Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Seafaring Story
Review: The Life of Pi is captivating from beginning to end, and makes an extroidonary airplane flight, bedtime, or long car trip read. It begins with the somewhat unorthodox religious practices and schoolyard rememberences of a young boy named Piscine (later shortened to Pi, for obvious reasons). During this part of the book, a concerning quality can be observed about Martel's writing... That, though religion is interesting sometimes, it must be sustained throughout to have any meaning. Pi finds good parts about many religions, and practices them all to an extent. However, the connotations about these religious practices fall off dramatically when the main plot arises. I wonder if these notions may have been better to leave out. But, writing styles aside, not since Mutiny on the Bounty have I read such a good sea adventure. When the ship Pi is riding on from India sinks, a managerie of animals and he cling to a lifeboat for safety. A brutal epic of survival follows, pitting man against tiger, man against the sea, and tiger against everything else. Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger that so happens to fall into Pi's lifeboat, becomes an integral part of the story for many reasons. Well, he would have to be, in such close quarters with a scrawny Indian boy, on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific. The middle of this book, the tale of Pi and Richard Parker's sea hardships and adventures, is the most captivating writing I've seen in a while. Keep an eye out for the part when Pi reaches the island of algea... wacky! The conclusion is a little concerning. Martel brings back the religious references a tad, but the audience is torn between two different accounts of the happenings of Pi and his Tiger. However, in true sea adventure fashion, the audience is ultimately left with a sense of happy completion. Go get this book and read it, it's well worth it!
Rating:
Summary: Unexpected pleasure
Review: Life of Pi was a Book Club pick, one that I had no opinion about, certainly not a book I wanted to purchase. When my friend loaned me her copy, I was finished with it in 2 days. I have since recommended it to everyone I know. I loved this book. I was drawn in immediately. Pi is a wonderful, sweet, sympathetic character, wide-eyed and open to God in any persuasion. He is a young man devoted to his family and his land. I loved Mr. Martel's descriptions of India. It's like being there. When I gave my husband a rough summary of the book, he remarked how boring it must be to read an account of a boy and a tiger, on a lifeboat in the Pacific for 227 days. You'd think so, but you'd be wrong. This book is never boring. It's incredibly hard to put down. My only complaint are the few extremely fanciful chapters involving a Frenchman and an island of sugary algae. What was involving became incredulous and was never dealt with in a satisfactory way to me.
Rating:
Summary: The true holy grail -- the meaning of life
Review: I am built like a barge and float very well. I took a holiday once in France and floated down the river with a farmer's cat sitting on my belly. Some kids had brought the cat over in a rubber boat and put it on me. I liked the cat, although he dug his claws into my belly because he was frightened. I became a bit frightened of the cat but I didn't want to push him off. If I tried, I expect he may have turned vicious. But I wanted his company too. So in my own small way I have lived the life of Pi, and had some very deep thoughts too as I floated along. It's no news that this is a rewarding book. I loved it. Equally absorbing is a new book called IN THE GHOST COUNTRY, about a man who eats 7000 calories of fat and butter a day and yet starves to death on his walk to the South Pole. Along the way his mother's ghost walks with him to keep him company. It's a weird and moving true story and great motivation for me to keep on my new diet
Rating: 
Summary: An astonishing story
Review: I cannot really remember what led me to pick up this book, as even in retrospect, the dust jacket blurbs failed to spark my interest. Nevertheless, I was stunned by my visceral and intellectual response to it. At its basic foundation, the book deals with the issue of spirituality. As an atheist and someone who would be loathe to call himself "spiritual", I would not have anticipated enjoying this book as much as I did. Mr. Martel is masterful with his prose, constructing vivid imagery while employing a simple conversational style and subtle, uncontrived humor. For this reason alone, the book was a pleasure to read. However, it is the conversion of Pi's story from simple entertainment to allegory that really elevates the book beyond being a well-written distraction. It is a book that forces you to consider it well after you have read it, and for some, could even effect a more meaningful transformation. While I would not consider myself in the latter group, I have a great deal of respect for what Mr. Martel has accomplished here. As a matter of fact, it is the only book that I have read in the five years that I have used Amazon which actually inspired me to write a review. I hope that others enjoy it as I have.
Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: This book will make you rethink your relationship with God, whoever it, he, she is if indeed it, he, she exists, with animals, and most importantly with yourself. I own a very, very large dog, the sweetest animal on earth, and I found fascinating the descriptions of Pi's interaction with the animals on the boat as they effectively mirrored the beginning stages of my relationship with my dog, whom I rescued. When I rescued him, he weighed over a hundred pounds and was a very sick street dog. It took us 6 months to get to know each other, for him to realize that while he was welcome in my home, my bed, my heart, they all belonged to me, as did he. I now belong to him, much as this book belongs to me and I to it. My relationship with Sasha was and is much the same as the interaction between Pi, the lifeboat, the animals. A rarity of a book in that it is easy to read yet NEVER simple; it makes you ponder everything, all the while bringing a smile to your face; it is sad and filled with loss yet replete with joy and hope. How could you not enjoy it?
Rating:
Summary: Shades of Crocodile Dundee
Review: Pi Patel, the star of this fantasmagorical tale by Yann Martel, is an Indian teenager stuck on a raft with a 450 pound Bengal tiger. As someone who doesn't read fiction very often, and who read a book entitled "the Raft" (a true story) as a child, I find the premise of this book to be absurd. Nonetheless, fiction is ....well, fiction. Those who enjoy soap operas and theatrical productions, will love this book. And, Martel is an engaging writer even though he's given to that casual european leftism, the kind that dispages religion, the family and private property. But, who cares, it's a fun read, particularly if you have little else to do with your time. Ah escape! So, this guy Pi is stuck on a raft for a year with a large carnivirore, and some other animals who in turn come to a grisley end at the hand of the survivors. By this time in the book, after the ship transporting the animals and all hands has sunk, Martel has addressed Pi's interest in various religions. This sets up the ending of the book where Pi is questioned by the Japanese authorities who have to determine "fault" re the sinking for insurance payment purposes. Pi feeds them this incredible tale, and when they don't believe him he tells yet a second story about canabalism and its role in his (and the tiger's) survival. This evolves into a set of word games and semantical circumlocutions between Pi and the authorities. Since they aren't after him for anything other than the why's and wherefores of the sinking Pi avoids prosecution. The interesting twist is why Martel via Pi calls into question one's faith in believing that which seems absurd and that which could be taken on faith? It brings to mind man's transition from the age of faith to the age of reason. Martel gets a bit carried away with his attempts to marginalize and make relative anyone's beliefs in a specific religion. All this while the authorities are merely trying to engage in a finding of facts for the purposes of adjudication of contractual disagreements. Alas, we're instead supposed to believe in the myth of the tooth fairy with regard to Martel's philosophical wanderings. The point brought home to me is that the "Life of Pi" is about perception. What do you believe? Why do you believe it? Will you entertain alternate theories? And, upon what do you base your system of beliefs? These are all good questions and Martel has done a good job in bring them to the fore. Anything that will inspire people to think is a good thing.
Rating:
Summary: Can't say enough good things about this book
Review: Part religion, part faith, part fantasy, part fiction, part very unique story, this riveting read is without a doubt one of the most unusual books ever written. But the most intriguing aspect of this read was the ending (s). How the author came up with this is beyone me. I loved it. The novel basically depicts the life of Pi, a youth in Pondycherry. He spends 227 days with a Bengal tiger and several other animals and the story that unfolds--while seemingly unreal--is somehow more real that the "other" life that Pi led up until that point. What happens is at once disturbing and magical. Also recommended: McCrae's Bark of the Dogwood
Rating:
Summary: Truly Bizarre, But Wonderful
Review: This is a great survival story. Pi, moving from India to Canada, encounters a shipwreck, and he is stranded adrift with four animals. It is truly a bizarre epic of survival and faith. What makes this story so different from others is that it has such a more complex, full story than other modern books. Necessary for any book buff.
Rating:
Summary: A new twist on old theme---well done!
Review: I read non-fiction almost exclusively so it took a bit to get me to start this book. Once I started, I enjoyed it cover to cover. It's really a very good philosophy book richly packaged in a very interesting novel. I pleasured at pondering the ideas presented while enjoying the story. There are points that would be too harsh for children but would be a great book for older kids (over 14?). I believe it's a must-read. The ideas are always gently presented, never preachy, always thought provoking. Very, very entertaining. And, it's fiction that one can learn from---that's a bonus! Get the hardcover, you'll want to make this a family "keeper".
Rating:
Summary: Life of Pi
Review: I just finished reading the book, and I am desperately seeking someone to discuss it. This book is one of two books I could read more than once. It may not make you believe in God, but is a good explination of the reality we face in life. "Thankyou, and so it goes with God"
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