Life of Pi by Yann Martel
|
List Price: Our Price: $0.01 You Save: $14.99 (100%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Life of Pi
Book Review: "I Have a Story that Will Make You Believe in God..."
Summary: 5 Stars
With a blurb that proclaims that this is a story that will make you believe in God, one thing can be said that "Life of Pi" certainly has big ambitions. The amazing thing about it however, is that (for me, anyway) it makes a pretty good case for this statement to be true.
Yann Martel begins the tale describing his own experiences as a writer with the dreaded writer's block. Taking a trip to India in order to bring his inspiration to life, he meets Mr Adirubasamy, a man who claims to know a story that will make you believe in God. Intrigued, Martel inquires further, gathers the relevant information and is soon knocking on Piscine Molitor Patel's door. Piscine Patel (strictly "Pi" for short) survived for over a year in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, relying his logic and reason, his animalistic instincts and above all, his abiding faith in God to help him do it.
Martel switches to Pi's story, telling it to us in first-person narrative, as Pi tells us of his life in India before his fateful voyage to Canada. He was the son of a zoo-owner, and happily spent his childhood studying the animals in the paradise-like Pondicherry Zoo, and following his own rather unorthodox religion of Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, delighting and believing in all three.
But when the ship taking him and his family to Canada sinks, Pi finds himself adrift in a lifeboat with a zebra, an orang-utan, a hyena and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Fighting to stay alive in such conditions is Pi's task for the next two hundred and twenty seven days, as gradually he realises that the only way to survive Richard Parker is to learn to live with him. The domestication of the tiger begins as Pi becomes the ringleader, zookeeper and alpha male in the tiny world of the lifeboat.
On the way, Pi must deal with his own physical suffering and internal impulses, as well as a cannibalistic Frenchman, the tediousness of the days and an island that Jonathan Swift's Gulliver seems to have missed on his own voyage - an island holding a carnivorous secret.
It all sounds more than a little odd, but Martel grasps our suspension of disbelief and forces us to make us believe in what he's saying. It is not simply his attention to detail of the lifeboat's interior, the systematic taming of Richard Parker (rest assured, if you ever find yourself in a lifeboat with a tiger after reading this, you'll know exactly what to do), or the outside sources he quotes, such as the newspaper articles on Pi's ordeal or the transcript of the Japanese businessmen's discussion with Pi, but the utter conviction with which he speaks. I could not help but agree with whatever he said, whether it was the state of animals in zoos or the workings of God and mankind. The degree of wit and intelligence he writes with is intoxicating.
The third and final part of the book is perhaps the most fascinating, when Pi discusses his voyage with the two Japanese businessmen, and ends up telling them two stories: one that he claims is true, with the animals in tact, and a second one in which he replaces them with humans in a more realistic, though painfully dreadful version of events. He then poses the question: since it doesn't really make a difference which one you believe, then you have a choice on which one you decide see as the "true" one. In this lies the promising statement - that this story will make you believe in God, as Martel points out the advantages of faith far outweigh those found in atheism. And since there's a good chance it doesn't make a difference anyway, Martel's answer to "Why believe in God?" is:
Why not?
Book Review: Life is Beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel was the Man Booker Prize winner in 2002. It is a story of Piscine Molitor Patel, son of the local zookeeper, who resides in Pondicherry, India in the late 1970s. The reader wonders right off the bat how his parents could come up with such an unusual name. The narrator, Piscine reveals that he was named after a swimming pool in Paris; this name led to much ridicule in school because his name was always mistakenly mispronounced Piss Ing!
It was tough on Piscine and he was relieved when a new nickname of sorts (Pi) caught on in school; yes...it has something to do with 3.14! The novel is so imaginative that it is no wonder that it has hooked readers around the world since it was published in 2002.
As much as Pi is one of the major characters; a 450 pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker shares the spotlight and the honors as one of the most interesting animal characters in literature. How Pi finds himself fighting for survival at sea on a lifeboat with Richard Parker, a hyena, an orangutan and a wounded zebra is one of the most imaginative journeys of survival that I have read.
Martel has written that the idea for his novel came from a book review that John Updike did of a novel titled "Max and the Cats' which was not well received. The author was intrigued with India, its animals and religion and all three are woven into the fabric of the novel. Martel purposely chose an animal local to India for the selection of Richard Parker; the Royal Bengal Tiger and the author visited India multiple times interviewing local Indian zoo keepers.
There is much humor in the novel including the segments dealing with Pi's birth name, how Pi found religion (in fact three religions all at once) as well as the origin of Richard Parker's name. Some readers may find that the book seems very religious to them and in fact Pi is very religious; he joins three (3) religions at the same time (Hindu, Christian, Muslem) and there is a very funny scene at the zoo where the three (3) various heads of the local churches converge on Pi's parents to tell them how devout their boy is.
