Rating: 
Summary: Simply Marvelous!!!!
Review: I loved this book. It is clearly and absolutely one of the best books I've ever read. MR Martel's style is refreshing and miraculously descriptive and clear. I felt like I was there with Pi and Richard Parker the whole time. The introduction to the story is absolutely essential to its development. The wonderful information given about animals and their habits was great. I can't say enough. Life of Pi is a book I will read again and I never re-read a book. I was sorry when it ended. I think it's most impressive quality is that MR Martel allows the animals to be animals and remain animals. He does not make them into humans even though we want RP to become human...we want him to befriend Pi and become his friend for life he remains a Bengal Tiger. He remains true to his own nature until the end. Don't miss this opportunity for a wonderful story.
Rating:
Summary: Seriously. The best book read so far.
Review: This book is simply an awesome book. I read it and enjoyed it sooooo much. People who say its bad probably didn't get around to reading the entire book. The first part is a little boring, but it picks up a lot from there. I recommend it to anyone who wants to read an almost perfectly created novel.
Rating: 
Summary: I must be missing something here.
Review: I will grant you that Life of Pi is well written, with some amazingly fresh and effective language. But the story is thin, overly long, and not terribly interesting, and certainly not plausible, even when the true nature of events is revealed. It took a long time to say very little, and didn't "speak to me" at all.
Rating: 
Summary: Life of Pi belongs in the potty
Review: I read all the highly recommended reviews and bought this book purely on the assumption that it would live up to its hype. Unfortunately, I was utterly disappointed. After reading this book, I didn't pick up another book for 3 months. I literally HATED reading. Can you believe this book made me HATE reading?!!! Life of Pi was depressing and the tedious descriptions and character building left no room for fantasy or exploration (philosophically or imaginatively). I had to force myself to turn each page in hopes that the story would get better... but it never did. This is not an easy read. Its downright torture. Martel takes a simple story and turns it into an excruciatingly complex yet cleverly disguised lecture about how you should think and feel. I felt violated - as if Martel robbed me of my own imagination! There was nothing enjoyable about this book except for the cute cover... I will never again judge a book by its cover, or recommendations!!!
Rating:
Summary: Riveting & Original: Pi is storytelling at its best
Review: I discovered this novel at Munroe's Bookshop, a terrific bookstore in downtown Victoria, B.C. I visit the store once a year and always inquire about the best new Canadian fiction. Hence, I purchased The Life of Pi well before its sales took off. Somehow, though, the concept of a man and a tiger on a boat struck me as a bit weird and Dr. Doolittle-esque. I put the book aside. It was only recently that I began listening to the audio version when I had a long drive. I forgot my initial skepticism as I listened to Part I with growing interest. Then out of nowhere came Part II - "The ship sank." Suddenly this absorbing coming of age novel turned into an instant version of Jack London's riveting "To Light A Fire". I was transfixed, engrossed, mesmerized, and could not stop listening. When I took a break from the audio, I returned to the book, and back and forth until finally I was done. All I can say is, "Wow! What an incredible story!"
Rating: 
Summary: When is a tiger not a tiger?
Review: When is a tiger not a tiger? Well, in Martel's Life of Pi Richard Thomas the omega big cat under the tarpaulin is very much a reality - one way or another. This story starts with a gentle reverie about how the story started "because the narrator was hungry"; because the author was painfully aware that his last attempt at a story structure contained not enough life to survive..And for those of us who never really grasped allegorical writing the shock when the story's tempo changes is palpable...so I asked myself "when is a story not a story?"..and the conundrum of Martel's story continues to unfold - or is it really snaking around you tighter and tighter?The storytelling was fabulous. Martel's way of showing Pi's observations about zoo animals, about territory, about human fear and how precarious we all are is perfect for the state of play world-wide...where status, religions, alpha might and omega compliance drift endlessly along in salt seas that turn to acid baths. Are we not all in a small raft attached to a dodgy lifeboat filled with dangers and wonders? The resolution for Pi to leave the island also smacked of surrealist sci-fi horror, talk about 'strange fruit'. I doubt any reader could fail to stay on to the end after witnessing the unfolding of the little orange-sized green fruits that Pi unravels. This is a story for anyone who has glimpsed in moments of stress the absolute horror of human life and social arrangements. My next visit to the zoo is going to be far more observant too.
