Rating: 
Summary: Very enjoyable
Review: You will enjoy this adventurous book tremendously. It is hard to put down and has a wonderful twist at the end. It will take you on a spiritual journey of a young man and recount his story (fact or fiction?) of dealing with a dramatic event in his life. I loved it and have shared it with family and friends.
Rating:
Summary: A trip to remember, or a trip to creatively remember.
Review: I was a bit concerned in the beginning that I was going to be bored with the story and the writing. Martel entertains his audience by being Pi from every level of his life, from a small boy in an Indian Zoo, a teen surviving all odds on a life boat with a Tiger, named Richard Parker, to an adult man living his life in Canada. When Pi "discovers" Richard Parker on the life boat this proves to be the crucial moment of self preservation. This book is more than a beach read because of the opportunity it gives the reader to decide what the truth really is. I wish I could meet Pi Patel and thank him for leading such an exciting life.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Story of the Human Condition
Review: Beyond the seemingly "far-out" plot of this book, is a tender, sometimes terrifying tale of the human condition. This is one of those rare books that makes you think while it entertains you. Someone once told me a "great book is one that you remember long after you read it." This is one of those books. The first half drags a bit -- but stay with it! You'll be glad you did.
Rating: 
Summary: It's good, but not that good.
Review: Everybody else here seems to have enjoyed this book much more than I did. I thought the story was good, and his writing style is captivating, but it's a very simple story and doesn't actually take too much reader involvement. This is the kind of book you can put down for a few weeks and pick up right where you left off without actually missing it. There are many better shipwreck stories than this one, and the ending was just kind of blah. I don't recommend it for anything more than a beach read.
Rating:
Summary: Life of....Oh my!
Review: I gave "The Life of Pi" three stars, because I was unable to finish it. That does not mean that I do not want to finish reading it - I do. I would not really recommend this book for any "light summer reading." However, I find the book to be powerful and parallel to the theme in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." What happens to the social order of all beings when in isolation? It is a question that is asked again and again, and I look forward to finishing Martel's novel in the winter!
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable
Review: I won't rate a book until after I finish it and a few weeks have gone by. For me, a truly great book is one that seeps back into your mind even after you've moved onto the next one. This is such a book.Not only is this an engaging tale (beware of reading this on your vacation, or you could miss the whole thing), but the book makes you consider such philosophical questions like: - Are zoos a good idea? Who benefits from them?
- Which religion is right? Can they all be right, or does one exclude the others?
- What separates humans from animals?
- What makes life worth living? A book that keeps my nose faithfully between its pages while being read, and makes my mind dwell weeks later, is a book I'd recommend to anyone. One of the most engaging I've read in a long, long time.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic book
Review: I simply loved this book.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping and beautifully written.
Review: Several reviewers have stated that Life of Pi was slow and a hard read. This is sad testament to the decay of American literacy and the onset of a culture wide case of ADD. Life of Pi is a beautifully written fable that pulls the reader into a wonderful world where a boy and a tiger can develop a symbiotic relationship and possibly a mutual admiration. The young man is thrown overboard in a storm from a freighter taking him and his family to Canada with (almost) a zoo full of exotic animals. Armed only with his wits and a survival kit stowed under a seat Pi manages to eek out an existence for himself and the male Bengal Tiger stranded on board with him. The pace is slow, but in the way that Hitchcock movies started slowly. Palpable fear and suspense seep off of every page. Readers take delight in the small event of Pi catching his first fish and shudder with dread after the secret of the island he is washed ashore on is revealed. The fact that the story is told in flashback shows that the young man survives, but it is the process of living and belief that deliverance will come that are the compelling reasons to keep turning these pages. Life of Pi was easily the smartest and most life affirming book I've read in a number of years and I plan on sharing it with as many folks as I can. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy today.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: Life of Pi is an extraordinary book with a lot of thought-provoking themes that do not come through until the end of the book. A wonderful read that I raced through in a day on the plane and that kept me up the following night while my brain tried to work through various spots in the book. I particularly enjoyed the questions posed by the book at the end, they are intended to make you think on deeper levels and expose you to what the author may or may not have been trying to get across. I highly recommend this book for everyone!
Rating: 
Summary: A genuinely exciting adventure story
Review: This book reminds me of Moby Dick in several ways. The most obvious reason is that the setting for much of the story is the high seas, but there is more. While it is an exciting adventure story of survival and exploration, it also teaches you all sorts of interesting things about a particualar profession. In the case of Moby Dick, you learn about the profession of whaling. In Life of Pi you learn about zookeeping, since the protagonist is from a family of zookeepers. And it is more interesting than you might imagine, even if you are not particularly an animal lover. I do highly recommend the book. You will get more than your money's worth in entertainment value. The only reason I didn't give it five stars (which I would only give a near-perfect masterpiece) was on account of one isolated chapter that I thought stretched the limits of plausability just a little too far, and because the philosophical-religious element of the book seemed to just trail off for the most part about halfway through the story. The religious element is basically that the main character wants to follow several different religions at the same time, which is of course not normally done. This theme remains interesting in the first half of the book, but after that it does not develop much beyond the character continuing to have the same ideas he started out with. The author's greatest accomplishment with the book is the way it is alternately suspenseful, funny, brutal, and thoughtful. Many authors have tried to mix genres like this, but Martel is one of the few who can actually pull it off well.
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