Rating: 
Summary: A real disappoint, especially after the reviews
Review: This is a classic case of overpromising and underdelivering. After reading some of the rave reviews here, we chose this book for our reading club, since it seemed to include a number of different themes and ideas for discussion. Unfortunately, it proved to be rather thin on both counts. One of the real disappointments was the lack of real, substantial religion and faith in this book. Pi is described as a boy who is drawn to his native Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam simulatneously. But there is no mention of what draws him, aside from a couple of nice men, and pretty accoutrements. No mention of what each religion was lacking which drew him to the others, or how he reconciled their contradictory elements. And this is just one of many disappointments. Worth reading. But don't expect too much.
Rating: 
Summary: A tale of survival, but...
Review: ...not the kind of survival it seems to be about on the surface. Yes, the protagonist survives a shipwreck and a long time adrift in a lifeboat. But the book is not about how he survived the actual disaster; it is about how he continues to survive now, adrift on the sea of the rest of his life, accompanied by the tiger of memory, which he barely controls with the red whistle of imagination... As other reviewers noted, the real meaning of the book is not revealed (and then only indirectly) in the final chapter. The achievement of Yann Martel is that he is able to present a veritable three-ring circus of vivid detail to keep us entertained while we drift toward that final revelation. As in any circus, some of the acts don't come off. Among the things that did not work for me: Martel's occasional writerly intrusions, as when he archly points out that he's telling the story in precisely 100 (quite arbitrary) chapters. And the whole interlude on the floating island has no purpose, in my opinion, other than to help him reach the count of 100. (The floating island is a finely-realized piece of imaginary botany, yes, which would fit perfectly in a hard-SF novel, but this isn't one; Martel should have kept it in his drawer for another book.) And there are places where Martel's clearly extensive and detailed research is just too evident. Some of the set-piece lectures on animal psychology etc. are expository lumps that don't go down smoothly. Finally, the whole peripheral business about God and belief is, so far as I can tell, simply not in the book at all -- just projections by hopeful readers onto an elusive work. The book is "about" the psychology of survival; the part that is played in that by the protagonist's religion is minimal.
Rating: 
Summary: gore and more gore
Review: I was so disappointed in this book. After reading so many positive reviews, I ran right out and purchased it. It was one of the few books I forced myself to finish as I kept telling myself there had to some redeeming quality. After reading about a goat being given in sacrifice to a large predator to teach children a lesson, a zebra with a broken leg being eaten alive from the inside out and a detailed description of collecting and eating tiger feces by Pi, thie book left me COLD!!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but not a favorite
Review: Although creative, this book was not one of my favorites. It was EXTREMELY slow to start. Other than establishing Pi's personality, the religious theme did not seem to fit with the rest of the book. Ironically, the story turned to a plot of "Survival of the fittest", more about evolution than religion. Although I understand the realism of "Survival of the fittest", the graphic descriptions re: the animals being destroyed bothered me. Pi was a brave and resourceful character, but overall, I struggled to get through this book. I read it in a week, and was very happy to finish it.
Rating: 
Summary: Pi is a story of survival
Review: Pi is a story of great imagination. By this I refer not only to the writer Martel, but also Pi. Pi has survived insurmountable tragedy, flipped from the frying pan into the fire. Instance after instance he must think of ways to live, and reasons to live. Using clever devices Martel shows us there is indeed a happy ending, but watching Pi's journey you are made to ask how is it possible? How does he overcome so much sadness, loneliness, and loss? How is it that life bestows us gifts that we cannot recognize until much later? I found The Life of Pi to be magical. It starts out lighthearted, with Pi exploring the various meanings of life in a humorous sequence that questions why we have to commit to any one religion. Pi wants to taste them all! He has reverence for life! And as it turns out, this youthful curiosity is never abandoned -- it has saved him. As the story progresses, and Pi is challenged on so many levels, the story turns naturally darker. We wonder if by the very nature of his youth and his experiences at the zoo that he is able to survive. Perhaps that is another test. Ultimately Pi is saved by his imagination. Or is he? The boy with the pastoral life that is suddenly swallowed by horror and loneliness must learn to cope. But after all, Pi has a old black and white picture, and in the background, in a cage, is Richard Parker.
