Life of Pi by Yann Martel
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Book Reviews of Life of Pi
Book Review: Endearing & Brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
This book, Life of Pi, is one of those books that slowly draws you into its pages, getting better by the moment, more intriguing by the paragraph, more complex by the page, finally leaving you sad to have it end. Word by word you fall deeper into the narrative, becoming more engrossed with each passing chapter as if each word is a brick, the culmination of which is your building a wall encompassing you and the book. Turn by turn the strange story twists you with it, leading you further into the abyss of this peculiar tale at sea. The story is all of this and more, as Yann Martel serves up a brilliant work of art in this Booker Award winning book. Life of Pi is one of the better works in recent memory.
This is a book which has floated in and out of my field of reading vision over the past several years, appearing occasionally as one of those "must reads" in the literature community. Despite the passing of time since its initial printing, barely a week goes by when I don't catch a glimpse of someone reading it on the subway. For years it has sat in my enormous unread pile of books sitting in the basement. For no particular reason, it recently jumped out at me as the next book I should read. It may have been a recent sighting on the train, or it may have been the cover. Regardless the reason, it was a great time to read this great book.
When I started, I did so with a healthy dose of caution, since almost every "must read" falls far short of anything I would actively choose to tell someone else they must read. As often than not, they fall into the inglorious category of "must not read". The DaVinci Code comes to mind as fitting squarely in that category. Still, this remained one of those lesser known bright spots which wasn't in the same over-hyped air as DaVinci. I wasn't sure if it would be a diamond in the rough or just simply rough. It's always hard to tell. Thus, I walked gingerly into these pages.
From the onset I was interested, though I admit the first 100 pages won't floor you. Don't get me wrong, these are pages which contain good, solid writing. You can feel a hint of Salman Rushdie in the words he writes, an influence or similarity present. But let's be clear, Yann Martel is not Salman Rushdie. Any resonant comparison only leaves Martel looking inferior to the brilliant Rushdie - not that there's anything wrong with that, as most writers look inferior to Rushdie.
Having said that, I feel Martel did a good job with those first 100 pages, even if things were a little sloppy from time to time. To be clear, I never considered dropping the book at any stage. In fact, at that point I thought the book very good, if nothing remarkable. It wasn't until the next 200+ pages churned along when I fell even deeper into the narrative, concluding this was much better than I had initially given it credit for.
If need be, the details of the story can be gleaned from the back of the book or any one of the numerous reviews here. Personally, I would recommend this book blindly, which is something I almost never do. If you're a fan of Rushdie, you'll almost surely enjoy this book. Likewise, if you're a fan of what (for lack of a better expression) I would call "accepted high-quality modern literature" (YMMV), this will surely hit the spot. Again, Martel is not Rushdie, at least not this early in the game. But the styles are similar. As well, the obvious Indian & Islamic influences are a start. But the modern culture references seal the deal for me. While I see these traits as very Rushdie, Martel uses them successfully, to his benefit.
If you're not versed in earlier Martel or Rushdie works, perhaps it is best to say that this is a good book for someone who likes slow, involved, but very well thought out narratives. Martel delivers this with Life of Pi. As the story rolls on, you find yourself more involved in the situations and philosophical quandaries Pi finds himself tackling. Even if you don't agree with any of them, they're done so well they warrant attention.
One caveat to all this is the discussion guide in the back of the book. Completely unnecessary addition, IMO. Regardless, the book is outstanding, and I certainly recommend it. Well done - I very much look forward to future Martel works.
Book Review: The Life of Pi, an Insight into the Human Mind
Summary: 5 Stars
Yann Martel's Life of Pi is the epic tale of a young boy's survival on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. It is an engaging story that hooks readers in right from the beginning and will not unleash them until well after the novel is complete.