The narrator, Pi, reveals much concerning his spirituality as he discusses life, death, love, fear, despair and hope. As this bright and resourceful 16 year old Indian boy digs down and finds enough grit to survive at sea for over 200+ days, the reader is rooting for him and for Richard Parker the entire time. There are many shocking elements of survival which are described for the reader which may upset some; but the horrible event of the sinking of the Japanese cargo ship carrying his family to Canada and many of the animals overshadows anything that Pi had to do to survive at sea.
There are many beautiful and thought provoking lines in the novel which deal with the many facets of life, the broad spectrum and rainbow of human emotions, and death itself; but one that moved me was when Pi reflected, "Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can." The emotional power of love is what gets Pi through his ordeal.
To tell you more would spoil the imaginative journey that the reader will have traveling with Pi and his small ark on his path of survival and growth. It may take the reader a while to get into the novel at first; but once on the lifeboat...it is a heck of a ride.
Very worthwhile read.
Bentley/2007
Life of Pi
Book Review: It should just be called "Life"
Summary: 5 Stars
Somehow I missed this book when it first came out, but everyone I've spoken to about it since has told me it changed their life. It is not often one hears more than one or two people say such a thing about a particular book, unless perhaps it's an old classic, like the Bible. So when I heard this claim yet again a few weeks ago, I finally decided I had to do something about it. I had to read the book.
As the title claims, the book is about the life of a character named Pi. (It's not about Pi's entire life, but still.) Pi's real name is Piscine Molitor Patel, but he changes his name to Pi in school after being called a nickname after the bodily function one is reminded of when they hear the name Piscine. He is an Indian boy from town named Pondicherry. His father is a zookeeper and teaches Pi about the nature of animals from an early age. (Most explicitly when he feeds a goat to a tiger in front of his sons. Be warned, there is LOTS of animal violence in this book.) Pi is a curious boy and absorbs all the information he can. Eventually his interests move from the natural world onto the spiritual plane. Born a Hindu, he becomes a Christian and a Muslim after coming across a Church and a Muslim baker. (There's a hysterical scene where Pi is walking with his parents, who have no idea he's practicing three faiths, and they bump into Pi's priest, imam, and pandit all at the same time.) He learns as much of these faiths as he can and appreciates the benefits of each. When his cross-denominational penchant is discovered, he's surprised to find everyone insists he pick one.
Pi's world receives a jolt when his father decides to sell the zoo and move the family to Canada. Since they have to transport some of the animals to sell in the States, they catch a ride on a cargo ship. It sinks in the Pacific. As his family and everyone else on-board drowns, Pi ends up in a small lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a Bengal tiger. Soon, nature takes its course- the hyena eats the zebra and orangutuan only to be eaten by the tiger- and Pi is left alone on the boat with the tiger. At first, Pi is terrified he too will be eaten. But soon he realizes he would be alone without the animal and comes to the conclusion he must not just keep himself alive, but also an animal that could kill Pi in an instant. Pi must use all the knowledge of spirituality and zoo keeping he has garnered to survive.
I thought Life of Pi was brilliant for many reasons. The prose is conversational (the pretext is that Pi is telling the story to the author in a series of interviews.) and witty. Pi is a character we can like right away for his boundless curiosity. But it is the larger themes that make this book hum. Spirituality and science take center stage. Pi's needs to draw upon both to survive. Is Martel telling us we need to do the same? There is an element of storytelling too. Pi is drawn to religion because he likes the stories. (Another great part- there were so many- when Pi compares and contrasts the core stories of Christianity and Hinduism) And a twist at the end suggests perhaps Pi needed storytelling to survive as well. Is it all just an allegory? As Pi says to close his interview with representatives of the cargo company after his ordeal, "And so it goes with God."
Okay, I won't say the book changed my life. But it addresses some themes and ideas that sure could change the way we see life; the way we accept or reject religion in our lives- or even refuse to decide. It is up to us to do the rest.
Book Review: Almost like a Life with Pi...
Summary: 5 Stars
Alright, I'd just like to say right off the bat, that I'm a high school student. So if you're a teacher looking for an amazing book for your kids to read with a message, then I for one...and probably at least half of the almost 2,000 people who made reviews, say that Life of Pi is the best nominee.
The story line's simple and straight-forward. Piscine a.k.a Pi Patel is a fifteen year old in Pondicherry, India. His father owns a zoo, and decides to embark on a cargo ship, with animals and all, to Canada. Half way on his family's journey, the cargo sinks, leaving poor, lonely Pi left on a lifeboat with a zebra...then a hyena...then an orangutan...and then there's Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger. And with this crew of his, Pi makes his way to land and safety, having various events happening along the way. Most importantly, due to a series of these events, only Richard Parker and Pi survive which leaves Pi to use the little resources he has to show the tiger he is dominant. All the while, Pi encounters numerous side adventures, including a blind caraway, learning to fish, and an island of glowing algae.