Rating:
Summary: Tiger and the Deep Blue Sea
Review: Yann Martel's vibrant novel, narrated in vernacular is the story of sixteen year old Indian boy, Piscine Molitar Patel, who is cast away in the Pacific Ocean as the Canada bound ship transporting his family along with their Pondicherry Zoo sinks. Far from being another cliched survivalist story, Pi is accompanied on the lifeboat by a hyena, an orang-utan, a zebra and a tiger named Richard Parker. Pi watches in amazement as the hyena first devours the zebra and then the orang-utan, only to be defeated by the more feral predator, the tiger. Pi's struggle for survival is compounded by the terror of the tiger - a battle of intellect against instinct. Using every available resource, Pi must act intellegently and quickly to keep the ferocious animal at bay while withstanding marine inclemency. Deceptively simple, the tale bespeaks existential realities with unpretentious panache. Martel chooses to prove the existence of God in an era when postmodernists, evolutionary biologists, astronomers and fiction writers are convinced of the opposite - the abrogation of Ultimate Reality by cold Reason. Yet, Reason says Martel is nothing but 'fool's gold'. Belief in 'dry, yeastless factuality' robs us of the faculty to perceive the 'better story'. If the world is a story-like construct diffusing the line between the real and fictive, reason is a poor substitute to God as our mainstay. Martel's God is 'as secular as ice cream' indicated by the diverse religious predilections of the protagonist. The query as to which religion is true becomes redundant. With a boying sense of humor, Martel is revulsively even horrifically entertaining. Martel's breathtaking realism constitutes meticulous detail about animal behavior and interaction. castaway survivalism and overarching human intellect removed from base imperatives that reduce human to animal. The antithetical marriage of the factual and imaginative, the practical and spiritual is crystallized in the form of zoology-religion intermix. Memorable scenes involve the hyena preying upon the injured zebra; the tiger inquisitively fencing a shark, Pi's urge to drink his own urine and later taste the tiger's feces. Towards the end, Martel sways to Beckett-like dialogue in a coincidental encounter with a blind Frenchman whose cannabalistic designs on Pi are dashed by Richard Parker's silent attack. Absurdism is preceded by a near magic realist experience on an island of floating carnivorous algae which has a Biblical connotation of the loss of innocence in the Book of Genesis. Earlier Martel comments that animals provide a mirror to humans. As Pi consequently becomes more ferocious than Richard Parker, it is the preservation of human sanity that finally guarantees his triumph over adversity. Understanding and manipulating the ways of nature make Pi reign sovereign. The novel shines with original and refreshing similes. The event significance dictating chapter length adds cadence to narrative, which is punctuated by the author tracing back Pi in modern day Toronto as he rearranges his memories on sea. Many novelists painstakingly research their novels, yet few have the capability of fitting information from mismatching domains into perfect jigsaw. Martel transcends with this skill by endowing it with a finale that emphasizes that detail without meaning is purposeless. Indeed, Martel's fundamental idea is not wholly innovative but burrowed from Moacyr Sclair's Max and the Cats (1990). Sclair's book devouts a few pages describing a young German man trapped in a lifeboat with a jaguar, with the purpose to satirize Nazism. This resulted in fervent objections from Brazilians against Pi's Canadian author. Nevertheless, Martel's recycling and rewriting of Sclair's theme escapes any indictment of plagiarism and was given the much deserved Man Booker Prize in 2002, which quelled the controversy. Excellent reading!
Rating:
Summary: Symbolism and Science
Review: Life of Pi was a beautifully written story that ranks top on my list of favorite books. Laced with religious and scientific symbolism and numerous hilarious incidents that will leave you tearstained with a sideache, this book makes for a comedy, a tragedy, and a wild adventure you'd never deem possible.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful journey but little bit slow
Review: Yann Martel's survival book is a story told by a teenage boy's point of view.Sometimes funny, sometimes cynical but generally fun to read.I found the development of the book little bit slow.It may have done on purpose to have given the sense of boredom on the Pacific.Anyways I had a great time reading it.
Rating:
Summary: magical, confounding, and brilliant
Review: Most of you who are considering buying this book right now already know that _Life of Pi_ is about a boy and a bengal tiger adrift in a lifeboat. That fabulous premise is reason enough to read it, but as you begin, you will soon realize that the novel goes much deeper. Pi (short for Piscine, which means "swimming pool" in French) is introduced as a boy in India learning about the animals in his father's zoo and delving fully into three separate religions. He already seems adrift, but the family's venture across the Pacific in order to move to Canada doesn't happen until page 90. And yes, much of the Pondicherry Zoo accompanies them in cages, but headed to different destinations (various zoos in the United States). This is definitely a review in which I don't want to say too much, but the ship does sink, and Richard Parker the tiger isn't the only animal to reach the lifeboat. In fact, there are days of struggle before the "crew" is reduced to only two. And I have to admit that I had cozy images of the young boy curled up with the tiger, the open ocean forcing them to hang on to each other for comfort. But as surprising as it may seem, this is a realistic book. Richard Parker remains exactly what he is: a very hungry, thirsty, and sickly 450 pound carnivore. Only by utilizing what he has learned by studying animals can Pi keep from being torn to shreds. But as for surviving the ocean... both Pi and Richard Parker have a lot ahead of them. I was fascinated and transported by this beautiful book which is presented as a true story (part of the mystery is that I still don't know whether it is). My favorite section has to do with a tactile discovery the two make while still on the open sea; the ending of the novel leaves the reader possibly frustrated and definitely wanting more. However, things never stop happening as they would REALLY happen, truly amazing in a novel which on the surface seems so much like fantasy. Read it for the plot, read it for the Martel's poetic writing style, read it to learn about animals. But definitely read it. You won't really understand until you do.
Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking
Review: While not a book "to make you believe in God," as is claimed in the text, it will make you think . . . and leave you wondering about the nature of truth, and the criteria you use to evaluate truth-claims. Definitely worth reading, and keeping on your shelf for later browsing.
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