Rating: 
Summary: Hanging On !
Review: Though slow moving at times, this was a really good story of survival. I liked the characters and their struggles on the raft, and I liked the ending. I rate it almost as good as The Adventures of Archie Reynolds, by Gifford Bailey, and Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K. Rowling.
Rating:
Summary: Bold
Review: I found "Life of Pi" to be alternatelly comic, tragic, haunting, disturbing, enlightening and depressing. While by no means a chore to read, it was draining on your emotions: it runs the gamut through all sort of feelings. When the animals on the boat start killing each other off, it's disturbing. When Pi finally catches a fish, it's inspiring. The discovery of the supposed floating utopia is hope-inducing. His grisly revelation on the floating island is scary. Richard Parker running off into the jungle without goodbye is depressing. I hope I didn't give the book away, but I think these events and the feelings they conjure perfectly illustrate the boldness of this book. Very unique, "Life of Pi" is a very compelling read. I'm surprised if you haven't read it already.
Rating:
Summary: This is not a review but a comment
Review: Please can you take the name of the tiger (Richard Parker) OUT of the description of the book 'Life of Pi'- it ruins one of the most wonderful surprises if you know the tigers IS Richard Parker (since the book describes him as if he is a man for the first several chapters!). I notice none of the customers reviews have mentioned his name (and it's purposefully not in the book description on the back cover). Please it's such a spoiler if you know!
Rating: 
Summary: doxie007
Review: I will get right to the point -- to me, reading this novel was like reading a transcript of someone's nightmare. Although I usually agree with critics, I do not see what all of the commotion is concerning Life of Pi. I finished reading within three days, only because it really bothers me not to finish something I started... and maybe I had some hope that the book would turn out to be worth the money I spent on the hardcover version. I would not recommend this novel to anyone, in fact, I would warn them against it!!
Rating:
Summary: great start
Review: I loved the beginning of this book. It was great. I liked the information about animals and religions. However, as soon as Pi got stranded in the ocean, this book took a nosedive. It became boring and vey gory. When I finished it, I felt an intense hatred toward the second part. I even ripped it in half and threw it out. However, the beginning was wonderful.
Rating: 
Summary: Not that great
Review: This book 100 pages to get to the story and is not really worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST-HAVE BOOK!
Review: It seems that the Life of Pi is a culmination and the story of the Life of People. Our journey through life is filled with wonderful and dangerous events, death, fear and pain, yet it is difficult to convince ourselves, even with religion, that what we have is truly what we need to survive - however little and odd that may be.
As a reader, I felt sad and joyful when I closed the back cover, but I was left with a touch of wonder streaming through my mind. Are our lives just as strange? Do we like Pi and like the mathematical symbol go on surviving randomly from day to day, holding our ever present fears, our Bengal Tigers, under some semblance of control? When will we reach the shores of survival so our fears will vanish in the woods, never to be seen again? I purchased this book through Amazon.com right after another great purchase, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez, about an unlucky writer addicted to the personals. Both are intense, recommended books. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: So very good! (except the abrupt ending!)
Review: I really enjoyed this book and was disappointed to see such an abrupt ending... but not so much so that I cannot give the overall story 5 stars. My favorite sections of the book were when Pi lived in India and described his life and his fascination with religion. I so much enjoyed the descriptions of the three religions that Pi practiced: Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. I loved how Pi did not see the three as mutually exclusive. The "meat" of the story comes when Pi is shipwrecked and lives for 227 days on a 26-foot life boat with an adult Bengal tiger, named Richard Parker. At first he deathly afraid of the carnivore, and begins to plot how he can kill the tiger. I was so happy to see Pi accept Richard Parker's existence, and realize that he needed him there in order to keep himself alive. Like I mentioned above, the end wrapped up quickly, I could have seen the story go quite a but further. Yet, I loved the overall tale...It read very quickly and was much like a fable mixed in with elements of "Worst Case Scenario".
Rating: 
Summary: Not the greatest circus on earth
Review: When I began this book, I was confident that I had stumbled on something innovative and clever. It began as a heartwarming novel that promised to reassert my faith in God and to dispell of my cynical views on life. The language and descriptive passages were sincere and charming. There were some moments of great humour. My spirits flagged and soared along with the endearing Pi's. When the background of the book shifted from colourful, sensual India to the expansive, blank Pacific, its momentum began to wain. It collapsed in on itself annoyingly near the end of the book and brought the rest of the story with it. It somehow reminded me of a childs essay where it was "all just a dream". Granted, the wide open sea is not exactly the perfect canvas to keep a novel afloat unless you have an interest in marine life. It encompassed all the best components of Garcia Marquez and the irritating absurdity of a Beckett play. I thought it unnecessary and misleading for the author to inject the two Japanese characters to explain the significance of the animals in the boat. Insulting to the reader even. I am curious as to the purpose of this novel. Was the author trying to demonstrate the triumph of the will? Perhaps the importance of the imagination and the necessity of belief, no matter if it is in a god or science? Was it just some rhetorical questions that no one can answer? Because of the ending, if the book had made a conclusion some 200 pages earlier I would have been a lot happier. Still, it is worth a read if you enjoyed Robinson Crusoe or Dr. Dolittle on a more aquatic scale.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow
Review: This book is O.K., but a slow read. It was not the type of book that pulled me in.
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