Life of Pi

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Summary: Exotic and Magical Survival Story
Review: This is the story of Pi Pate, teenage son of a zookeeper, who survives a shipwreck and is left adrift with a small menagerie of animals, including a Bengal tiger. Simply put: what makes it work is the elegance of the writing, which, page after page, is a wonder. All I can say is: if you read the first five pages of this novel you will be hooked! A rare literary page-turner. I recommend it highly. Also recommended: [e-mail] by Tom Grimes, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez

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Summary: Shows how great fiction can be!!
Review: This book was wonderful. I loved the character development and the pace of the book. It really makes you think and reconsider the whole cast of characters at the end. Great read. Don't miss this one.

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Summary: A mad notion, made totally believable.
Review: The Life of Pi is an engaging and endearing tale. Son of a zoo-keeper, Pi Patel finds himself in a lifeboat with a fully grown Royal Bengal Tiger. Adrift on the expanse of the Pacific Ocean he has no choice but to share the accommodation and make do with the arrangement. The subsequent relationship of boy and tiger makes for fascinating reading.

The book is an exploration of the gamut of human emotions. It runs from abject terror, through horror, disgust, innocent joy, excitement, resolution, defeat, boredom and so on. Primary among the emotions examined are the nature of fear, and the resolve of purpose. The author examines how fear can be our salvation or our undoing, it can kill us or save us.

By the end of the book we think we understand Pi Patel and his tiger, but Yann Martel throws us a final twist in the tale, which makes us question all our assumptions again.

Having read many of the accounts of survival on the ocean by sailors I can say that the life aboard this boat is accurately portrayed down to the finest detail. Along the journey you learn a little about zoos and zoo keeping, the habits of animals and the art of survival at sea. This is a great read, poignant, funny, bizarre and believable.

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Summary: Tigers, and People, and Religion -- Oh My!
Review: If you have not already done so, do not read reviws, etc. that discuss in detail what this book is about. Instead, do yourself a favor and just start to read it. The less you know (people and reviews give too much away!), the more you will be entertained and enthralled by what this book has to offer. There seems to be a bit of discussion about the religious aspects of the book, but, it isn't really about that, so if religion is not your forte, you will pleased by taking the time to read this book. The fact that hundreds of reviewers have given it a 4+ star rating is indication that it is not just a good book but a great book. There is something in this book for everyone. It is clearly one of the best I have read this year and one that is an especially good choice for a book group to read and discuss.

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Summary: read it and know it
Review: I think its a long time since I came along a book which made me reflect so much. I bought this book by chance coz i saw it in a local book store and immediately fancied the cover. I ordered it as soon as i switched on the pc. I had no idea what to expect and had heard or read nothing about it. Its just superb. Its hard to describe to other persons. The way things are described is so overwhelming, that i had to stop at times and take deep breaths. The way Pi can transform the one thing that could delete him completely into a neccecity for survival is just undescribable. The author manages to describe things so clearly you could just taste and feel all that is happening. I laughed and cried at the same time more then once. How life could transform you and make you adjust to anything, in order to survive is just amazing. Just order it and absorbe every sentence, every word. It is definately one of those books i will be returning to often and often. There are whole paragraphs i have read for more then a dozen times, just for pure pleasure. Its all about priorities. Its full of food for taught....its not just a book to read, but to have.

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Summary: Simply Enchanting...
Review: The Life of Pi is one of those books that brings back life into the reader. The skinny indian boy finds himself alone with a 450 pound Tiger on a lifeboat after he lost his family in a ship wrek while trying to travel from India to Canada. The existence of the tiger keeps Pi going with his long days, not because they become best friends but not wanting to be lonely through the days and nights forces him to approach his disaster differently.

Once you start the trip with Pi, you can't stop. You always wonder what will happen next, and finally when you finish you start going back to earlier details to live it again.

It is strange how relationships start, and end. It is strange how we find comfort in things we never expect, and it is even more strange how we force life to go on sometimes without being convinced...

Pi wished he did things differnetly at the end, but don't we all sometimes?