But this isn't just a "Your Survival Guide to Living at Sea" sort of thing. It's not even a "Survival Guide to Training Tigers." Over all of this, it tells you how to have faith. At the beginning, Martel tells the reader that they'll believe in god by the end of the book. That's not exactly true seeing that this whole story is fiction (Even though at first it seemed so descriptive that I thought it was non-fiction). What it did do was make me want to believe; to believe in [any] god, and to believe that this story was real because it was just so eerie and magical at once. Pi himself knew the stories of three different religions and used them to keep hopeful, because if there's no hope, there's no will to live and Pi would never would have made it to Canada.
Now as I was looking at all the one-starred reviews, I realized they were mostly the same; people were saying Life of Pi was either too long and boring, or too gory. I will agree with gory, for it was, explaining in gruesome detail a death or four. As for long and boring, well maybe they aren't just ready for this level of spirituality. Some of the time, I thought it was a little stretched, too. Mostly when it came to the 227 days of sailing. But this just made the un-boring parts (like the island) even sweeter.
However, my favorite message in the whole of the book doesn't happen at sea, or in India, but rather at the end of Pi's journey. Pi is talking to a couple of Japanese messengers (that word might not be so accurate) from the company that built the cargo boat that sank. All they needed was enough information of why the boat sank, but Pi gave them much more. He told them the original story, bizarre but true. The Japanese didn't believe a word of it. Then Pi told them a false story, more rational, but far more frightening. The point is that the way we tell our stories tell of our lives, whether they be false or true.
Of course, Pi is really an irrational number, non-repeating and never-ending, fitting his story perfectly. The whole book is almost like pieces in a puzzle, but you have to read in between the lines. And because of all these elements, I'd recommend the book to anyone. The story may be irrational, but the words flow in a way that's almost rational; every word is like the reader is going one step further with Pi on his spiritual, enlightening, and uplifting story with Richard Parker.
Book Review: Adrift in the Pacific Ocean, with only a tiger and God (or Allah, or Vishnu) for company...
Summary: 5 Stars
Piscine Molitor (Pi) Patel spends his formative years in a zoo -- the Pondicherry Zoo in India, that is, which his parents own. When he isn't exploring the animal kingdom surrounding him, he spends his time studying different religions. By the time he's 15 years old, he's a practicing Christian, Muslim, AND Hindu (much to the chagrin of his parents and his religious mentors). In his sixteenth year, Pi's family decides to relocate to Canada to start a new life. They and some of their animals set out aboard a Japanese freighter ship, headed for North America...But then something unexpected happens. Somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the ship sinks. Pi manages to make it aboard a lifeboat already carrying some strange survivors: a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The three former animals are quickly dispatched by the tiger's appetite, leaving Pi and Richard Parker alone, floating on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific, for 227 days each other's only companion.
Lots of authors write about spiritual journeys taken by their protagonists, but I'd venture to say that no one has explored this plot device as creatively as Yann Martel in LIFE OF PI. Martel has written a brilliant story of humanity at its most elemental, when all the layers are peeled away and survival is all that matters. The entire novel, in fact, reads as a metaphor pitting our human intellect, reasoning, and faith against the animal instinct that lives in all of us. Pi's narrative is unflinching, at turns despairing and euphoric, hallucinatory and philosophical, gruesome and indescribably beautiful. The story is definitely unforgettable, as is its protagonist. I defy you not to fall in love with Pi! He's so earnest and determined, and his love of life is so inspiring, that it's nearly impossible not to relate to him. Even if his situation seems fantastical at first, even if he gives two versions of his tale at the end, he will make you believe in his and Richard Parker's journey.
There's a deeply spiritual and philosophical message embedded in this novel, but it doesn't overwhelm the narrative by any means. Martel speaks to the universality of religion, a point of view of which, in today's world of religious strife, I think we could all do to be reminded. "...Hindus, in their capacity for love, are in deed hairless Christians," he writes, "just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims." Essentially, he seems to be saying, we all believe in the same thing, and the mere fact that we believe at all is what really matters. LIFE OF PI is also very educational in a zoological sense, providing readers with interesting information about animal behavior and zoo life.
I agree with other reviewers here who have mentioned that the first third of the novel drags -- it does. I found myself wondering where all the glowing reviews were coming from there for a while...But when Martel got to the heart of his story, he hooked me. LIFE OF PI is a remarkable feat of storytelling, with characters (human and animal) who will resound in your thoughts long after you turn the final page. The critics are right: LIFE OF PI will make you believe -- maybe not in God, necessarily, but definitely in the resiliency of the human spirit in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. A brilliant, fascinating novel -- highly recommended!