Life of Pi by Yann Martel
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.75 You Save: $11.25 (75%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Life of Pi
Book Review: In a word, captivating
Summary: 5 Stars
"Life of Pi" is quite possibly one of the best novels that I have ever read in my life. It is funny, touching, intriguing, it provokes many thoughts about many subjects, and is, in a word, captivating. "Life of Pi" addresses a touchy issue - religion - in a way that makes one wonder about the same things Pi ponders and struggles with. One truly begins to question the way society functions and why it is not possible to simply love God, which is Pi's desire, but he wants to do so through different religions. The novel raises questions like these and has a serious side, but throughout the entire book Yann Martel always keeps a comical side and makes even the simplest description of a person or place extremely entertaining. From the stories about Pi's early childhood years to anecdotes about his family, to Richard Parker, Martel's humor is priceless.
"Life of Pi" is very well written, but there are things that do at times get in the way of it being a so called easy read. The sections in italic words are often a little bit confusing because it is jumping to another time and place, but eventually it is not such a problem.
One of the most interesting things about "Life of Pi" is the zoological references that Martel works into the book. Chances are the average reader will not be a zoo keeper, and so all of this information will be strikingly new and unknown to them. The idea of a zoo and its many facets and characteristics are portrayed in a way that addresses human society. You have to think about why zoos are good and bad, how they work, and the fact that the human is the most dangerous animal in the zoo. The minute details that Martel gives about certain animals and their habits immediately made me want to go to the zoo and just observe the animals to watch for these things that are described!
The story of Pi's adventure is somewhat unbelievable and far fetched. With faith, however, I think that it is feasible - and that is what this book is about, faith. As Martel said in an interview, "Fanatics do not have faith - they have belief. With faith you let go. You trust. Whereas with belief you cling." With faith, this novel becomes much more meaningful. It allows you to absorb the thoughts and emotion that Pi experiences. At the end of the book, when he presents two stories about what had happened to him, it is difficult to decide which of the two outcomes is true, and/or which of the two you prefer. But it is maybe this unknowing that increases faith, because when things are unclear, it is the faith that you have in whatever guides you that brings them to light.
"Life of Pi" is an equally wonderful read for pleasure or for intellectual challenge. I would recommend it to everyone as a must-read, and say with confidence that anyone who reads it will be fascinated and touched.
Book Review: Noah's ark awry
Summary: 5 Stars
The narrator, Pi Patel, double-majored in zoology and religion. He loves Canada but misses the heat of India. Ponchiderry, site of his childhood, had a zoo and a toy train. Before going to Ponchiderry Pi's father ran a hotel in Madras. Perhaps there is a natural transition from hotelkeeping to zookeeping. In a zoo, though, the guests never leave their room.
To a child, the zoo was a paradise on earth. The best times to visit a zoo are at sunrise and sunset. Animals are territorial and in the wild live lives of compulsion. A biologically sound zoo encloses just another territory. A good zoo has clearly worked out coincidences. Getting animals used to humans is part of the art of zookeeping. The flight distance is diminished. Much hostile and aggressive behavior of animals is social insecurity.
While the family and the zoo are traveling across the Pacific to Canada the boat sinks. The ship had not been a luxury liner. Pi lands in a lifeboat. A zebra and a hyena end up in the lifeboat, too. Next Pi sees that Orange Juice, an orangutan, is present and seasick. The boat churns with the swimming below it and around it of sharks. The orangutan, a former pet, is not able to defeat the spotted hyena. The hyena had already caused the demise of the zebra. The hyena is bested by another animal on board, a tiger, Richard Parker. The name resulted from confusion over the appellations of the animal and a previous owner much to the amusement of Pi's father.
Pi finds emergency food and water and makes a list of the supplies available. In the early days to distract the cat Pi throws a rat at him. Later he works out the territorial issues, he makes a raft from the oars, and the matter of dominant position in order to coexist with the tiger on their sea voyage. He notes that fear is life's only true opponent.
They survive 227 days at sea. After the emergency supplies are exhausted, the vegetarian man uses fishing for sustenance and a solar still to turn salt water into fresh. Rain and turtles are major disruptions of daily routines.
The boat lands on a carnivorous island where the tiger eats meerkats and Pi sleeps in a tree until he discerns how truly dangerous their circumstances are. He sets off again in the lifeboat eventually landing in Mexico. The tiger, Richard Parker, disappears.
The Japanese ministry of transport receives word that a survivor of the Japanese ship, Tsimtsum, has surfaced. Mr. Okamoto speaks with Piscine Molitor Patel, Pi, in English. Pi is told the carnivorous island is a botanical impossibility. Mr. Okamoto and his companion do not believe that Pi lived in a lifeboat with a tiger. Disbelieved, Pi invents a story to satisfy his auditors.
The tale is a delight.
Book Review: Fascinating Story
Summary: 5 Stars
I listened to this book on CD and found it to be very well done. The book is broken up into three parts. The first section focuses on the life of a boy named Pi Patel and his life as the son of a zoo owner in Pondicherry, India. Much of the book discusses philosophy, religion, and zoology. Interestingly, Pi follows Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam much to his parents and respective religious leaders' bewilderment.
As the first section ends and the 2nd begins, his parents sell the animals of the zoo and make plans to move to Canada. Their journey across the Pacific begins aboard a ship that also includes the zoo animals. After a short time at sea, the ship sinks and Pi finds himself in a lifeboat with an assortment of animals such as a zebra, a hyena, a rat, some cockroaches, an orangutan, and a tiger. The assortment of animals fight it out in sequential battles until finally only the tiger and Pi are left. Pi proceeds to live with the tiger on the life raft and uses his knowledge of animals gained from growing up around the zoo to survive. He learns to fish, and make fresh water with distillers and has a tenuous mutual existence with the tiger in which he actually provides food and water to it and manages to stay alive. The elements, hunger, thirst, and lack of sleep are constant companions and result in a very difficult existence for him. After roughly 7 months at sea, he lands in Mexico and is rescued.