Piscine Molitor Patel, nicknamed Pi, is a young Indian boy who has an amazing knowledge of animals and an attraction for religions. Pi's story begins in India during the early years of his life. His father is the owner of the Pondicherry Zoo, and this is the playground that Pi grows up in. During his time in Pondicherry, Pi begins to worship not only his native Hinduism but also Christianity and Islam-much to the disapproval of his parents, the priest, the imam, and the pandit. Pi only desires to "love god." This faith and love in God that Pi demonstrates is one of the most poignant themes in the novel and is a direct cause of Pi's ability to survive. A positive aspect of the book is that even though it contains Pi's feelings on religion, there is no feeling of religious beliefs being pushed on the reader. Instead, it simply educates the reader about the best ideas of different religions.
Pi's life takes a drastic change when his father decides to move the family to Canada in search of a better life. Pi and his family become passengers on a Japanese cargo ship that sinks after only a few days. Pi is left alone in the ocean on a lifeboat with a zebra, hyena, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger. Soon, all that is left is the Bengal tiger and Pi. The 227 days that Pi spends at sea with the tiger take up the majority of the book and are simply captivating. Every day is a struggle for survival with Pi striving to not only endure the Atlantic Ocean but also the tiger in the lifeboat.
The humor in the novel is a worthy attraction; often the reader is made to laugh out loud from Pi's descriptions of his first encounter with Christianity, the orangutan's arrival on the lifeboat, and how he got his nickname. It provides a light-hearted note to the fight for life that Pi encounters.
The novel's organization is also notable. Most of the chapters are told from Pi's point of view, but some chapters are told by "the author" who is writing Pi's story. The author's chapters give the reader insight into what is currently happening in Pi Patel's life, often mirroring certain important facts and beliefs that are in the main plot of Pi's story. The author's note at the beginning of the novel, however, and the chapters with the author's voice give the misleading perception that this is a true story. In fact, after reading this novel I could not believe that the events were not true. This is a credit to Martel's wonderful writing. He creates a story that is extremely imaginative and fantastical, and makes it totally believable.
Another noteworthy point of the organization of the novel is that it is conveyed in 100 chapters. This reflects Pi's character in that he strives for order and control. At the same time it contrasts the name pi, a number that has no order or control.
The Life of Pi is suitable for adults and some teenagers. It appeals to those who enjoy adventure, religious, and bildungsroman novels. It is most similar to The Old Man and the Sea, not only with the plot, but also in style, as Martel's simple straightforward writing is reminiscent of Hemingway's.
The Life of Pi is a good book that you would want to share with others and discuss with them. It invites varying interpretations and creates a vast range of emotions in readers. At one moment you can laugh, cry, be incredulous, joyful, fearful, amazed, and simply spell bound. The Life of Pi is never boring. It captivates the reader right from the beginning with its poignant language, and then holds him/her with an adventure that will not let the book be put down. It provides insight into the human mind "the soul-sustaining power of fiction" (according to the front cover). It is extremely well written and the questions it raises about life, religion, and the depths of human suffering make the readers think about the novel long after they put the book down. It is not a book to be dismissed.
Book Review: Soul searching novel worthy of all its praise.
Summary: 5 Stars
How would you act if your entire family died on a scuttled ship? Now, what would you do if the only other survivor were a 500 lb. tiger? Who happened to also be in the same lifeboat. You will never be in this predicament (knock on wood), but Y. Martel has taken it upon himself to use these questions in order to examine the human will to live and religious faith in a way I have never seen done. In doing so, he has fashioned one of the most beautiful stories of religious devotion I have ever had the pleasure to read.
The Story:
At sixteen Pi's parents decide to leave Asia and make a new life in Canada. Along for the ride are a number of animals that Pi's father is selling to various zoos in North America to provide revenue for their new life. Awakened En route to Canada by a horrible noise, Pi stumbles through the chaos to abandon ship. This sets the scene for the boy's struggle to survive.
