Rating: 
Summary: Sucks You In And Doesn't Let Go
Review: I absolutely loved this book. It was an intense adventure all at once beautiful and hideous, desperate and ecstatic. The vivid
descriptions throughout painted a picture as beautiful and as grotesque as a dying Dorado. I highly recommend it if you want to take
an emotional journey as vast as the Pacific. One thing not delivered however, it won't definitively make you a believer in God if
you don't already. But you will be getting a story you will want to read more than once.
Rating: 
Summary: Life of Pi
Review: Well written novel that stirs your interest. I love being taken to settings and ideas that seize me and Martel did a great job doing this. Pi is one of those characters you'll miss (Richard Parker too) once the experience has you identifying with his theme in Chapter 94 of "concluding things" and of a good-bye with closure. This novel has multiple thematic travels to walk and ponder. It did not make me believe in God though to a greater extent than I presently do, as it foretold...but it did underscore my ever-present trust in His Providence and in the triumph of faith amidst adversities. The humorous elements were refreshing and added to the humanism. I loved the contrast of the two stories at the end and the insight we shared with Pi's true experiences as the Japanese stayed rooted to their "dry, yeastless factuality" (Chap 21 & 22). Leaven for the soul!
Rating:
Summary: spoilers; not really for people who havent read the book yet
Review: Admittedly I did not catch a lot of the clues and hints that make up the bigger story the first time i read this book, but many people seem to think that the Life of Pi is solely a story about a boy who survived being castaway with a tiger (yes, a tiger, not a lion, as a few too many people have said). Reading the book a second time, with a more critical eye, has given me so much more insight into what the book is about. Earlier reviews described the book as having a good plot but having unnecessary,mundane chapters about theology and zoology. Although this book didnt strike me as one advocating religion, per se, religion is actually the core of the novel, without which the book would be a very different, albeit interesting, story. I know that it is very slow to read the first time, especially not knowing why Martel decides to introduce the story with a description of sloths, or how Pi's many faiths concern his survival at sea, but it makes a lot more sense the second time around.
I really liked this book, the first time I read it, and now that Im reading it over and understanding it better, I like it even more. It took me awhile, but chapter 21 and 22 are actually really important, and are basically the theme that connects everything, including the sloth, Pi's views on zoo's, and why there are two stories of his voyage. I dont think I understand the book completely, or that I ever will, but there really is a lot in this book that is inspiring. I can't expect people who didnt like it the first time to want to pick it up a second time, but a lot more is revealed that makes the book a more thought-provoking read.
Rating:
Summary: creative work
Review: Creative,imaginative excellent book to read during the holidays. I am extremely impreesed with this authors work and highly recommend Life of Pi.
While I am here, since I am a Non Fiction buff read Nightmares Echo and Lost Boy...both are excellent books as well.
Rating:
Summary: A Solid Recommendation
Review: Life of Pi is an interesting and enjoyable book. About a boy stranded with a tiger at sea, it does have slow points - particularly in the area of dialogue (as would be expected). However the pacing makes up for the necessary reductions in speed to give an overall fulfilling ride. I give it a solid recommendation with The Secret Life of Bees, Bel Canto, and The Three Junes.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated Hype!
Review: After being exposed to all the hype for some time, I fell to the trap and bought this book. It left me sick at the end with a bad taste in the mouth.
First of all, I found Martel's writing style laborious. I struggled to keep the pages turning. His writing about India is what you would expect from the eye lense of a typical backpacker/hippie who has travelled in India for a few weeks. I hate this superficial arrogance which boasts of having found the essence of India. Even Indians after living a life time in India don't make such tall statements.
The basic story, that of a boy and a tiger surviving together on a life boat after their ship sinks is highly unbelievable to start with. Now I know this is fiction and all make believe. But Martel simply doesn't cut it. I simply can not imagine an Indian family naming their son as Piscine Molitor Patel! Yes that's the name of the boy apparently named so after some stupid swimming pool in Paris! Give me a break!
I simply can not understand why this book got the Booker prize. Anyway after reading another book that got the same prize (God of small things), I suspect to win this prize your book has to have some disgusting things oozing with the ''Bibhatsa rasa''. For example the hints to cannibalism in this book.
Recommendation: Skip it!
PS: I am going to try and find out if I can return this book to the bookstore.
Rating:
Summary: unremarkable patchwork of old and stolen ideas
Review: After reading this book I felt even more sorry for the author than for losing my time. He delivers a lengthy intro with end- and pointless blubbering about religions, coming to true but trivial conlusions. He fills the pages with uninteresting and sometimes plainly wrong "facts" about zoo life and animal behaviour. He steals ideas from other authors (e.g. the carnivorous island is taken from "Bluebear" by W. Moers) and poorly adapts them to his story. The ending is inconclusive and takes a disturbing, non-functional twist. The fantastic odyssee the story has the potential to be is bluntly destroyed by all the pseudo-scientific explanations the author gives to make it "believable". The book made the impression to me as if it was written by an absolute beginner. Nothing new here, just old-fart modules clumsily clumped together into an unremarkable patchwork of old and stolen ideas. What I liked most about the book was the cover picture. I recommend to just look at that picture and fantasize your own story. You will come up with something more interesting and enchanting than what you would read in the book. It is very sad to see how somebody can turn a promising idea into such a sorry piece of literature. For a truly fantastic adventure story, I recommend Walter Moers's "Bluebear".
Rating:
Summary: Amazing, but...
Review: I loved the book and savoured it. But why in hell did the US editor cut out one of the central sentences in the end?
[SPOILER, don't read if you still want to read the book!!]
In the end, Pi asks: Which story do you like better? And when the man answers "The one with the tiger", he states "And so it goes [or "is", can't exactly remember] with God."
This sentence was left out in all US copies I got after a friend told me so. I couldn't believe it. It is in the UK and in the Canada edition, though. Is that true for all copies, or did I just find stupid ones?
For all the rest, an amazing story, and for all unbelieveability, it is written so well you might think it is a true story - regarding, the contents, hard to believe.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely surprising !
Review: Pi, a young anxious boy, is abandoned in a tiny life-boat on the very wide ocean together with an enormous tiger and other animals after a shipwreck, eventually he learns how to master the danger, to tangle with reality and finally how to save his own Life and become un adult. It's very English in style, humour and vocabulary. Among the very best. Doesn't it remind you of Lewis Carrol and "Alice in the Wonderland" ??
I'll certainly read it again.
Rating:
Summary: A decent book, but not worth all the positive hype.
Review: Since it I has been almost a year ago that I read Life of Pi, my review will not be a detailed one. I just want to tell anyone who may begin reading this book that it does move quite slowly in the beginning. If you stick it out, you will be glad you did read it. It leaves everything to the imagination and answers almost nothing. It is not like any other book that I have read, but you will be left with a good feeling in the end.
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