In the third section, we learn a second version of the sinking of the ship and his subsequent journey across the ocean through an interview of Pi by some men from Japan.
The first section can be a bit tedious at times but provides good context for the second and third. Good explanation of various animals and zoological information is provided as well as a relatively good overview of 3 major world religions.
The second section is outstanding and causes one to get involved with Pi and his travails hoping for him to make it through. On more than one occasion, I found myself sitting in the car after arriving at a destination to listen to a little bit more of the story.
The third section is very short and gives a bit of a change in direction from where the reader expects it to go. After getting to the end, I was interested in re-reading it to pick up on symbolism throughout the book.
One element of the book that can throw one off is the use of two narrators, an "author", and then Pi himself. An unnamed author, not Martel, is an actual character/narrator for some of the chapters. I'm not certain why Martel chose to use this style as it seemed a bit of a distraction rather than adding significantly to the story.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend it as an unusual but fascinating story.
Book Review: An excellent tale
Summary: 5 Stars
Yann Martel has, as far as I'm concerned, written a fine story in Life of Pi. So much of it rings true: the way it is presented (an author stumbles on a story while in India), the details, the conversations, the factual zoological elements, the humanness of the characters.
I was intrigued by the life of the teenaged Pi Patel in India and his fascination with religion. While no particularly deep or new theological epiphanies came out of it for the reader, from the view of a boy of sixteen or less, it seemed quite normal.
The family life was interesting, and all members were well-developed human beings so that there was nothing to detract from the reader's gullibility (or should we say,"acceptance?"): this might be non-fiction--a REAL story of a REAL human-being.
It is my belief that humans are naturally gullible creatures: if someone races into a cafe and shouts, "There's been a terrible accident down the street!" everyone believes them with no other evidence than their word , and wants to know more. Only incongruous details destroy our gullibility. And we test our gullibility regularly through our troubadors--our storytellers--laughing with relief only when we see through their deception. We are mental creatures, and like other carnivores sharpening their claws and establishing their territorial claims on trees, we sharpen our skills by relating to stories.
I was enthralled with the adventure on the high seas--all very believable. Ships DO vanish. I've been there, and the ocean is indeed vast and has many moods, all of which seem to be captured here. The plight with the zoo animals aboard the lifeboat seemed to me to be perfectly plausible and well-described. The animal reactions between Richard Parker and Pi Patel even seemed extremely plausible. In short, Yann Martel had me in the palm of his hand. The universe loves a story, and a storyteller is God's gift.
The implausiblility that finally led me to the inescapable conclusion that this was fiction, and not non-fiction posing as fiction, was the carnivorous floating island! Such a phenomenon would certainly have been discovered--probably centuries ago-- and would by now be overrun by zoologists, anthropologists, botanists, and others. It would be better known than the Seychelles. But it was this very implausibility that demonstrated the author's imagination, and proved beyond doubt his rank as a troubador.
Without the island, the book might well have been accepted widely as non-fiction--simply an extraordinary tale recounted to the author as it was described in the beginning, which would have been a sad thing. A great talent would have been short-changed.
Joseph (Joe) Pierre
author of Handguns and Freedom--their care and maintenance
and other books
Book Review: Brain Food Never Tasted So Good
Summary: 5 Stars
I do a lot of reading and try to throw something with literary merit into the mix every third book or so. It makes me feel better about the mass market junk food I usually consume and I generally retain something of value from the experience. The downside is that the reading is often dry and a little more work than I'd prefer on my train commute to and from work. I picked up this novel because it won several literary awards and because I couldn't find anything better at Target. What I got was one of the best books I have ever read.
The Life of Pi is one of those rare books that is as enjoyable to read as it is enriching. The style is simple but captivating and after a few chapters you will be pulled into Pi's world. The story follows the life of a teenaged boy from India and is written in three parts. The first part deals with his life in India and his family and mentors. The boy is fascinated by religion and practices not only his native Hindu but Christianity and Islam as well. He is also fascinated by animals and has plenty of opportunity to study them since his father owns and operates a zoo. Political turmoil in India causes his father to move his family and his zoo to Canada but the ship they are traveling on sinks halfway across the Pacific Ocean. This starts the second part of the book, which is Pi's riveting tale of survival aboard a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger. The last part of the book wraps up the story and poses an important question about the whole story and about the nature of religion. The novel can be read on the surface and enjoyed as a fine survival tale or it can be delved into to examine the religious metaphors that reside within. Either way, there should be more than enough here to satisfy even the most discriminating palate.
I usually don't talk about the ending of a story in a review but the ending of this novel was so moving I couldn't resist. If you haven't read the book then I urge you to stop here and go buy it. You will be glad you did. For those of you who have read the book and, like me, can't get the ending out of your heads then maybe this will help. My own take on the ending is that every religion, no matter how many adherents it has, is really a religion of one person. Everyone ultimately has to make their own leap of faith to find God. The existence of God can't be proven through scientific means, just like Pi's tale can't be factually proven. You either believe him when he tells you that he made the trip with the tiger or you don't believe him. Personally, I believe him because I don't think he would have had the will to live through the ordeal he lived through without the motivation of keeping the tiger appeased. I'll take the tiger any day, it feels better and makes more sense to me.