Rating: 
Summary: WoW!
Review: This is one of the most powerful novels I have ever read. It begins with a section that builds up the main character flawlessly. Then it shifts to wonderfully written story of survival, exploring almost every angle of human nature in the face of adversity. It delves into relationships in the most interesting of ways, and makes one think twice about their own. The third and final section of the book brings a bit of
a twist in the plot; it left me enjoying the book in it's entirity even more. It is one of those feel good
books, which I could not put down...Buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Life of Pi is one of the best books I've ever read. I was captivated throughout. Pi has so much faith and hope that I think (maybe) some of it rubbed off on me. Everyone should read this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Kind of entertaining
Review: The life of Pi is an entertaining read, with beautiful imagery and description. I do not consider it masterful, though. As a parable it has some interesting elements (e.g. Pi being his mind's ring-master), but it spends inordinate amounts of time on detail irrelevant to the message. The final conclusion seems to be that the world is a terrible place and we are justified to make up our gods so we can (a) escape reality, (b) indulge ourselves to embellishment or (c) make it easier to tolerate.
Neither are convincing arguments (not that any real arguments are mounted in the book), although I have some sympathy with (c), since our experience reality is subjective.
Rating:
Summary: Logically, It Should Make You Believe In God
Review: Some people have criticised the book and the author for being a bit bold in stating that the story could make you believe in God. I have read reviews that stated that while the story did make certain readers sympathize for Pi and marvel in his tale, they wernt convinced of the whole God thing. This is a definate error in logic. First off, I am NOT a religious person. However, this story is written in a manner that you either accept version A or version B (if you have read you know what I am talking about. if not, dont worry it will not ruin the journey). If you accept, or at least hope to beleive in, version A, (which I am sure you have or will after reading), then logically, you should believe in a God of some sort. Your acceptence of v. A is no different than if you were to believe in the New Testament or the Koran or what have you The reason is simple. The storys point is that of faith, not religion, so do not be turned off by what I am saying. Its more of a spirtiutal thing and a lesson in logic and faith. It gives you options, it leaves the ball in your court. If you believe in A, then it would not be logically sound for you to reject in God. Your logic would be flawed. Version A and God are the same thing in a way. Not being religious, this was an intersting way for it to be pointed out to me. The story is more of a trick really, Like a Socratic dialectic. You believe in "something A" at first, but after answering certain logical questions posed in carefully constructed ways, you end up realizing that only the opposite of what you believed can be true. Anyway, the point is, the statement in the inside flap is not audacious. Its actually the whole metaphor of the book. Read it and then ask yourself this: "Am I logically flawed for not believing in God"
Rating: 
Summary: a draining read
Review: Life of Pi proved to be a dissappointing read. I started out with promise, but it was not particularly well written and, in fact, came off as Salman Rushdie light. The author broached some interesting emotional and spiritual themes, but failed to carry them throughout the plot. After following Pi's struggle for survival, I wished for greater resolution and meaning in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Fear cannot defeat you
Review: On Page 161 of Life of Pi, Yann Martel writes an amazing passage on fear and our will to defeat it: "I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know . . . One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy .... Your anxiety becomes dread ... real fear, such as shakes you to your foundation . . seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it. So you must fight hard to express it. . ." Throughout Life of Pi, Pi Patel is faced with massive fear and he works diligently to fight it. Sometimes, he goes through motions that he does not think about in order to defeat his fear (of dying at sea, being eaten by Richard Parker, the 450 pound Bengal Tiger; Pi lost his whole family when the ship on which they were traveling, from India to Canada, sank; he miraculously survives on a lifeboat with the tiger). How many of us have faced incredible and excruciating fear that we thought we could never get through? Reading Life of Pi reminds me of the great story of Sir Richard Shackleton's survival in the Antarctic in 1914. Shackleton was middle-aged and Pi is a young man, but both had guts that proves to all of us that no matter how bad the fear and self-doubt become, somehow we can defeat these awful feelings, and can do it when we are feeling totally at sea. This is an life giving story and one that has beautiful descriptions of the sea and the creatures Pi lives with during his 227 day travail of survival.
Rating:
Summary: Chinese dinner book
Review: I qualify this book as a 'Chinese Dinner Book:
I know I've read a book, I just don't feel like I've read a book. The premise of the book was very interesting, and it was full of vivid detail and the right mix of fact and whimsy. I found myself loving the character of Pi, as really feeling a sense of understanding this character because we journey with him during this growth. That being said...there were a lot of times I felt this was a very disjointed novel, and the story sometimes let my mind wander...which isn't good for a novel. By the time I finished, it was like 'OK...I know a character...but what's the story?' I can't recommend this unless you have an airtight attention span.
Rating: 
Summary: Erm... were we reading the same book?
Review: I felt compelled to write because so many of the other reviews seem to have missed the whole point. I don't wish to give away the ending but in the last ten pages or so the author neatly punctures all the tales of derring do and tiger-management that have gone before with an alternative take on Pi's life at sea.
Rather than bringing the reader closer to god, Martel is lampooning the insufficiency of organised religion to deal with extreme situations. Young Pi is forced to abandon his vegetarian, egalitarian, humanitarian gentility and draw upon the darkest aspects of his nature including murder and cannibalism (choices which adherents to Pi's adopted trinity of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity are technically prohibited from) to realise the one true religion of self-preservation.
After the enjoyably preposterous tales of life at sea with a bengal tiger named Richard, the book was saved for me and made memorable by the revelations of Pi's alternative story.
Rating:
Summary: Magic
Review: If there is only the first boy-and-tiger story, this book immediately reduces to a cheap adventure and it can not be a candidate and winner of Booker award. However, with the horrible, but more plausible, man-eat-man man-kill-man second story, you wonder what is the meaning of life and what is the intention of God. It's magic.
Rating:
Summary: A story of many journeys
Review: This book is timeless. It will take you on many journeys. Some you will like...some you will not. But, in the end it will bring you home. Home to your God.
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