Pi awakens from what seemed to be a nightmare to find him on top of a tarp partially covering a lifeboat. He is now shipwrecked, the sole human survivor afloat on the open sea. However, he is not alone. Initially his companions are a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a tiger named Richard Parker. After the first three days, natural selection cuts the little boat's crew to two- the smartest (Pi) and the strongest (the tiger). Before his rescue, Pi will live with the tiger for 227 days in a 26-foot lifeboat, every decision being life or death.
The Life of Pi may be read on various levels. Morally as Pi's tells of his life as a zookeeper's son and the ethical decisions the family must face on an every day basis. Religiously, Pi decides to become a practicing Catholic, Muslim and Hindu, all at once (his ruminations on zoo keeping and religion lay the groundwork for how he could possibly survive on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger). Beyond the plot is another level, an examination of religion, writing, and of how to write about the religious experience. Furthermore, Martel expounds upon the strengths and weaknesses of religious belief, leaving you to decide what to think. Finally, you can read this as a good old adventure story. Surviving at sea and discovering strange islands are only some of the things you will experience with Pi.
The novel also ends with a philosophical bang, which I will not give away. It was not until I got to that point that I became truly impressed with the novel as a whole. Before that, I thought it was very well done however, after the conclusion, it becomes much more.
Comments:
Let me state that I am in no way what you would call a religious person (in the common, go to church every Sunday, sense). I also tend to shy away from books that wear their religion on their sleeves, so for me to endorse this so whole-heartedly makes it even more special. This may be fiction but the ideas about God and faith are more sensible than any religious non-fiction I have read.
This would be a great read for any booklover no matter what their age. I recommend this to any person who loves a good adventure or someone interested in looking at religion and survival from a harrowing perspective. One that can make you believe the unbelievable.
Warning:
There are very graphic scenes of animal violence and mutilation. If you have a difficult time watching lions hunt on Animal Planet then you may find parts of this novel revolting. Martel describes with graphic detail the interactions of the lifeboat passengers.
P.S. Check out the book Kon-Tiki, by Thor Heyerdahl for a non-fiction sea-going memoir, and learn that it IS possible to catch a shark with your bear hands.
Pros
Faith affirming first-class adventure. Makes you believe the unbelievable.
Cons
There are some graphic animal violence scenes.
Book Review: Tiger and the Deep Blue Sea
Summary: 5 Stars
Yann Martel's vibrant novel, narrated in vernacular is the story of sixteen year old Indian boy, Piscine Molitar Patel, who is cast away in the Pacific Ocean as the Canada bound ship transporting his family along with their Pondicherry Zoo sinks. Far from being another cliched survivalist story, Pi is accompanied on the lifeboat by a hyena, an orang-utan, a zebra and a tiger named Richard Parker. Pi watches in amazement as the hyena first devours the zebra and then the orang-utan, only to be defeated by the more feral predator, the tiger.Pi's struggle for survival is compounded by the terror of the tiger - a battle of intellect against instinct. Using every available resource, Pi must act intellegently and quickly to keep the ferocious animal at bay while withstanding marine inclemency. Deceptively simple, the tale bespeaks existential realities with unpretentious panache. Martel chooses to prove the existence of God in an era when postmodernists, evolutionary biologists, astronomers and fiction writers are convinced of the opposite - the abrogation of Ultimate Reality by cold Reason. Yet, Reason says Martel is nothing but 'fool's gold'. Belief in 'dry, yeastless factuality' robs us of the faculty to perceive the 'better story'. If the world is a story-like construct diffusing the line between the real and fictive, reason is a poor substitute to God as our mainstay. Martel's God is 'as secular as ice cream' indicated by the diverse religious predilections of the protagonist. The query as to which religion is true becomes redundant.
