I got around to reading Yann Martel's Life of Pi in the past few weeks. The book has been out for something like four years now, and I've been wanting to read it ever since I first heard of it. Finally, after years of, for whatever reason, not reading it, I grabbed my little brother's second-hand copy of the hardcover edition and got reading.
Warning: Spoilers ahead...
I'm a big fan of a good high-concept adventure - a story where the basic premise can be easily described in a couple of words, and those words sound pretty amazing. The "high concept" behind Life of Pi is this: "Kid. Tiger. Lifeboat." Awesome.
Author Yann Martel's voice is unique, clever, and decidedly Indian. The novel is like a Bollywood musical: rich and colorful, swinging like a pendulum from the depths of tragedy to surreal comedy in mere paragraphs. It makes for an exciting read, but also makes the whole effort seem slightly unfocused.
I've got a thing for good survivor stories, as well as a bit of a thing for high-seas adventure, as well as a bit of thing for stories about humans co-existing with animals — not in a cutesy sort of way, but more in a survival manner — and especially with big cats. So, naturally, I was drawn to the "kid, tiger, lifeboat" book. Life of Pi, however, is more than just "kid, tiger, lifeboat." With the exception of the occasional flashback/forward, we don't even get to the lifeboat until a little over 100 pages into the 300-page novel.
The entire first third of the book is told as a kind of memoir of, well, the life of Pi, our hero, in Pondicherry. His father ran the zoo, his father's friend was a swimmer, he was named after a swimming pool, he is a Catholic, a Muslim and a Hindu. It's all fascinating, and at times very clever, but it has next to nothing to do with the events on the boat.
Article comments
1 - Jonathan
The whole book is a metaphor for religion: you can beleive the truth that you see in front of you even though it is frightening and scary, or you can beleive in God - with no facts or evidence - because it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
2 - Brian
It's already required in high schools. I'm reading it now. Well actually I'm supposed to have already read it. And now I have an analytical paper on the book. It sucks because I didn't read it. Whatever. I was busy reading HP7 this summer
3 - b
I'm only reading this review because I'm searching for information on the book in an attempt to find absolution after falling in love with it and being punched in the stomache by the end. Worst. Ending. Ever. Why why why why why why why did he throw in that 'possible alternate explanation'??
The book proclaimed itself as a story to make you believe in god.
I am an athiest who was brought to the edge of believing in god in a (non-literal) way. This book made me re-think my spirituality entirely. Until I read that one chapter near the end that made me want to puke my guts out. Was all that really necessary? Enlighten us with the capacity of the humin spirit for good and then say "but nope, just kidding....the real truth is most likely that all people are hideous on the inside...but go ahead and make up a god and cling to a more spiritual explanation of things if it helps you sleep better."
Ugh. This is why I DON'T believe in god. This is why I hate religion. And this is why I wish I hadn't read this book. I don't expect to sleep well tonight.
4 - marty
Don't have time to write buy "b's" comment above is right on target.
Marty
5 - M**i*a
i absolutely hated this book. it was horrible!
6 - Kyle Burton
I totally disagree with this review. I was unaware that this book had any "hype" before I read it, just picked it up because I remembered seeing it at a friends house and needed a book to read.
I don't think that people fully get the religious aspects of the book other than the simple realization that there are some present.
I believe what he was trying to say, with not only the ending (like this reviewer would have you believe) is that all religions are stories that elude to the same truths. Jesus almost exclusively spoke in parables, so if he is God to Christians, why would Noah's Ark, or the Garden of Eden have to be taken literally? It was anything but a twist for the sake of making the reader dizzy, It was to drive the message home. This was one of the most pleasant surprises I have ever had with a book. I would recommend it to anyone, and if it does have this "hype" that people keep talking about, well... it deserves it
7 - Maddie
I just finished this book. Major catharsis. I enjoyed it immensely, but in an odd way. Nothing is what it seems, but that is what makes it so interesting. I thought at first I would love the book because of the philosophical and religious ideas, mixed with animal and human nature. But now I like it because it makes me think. It makes me try to make sense of what I'm reading. The way someone tries to cope with an ordeal is phenominal. I would recommend this book to anyone as well.
8 - Seth
This is required reading for my AP English class. Good book, but I wish the ending didn't leave the reader hanging. I hate that and I don't see how it makes any book more enjoyable or makes anyone get more out of it.
9 - me
OMG THAT BOOK WAS GREAT BUT AT THE END I JUST GOT MAD. WHY DID HE DO THAT?! I LIKED THE ANIMALS IN THE BOAT, NOT THE HUMANS. BUT NOW I HAVE TO THINK THAT
10 - Jeff
I disagree that the religious aspect of the book had nothing to do with the lifeboat. I figured it had everything to do with the lifeboat. I marked up my book in 4 different colors, one for Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, and Science, whenever their respective ideas came up, and it really blew my mind.
I absolutely adore the ending precisely because it isn't what you want. To me it's always been a problem that people want things to end succinctly and clearly.
Also, I thought the book said pretty clearly that Atheists were just as religious as any Hindu or Muslim, (which is something I've always believed but never been able to say without getting cussed at profusely, normally by Christians, actually).
I planned to hate this book to be honest. The "Boy. Lifeboat. Tiger" thing was to me too stupid for words, but I found a cavelcade of meaning...
But even besides all that, despite a twist ending that makes you question the whole book, despite great foreshadowing and religious commentary, above all else
This book is damn funny. I brighten up just thinking about it. Never before have I found such substantial literature that's so damn funny.