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Life of Pi
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| Editorial Reviews: | | |  | | Martel's novel tells the story of Pi--short for Piscine--an unusual boy raised in a zoo in India. Pi's father decides to move the family to live in Canada and sell the animals to the great zoos of America. The ship taking them across the Pacific sinks and Pi finds himself the sole human survivor on a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra with a broken leg and Bengal tiger called Richard Parker. LIFE OF PI brings together many themes including religion, zoology, fear, and sheer tenacity. This is a funny, wise, and highly original look at what it means to be human. | | | | Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion." An award winner in Canada (and winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize), Life of Pi, Yann Martel's second novel, should prove to be a breakout book in the U.S. At one point in his journey, Pi recounts, "My greatest wish--other than salvation--was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and fresh understanding each time." It's safe to say that the fabulous, fablelike Life of Pi is such a book. --Brad Thomas Parsons | |
| Custom Reviews: | |
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| | When I first began this book I was not too impressed. However as I continued with the story I became very involved with the main character and wanted see how the story ended.
| | | Part One: a child/adolescent tries to sort out which religion is the "right" religion. By the end of Part One, Pi chooses them all.
Part Two: an adolescent is the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Interrogators are sent to determine the reason why the ship sunk. In their interview they listen to the entire story that Pi has presented in Part Two -- which sounds to them like a fantasy. So, Pi gives them another story which they believe. The interrogators never do pursue their original purpose: to determine why the ship sunk.
Part Two is one big metaphor for Part One.
I found myself completely disenchanted with the entire book as I plowed through it; it seemed amateurish, some of it was directly from Robinson Crusoe (both diaries ended abruptly due to running out of ink/paper), etc.
Robinson Crusoe is so much more believable.
And that was my attitude: plowing through the book. Drudgery. And then slam bang hit me in the face two pages near the very end that, an epiphany, explained it all. I was blown away -- after all that reading, in just two pages, I was blown away.
I think that if the author had written in a more sophisticated style (like the great late 19th and early 20th century writers), the book may have appeared to be better literature. But written in an adolescent style makes sense -- it was being narrated by an adolescent.
So, the book is not great literature in terms of sentence structure, vocabulary, metaphors, etc., but the way it hits you at the end will keep you thinking about it for quite some time.
One question: is there more hidden in the book that I might have missed? Is it worth reading a second or a third time once one has discovered the message? It might be.
But regardless, Part Two is a parable every bit as good as any parable in the Bible -- just a whole lot longer, and requires Part One as background to explain to the reader why the author wrote this book. In fact, had there been no Part One, the book would have made no sense. Part One is crucial to understanding the message in Part Two.
So, five stars for overall impact; three stars for "fun to read" as great literature. It is probably written at the 8th grade level, but its message is probably too deep for those not yet at college level reading.
| | A story about choice, not faith | |
| | Life of Pi has been widely lauded by prestigious professional reviewers, but has also garnered some impassioned criticism. Much of this criticism hinges on the idea that the book promotes irrationality; that it supports an anti-intellectual worldview of a mutable universe, ignoring the absolute existence of the world and suffering. Upon some reflection, I feel that this criticism is entirely unsupported. Certainly the main character, Pi Patel, is particularly religious (he in fact actively practices three religions). However, Pi realizes that there is no evidence of the existence of god, but chooses to believe because it makes the story of his life more personally meaningful. He consciously chooses to suspend disbelieve in order to make some sense of his suffering. In all other ways he is eminently rational; he works hard and sensibly towards his own survival, never depending on faith or prayer. The novel chronicles Pi's unlikely survival at sea following a tragic shipwreck. Ultimately Pi provides two distinct, though related, stories chronicling his time at sea, and we and Pi are left to choose which to believe. Pi's decision, and our own, mirrors our choices concerning the existence of god, although it is interestingly unclear which story correlates with which philosophical viewpoint.
Certainly the universe really exists, however all scientists will tell you that in a certain way in exists outside ourselves, and ultimately outside our understanding. The real world is unavoidable flavored by passing through our senses and our minds before we can attempt to perceive it. For this reason we can, in a limited way, change our reality by changing our minds, and that is the point of Pi's story.
That being said, Pi's story did not "make me believe in God". Although not a wild fan of religion, I have no problem with the type of conscious faith that Pi uses, not to control his fellow man or secure his immortal soul, but to tell himself a more compelling story.
| | | Life of pi is a good book. It will keep you entertained even though I did get a bit irritated at Pi sometimes and even at the story... But overall it is good and Martel writes really well. Even if I can't say I'm a Pi-fan I would still recommend it to everyone because it is a good book.. just not great...
| | | I tore through all 330 pages in just a few days. I was fascinated by the story. It was refreshing to read soemthing so different; I couldn't put it down.
Martel really did a fabulous job with this book. He gives the reader vivid imagery without being wordy. He keeps things entertaining throughout!
This book was a little outside my traditional reading genre, but I absolutely loved it.
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