Rating:
Summary: Pass over this one at your own peril
Review: The vast differences in genre, setting, and narrative technique notwithstanding, this book is a fictional
counterpart to Primo Levi's "Survival in Auschwitz."
This book, as you are reading it, will not let you go, and you,
when you've read it, will not be able to let it go. If you do read it, two tips: 1. Not at the dinner table and not on a full stomach. 2. Don't be too quick to think you know who or what Richard Parker really is, or that he is just or only who Pi says
he is. Consider the possibility that each of us is
in fact in the same spot existentially as Pi and we each
have our own Richard Parker to contend with. Do you
know who yours is?
Rating:
Summary: The story starts with the cover and just gets better!
Review: It started with the cover... What could this be? A young man, rolled up into the fetal position in the rear of a small lifeboat and a TIGER (?) at the bow? Floating on a spacious body of water, the cover screams for explanation. And what an explanation! Get ready for one of the most entertaining, original stories in the last 5 years.Yann Martel tells a tale of 16 year old Pi, from Pondicherry, India as he and his family make a life changing decision to sell their zoo and animals to emigrate to Canada. Pi's family were devoted to their animals, and they have been well cared for during their lives at the Indian zoo. In the family's last gesture of love and responsibility, they also board the Japanese cargo ship which is to carry the animals to their new homes in zoos of North America. The family plans to care for them in transit, as the trip will be stressfull and the cargo workers are not adept at handling the diverse range of creatures. Unfortunately, the ship sinks. Pi finds himself barely alive, clinging to a life boat after the cargo workers threw him overboard as bait for a hyena trapped in the life boat they wanted for themselves. The story now becomes one of survival as Pi also finds himself housed with a seriously wounded zebra, a beloved orangutan and the huge 450 pound Bengal tiger by the name of Richard Parker. (name explained in the content.) And, let us not forget, the very hungry, agitated hyena. Not lost in the survival adventure, is the strength and loving nature of Pi. His love for his family and his religion (s), the attention he paid to caretaking of the zoo animals serves to be the key to his survival while drifting 227 days on a 26 foot lifeboat. Intense and horror filled days and nights are eloquently revealed as Pi struggles to make it one more day in a situation so unbelievable that it reads believable. Stunning, magnificent, perfection!! Pay attention to how many people have read this novel, the glowing reviews and the sales success. You will not be disappointed by this incredible book.
Rating:
Summary: i loved it
Review: Vivid with imagination, wonderful narration, one of the GOOD books I have read and recomended lately. Besides the interesting story there is an underlying meaning of life, its fickleness as well as strength. The bond between Pi and the tiger seems analogous to a human's relation to something fearful, the fear exists but at times, its baseless...and the object of fear could be the reason for existence!
Rating:
Summary: DIFFICULT TO COMPARE
Review: It is difficult to compare "LIFE OF PI." There is a brilliance of flowing prose element in the line of "MIDDLESEX," yet the story is far removed. There is the little boy lost element of "OLIVER TWIST," yet instead of being surrounded by the dangers of London's dark streets, Pi is faced with the danger of a ferocious tiger. There is the coming of age element of "SECRET LIFE OF BEES," yet again the story is far removed. There is the brilliant sense of character element of "MY FRACTURED LIFE," yet instead of the dangers of fame, Pi is faced with the dangers of being on his own. There is the lost in the wild element of "SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON," yet instead of being with his loved ones, Pi is alone. In some ways "LIFE OF PI" has elements of all great books, because in and of itself "LIFE OF PI" is a great book.
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