With a boying sense of humor, Martel is revulsively even horrifically entertaining. Martel's breathtaking realism constitutes meticulous detail about animal behavior and interaction. castaway survivalism and overarching human intellect removed from base imperatives that reduce human to animal. The antithetical marriage of the factual and imaginative, the practical and spiritual is crystallized in the form of zoology-religion intermix. Memorable scenes involve the hyena preying upon the injured zebra; the tiger inquisitively fencing a shark, Pi's urge to drink his own urine and later taste the tiger's feces. Towards the end, Martel sways to Beckett-like dialogue in a coincidental encounter with a blind Frenchman whose cannabalistic designs on Pi are dashed by Richard Parker's silent attack. Absurdism is preceded by a near magic realist experience on an island of floating carnivorous algae which has a Biblical connotation of the loss of innocence in the Book of Genesis.
Earlier Martel comments that animals provide a mirror to humans. As Pi consequently becomes more ferocious than Richard Parker, it is the preservation of human sanity that finally guarantees his triumph over adversity. Understanding and manipulating the ways of nature make Pi reign sovereign. The novel shines with original and refreshing similes. The event significance dictating chapter length adds cadence to narrative, which is punctuated by the author tracing back Pi in modern day Toronto as he rearranges his memories on sea.
Many novelists painstakingly research their novels, yet few have the capability of fitting information from mismatching domains into perfect jigsaw. Martel transcends with this skill by endowing it with a finale that emphasizes that detail without meaning is purposeless. Indeed, Martel's fundamental idea is not wholly innovative but burrowed from Moacyr Sclair's Max and the Cats (1990). Sclair's book devouts a few pages describing a young German man trapped in a lifeboat with a jaguar, with the purpose to satirize Nazism. This resulted in fervent objections from Brazilians against Pi's Canadian author. Nevertheless, Martel's recycling and rewriting of Sclair's theme escapes any indictment of plagiarism and was given the much deserved Man Booker Prize in 2002, which quelled the controversy. Excellent reading!
Book Review: A Classic for Life
Summary: 5 Stars
"I have a story that will make you believe in God." - Pi Patel
"I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality." - Pi Patel
This novel was easily one of the most unique books I have ever read and far from "dry, yeastless factuality". While reading it, I often wondered if it was not based off of a true story in some way simply because the story seemed too unbelievable to NOT be true! This book would appeal to a variety of literature-minded tastes as it covers topics that range from philosophy, religion, travel, and biology to suspense, horror, and even comedy.
On the surface, the story is about an Indian boy that survives on a lifeboat with a lone Bengal tiger after his ship sinks, taking the remains of a zoo and his entire family with it. Woven into the plot are threads of Pi Patel's passion for religion as a whole. He seeks to survive - both mind and body - 227 days at sea, using both the knowledge of three world religions and the experience of growing up in a zoo.
What makes this book rise above the general expectations of the fiction genre is that the main character's frequent monologues on his present circumstances inadvertedly cause the reader to evaluate his or her own life in light of Pi's words. Take for instance Pi's explanation of the battle between good and evil:
"These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart." (Ch. 25)
Page after page, chapter after chapter, Pi's personal philosophy is laid out as his life hangs in the balance. At one of his lowest points he discusses the power of fear:
"I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. ... The matter is difficult to put into words. For fear, real fear, such as shakes you to your foundation, such as you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: it seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it." (Ch. 56)
In the midst of reading this highly imaginative text, I realized that the musings of this castaway were reflections of what any person standing on dry land could be feeling at any given moment:
"When you look up, you sometimes wonder if at the centre of the solar system, if in the middle of the Sea of Tranquillity, there isn't another one like you also looking up, also trapped by geometry, also struggling with fear, rage, madness, hopelessness, apathy." (Ch. 78)
My favorite part of the book was when in the midst of a storm, Pi was nearly struck by lightning. The description of this encounter in chapter 85 put me in nearly as much awe as it did Pi Patel and reminded me of how the Holy Bible often described the voice of God as the voice of a great thunder, which completely fit in with the overarching theme of religion as a framework for life.
When at the end of the book, Pi Patel offers an alternate, more-believable version of his survival at sea, I realized that this novel could be read as an allegory to symbolize life and its survival. This is what truly allows The Life of Pi to make the leap from contemporary fiction to enduring classic.