around-the-world, location-papua-new-guinea, location-new-guinea

I had been reading this in tidbits on my bedside table but suspected it was not an accurate portrayal of life on Arawa, PNG. It felt rather western-centric, let's bring Dickens to the primitive people and see him change their lives. This book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2006 but that award does tend to smack of colonialism still today in a post-post-colonial world.

I wasn't sure. Most reviews are positive. So I consulted several academic book reviews and felt their opinion gave me ...more

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Oct 09, 2009 Nick rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One of the most remarkable books I have ever read. It has a magical voice with a South Seas lilt, yet one capable of narrating great tragedy. The Pip of the title is Dickens' Pip. The only white man left on the island uses Great Expectations to teach a group of children, not just English but everything. I normally detest the genre that relies on previous masterworks for plots--I consider it looting the literary graveyard. This is the exception. ...more

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Dec 29, 2010 KayG rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ultimate-around-world-list

Papua New Guinea.

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May 03, 2011 Shriya rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favourites

Do you like bittersweet chocolates? The ones which are neither too bitter nor too sweet, with a hint of rum in it, perhaps? If you do, you'd love this book as much as I did.

It's beautifully poetic, deeply moving and just like the hint of rum, it has Dickens on top of it! A story about a little girl in a small, remote Island where the teacher is the only white man and 'Great Expectations' is the only book to read. It is a book about the relationship between two differing sets of mentality, a book ...more

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