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Summary: Aspiring writers please take note!
Review: Finally, a writer and a book without pretentious and over wrought descriptions, metaphors and similes that all too often serve to hide a larger void in the characters and/or plot. Martel is a wonderful storyteller who interjects humor in such a way that his characters and situations become incredibly accessible and a joy to read. As if that weren't enough, the amazingly clever story and the final unsolvable puzzle are brilliant and ultimately human.

I'm not sure what book I will read next - I am sure to be disappointed.

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Summary: Go Mad to Stay Sane
Review: What a wonderful and thought provoking book Mr. Martel has produced. I cannot think of another book to which it can be compared, a fact that makes it a very unique piece of literature.

Through the precociousness of the title character, Pi Patel the reader is introduced to some vivid opinions on human and animal behaviior. As I read the book I found myself re-evaluating some long held opinions regarding zoos and the adaptability of animals.

Mr. Martels descriptions of life aboard a raft reminded me of how open spaces can often be the most claustrophobic.

More than anything the novel exists as a testimony to the purety of the human heart and how a suspension of disbelief can be liberating. Events do not necessarily have to be substantive to have real meaning for our lives. At times it may be necessary to go "mad" to remain "sane."

Aside from some vivid descriptions of violence, this book is suitable for a variety of ages, from teenagers on up. I recommend it to any reader who wants to stay in touch with their love of creativity, a part of our soul that is often extinguished.

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Summary: Myths and Survival
Review: More than three centuries ago, Jean de La Fontaine wrote that "fables show us the truth under the guise of lies [my translation]" (Le Dépositaire infidèle, IX, 1). This is particularly the case with stories that feature talking animals.

However, as a fable, Life of Pi goes further than the truth/lie dichotomy in that Martel's novel points to the importance of myths not only in making sense of what cannot be explained, but also, as a tool for survival. Pi and Richard Parker, the Royal Bengal tiger with whom he shares his lifeboat, survive at sea for 227 days finally to land on a Mexican beach.

Questioned by officials about the demise of the Japanese cargo ship that left two survivors only, Pi and Richard Parker, the 450-pound tiger, Pi proposes two accounts of the sinking of the Tsimtsum and lets the Japanese officials (the reader) choose which of the two accounts, the one with animals or the other, without animals, they want to believe. Both investigators, Mr. Chiba and Mr. Okamoto decide to believe "[t]he story with animals." Reason might have it that the story without animals is the more believable, yet how can one disagree with the investigators? The first story, the one with animals, is indeed the "better story" and perhaps the truer.
Life of Pi tells about the power of 'stories' and, by extension, that of the human imagination, where myths are born. This novel may be "all about storytelling" (The Globe and Mail) But the heart might have it that Life of Pi is all about myths (faith) as the ultimate source of sustenance. Only a tiger-at-heart could survive Pi's ordeal.
The distinction between humans and animals is tenuous and truth, mostly overrated. To return to La Fontaine, truth is often best and most convincingly presented wrapped in lies.
Life of Pi is to a certain extent a retelling of the Bible's rather fanciful Noah's Ark 'story.' And if Mr. Okamoto thinks the story with animals is the "better story," as Pi says, "so it goes with God." He may well be right.
Life of Pi is a landmark. Enjoy!

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Summary: Mediocre
Review: I went along with all the paparazzi and hype concerning this book after it won the Booker Prize and decided to give it a try. Although I sort of liked it, I certainly wouldn't read it again, and I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone buying it. It is an interesting read, but it has a horrible sense of pacing. The beginning starts slow, then a long way afterwards picks up in time for the boating accident, and then draaaaags up until it's rather anti-climatic (and I suppose rather obvious) ending.

And during that viscous flow of time that occurs for the body of the story, too much ink was wasted on describing, and then elucidating the narrator's feelings, which never vary from sadness and despair. As a result, the good bits of the book which were few and far inbetween were drowned in maudlin synonyms of 'desperation', 'depression' and other such words. Due to this, the book failed to impart any emotional impression on me, except for giving me this faint, niggling sense of impatience.

In conclusion? Borrow this book from a library and read it to get a sense of the mile-post of mediocrity the latest Booker Prize winning book has passed. All this is consistent with the present trend, and I suppose the Judges didn't have much of a choice. None of the other books were much better. Trust me, I read them all.