Life of Pi

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: What a refreshing book!!! Very easy to read and thought provoking. How often have we all experienced doubt over known beliefs and questioned accepted facts? Martel presents novel concepts without browbeating or lecturing and makes for an intriging book...very hard to put down!! His knowledge of animal behaviour is impressive as are his descriptions of human reactions.Understandable that he won the Booker prize for this novel!

Rating:
Summary: Respect
Review: This book was a surprise even after reading the reviews and descriptions. Martel created characters, both human and otherwise, who were believable and consistent with themselves and with nature in general. He treats all of his characters with great respect for their natural integrity. I expected at some time an unreal breakthrough, warm and fuzzy, but it never came, as it rarely would in real life. This is not warm and fuzzy! Parts are very brutal, but THE LIFE OF PI is never boring nor predictable. Great book, especially for animal lovers.

Rating:
Summary: Here's hoping you reach the coast of Mexico
Review: There are fundamentally two types of writers (Excepting bad writers, but let's not get into that here).

The first author constructs towering edifices of fiction; enormous, mind-boggling skyscrapers of adjectives, similes, verbs. We can see the paint, the clay, the grout, the sweat and toil that went into the assembly of such works. Thomas Pynchon is the Grand Master Architect. Don DeLillo, David Foster Wallace, James Ellroy and Neal Stephenson are the heirs apparent. These are works of Art with a capital 'A,' leaving you breathless with their sheer craft.

The second author builds quiet, unassuming domiciles, simple shapes that aren't meant to show off the genius of the creator. Through guileless narrative and thoughtful passages, the author reveals the purpose through the story, not its frame. Only later, as the reader mulls the novel over in his or her mind, does the artistry reveal itself, as seemingly unadorned tales unfold with hidden depths and themes. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is the living sensai of this style, writing novels so outwardly innocent that the reader completes the yarn, puts down the book, goes to work at something else, and only then is hit with how elaborate the story honestly was, leaving the reader no option but to utter a muted "Whoa." Paul Auster, W.P. Kinsella, Mordecai Richler, and Stephen King (on his best days) are the best known practitioners.

To this second set, let us add a new member; Canadian author Yann Martel.

Martel's Booker Prize-winning (and, perhaps more importantly, Booker Prize DESERVING) novel LIFE OF PI is a miracle of writing. A story of a young boy adrift at sea, Martel manages to embrace religion, anthropomorphism, family, fantasy, terror, and many other themes within a relatively small package. At its lowliest undistinguished level, it is an adventure story. On another level, it is a treatise on personal reality. On yet another tier, it is an examination of society's arguably misguided attempts to understand our animal friends. Consider it to be Ernest Hemingway's THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA with a greater scope, as if the old man tried to co-exist with his prey in the same small space.

Pi, the titular character, is a young boy growing up in India. His father is the operator of the city zoo, and Pi learns a great deal of the realities of the animal kingdom. While travelling to Canada by sea, Pi is eventually cast adrift in a life boat, alone except for the most unusual travelling companion imaginable, a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

It sounds exceedingly undistinguished, but it works wonders.

To start, Pi himself is a wholly original persona. His full name is Piscine Molitor Patel, the name of a local swimming pool.

(Early on, Pi comments on his luck at his father's choice of aquatic designation; "I might have carried the name, in translation, of Train Station Boulevard Pool Patel or Pool of the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb Patel.")

Confused by the universe, he declares no less than three denominations as his own (Hindu, Islam, and Christianity), much to the consternation of his family and religious leaders. His quest for a meaning in his life extends to his lifeboat, as he is forced to match wits with Richard Parker in order to survive.

Pi's ordeal goes beyond the real into the fantastic. Or, maybe it doesn't. One of the most important matters in LIFE OF PI is the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive. Pi admits that some of his yarn is the product of loneliness and lunacy, but simply because a person can admit a hallucination shouldn't take away from the experience the mirage provided. Perhaps religion is a mirage, but if it helps to survive, why dissuade yourself from its advantages?

These are important issues, but they don't force themselves on the reader. They insinuate themselves naturally into the account, saving their impact for thought and discussion afterward.

It's hard to define a novel such as LIFE OF PI, because it offers so much more than at first appears. Like a Vonnegut novel, it haunts the inner recesses of the mind. Like an Auster novel, it flows off the page like silk in the wind. Like a King novel, it's a hell of a good read. It supplies something for everyone, and opens the mind to possibilities.

Rating:
Summary: Life of Pi
Review: Life of Pi is a vivid and entertaining story of a boy lost at sea. But it did not live up to it claims of "making me believe in god". In fact other than recognizing the boys wide expanse of religious faiths and his miraculously long survival in the Pacific this book sparked little spiritual introspection.

If you want a survival story read this book if you want spiritual enlightenment read the Bhagavad Gita.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful adventure!!
Review: Novels about animals run the risk of over-anthromorphizing the creatures, which can make the book sappy or manipulative (emotionally speaking). Yann Martel's "Life of Pi" manages to craft a story built largely around a 16-year-old boy and a Bengal tiger. Not a fluffy, Tigger-like companion, but a real-life 500 pound, hungry tiger. You're stuck with it on a 23 foot long raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. What do you do?

Martel packs quite a bit into the book: Are zoos awful places? How do you tame tigers? How do you catch fish in the middle of the ocean? Do animals get seasick? Can you be a practicing Christian, Hindu, and Muslim at the same time?

Not only that, Martel writes with a true wit. In describing how the main character's dad ended up going from being a hotelkeeper to a zookeeper, Martel writes: "In many ways, running a zoo is a hotelkeeper's worst nightmare. Consider: the guests never leave their rooms; they expect not only lodging but full board. . . . One has to wait until they saunter to their balconies, so to speak, before one can clean their rooms, and then one has to wait until they tire of the view and return to their rooms before one can clean their balconies; and there is much cleaning to do, for the guests are as unhygienic as alcoholics."

The book sparkles with observations like that, making it very difficult to put down. Once I got into it about a third of the way, I keep reading until I finished it. And that was while I was on vacation in Las Vegas!

Rating:
Summary: A Great Read.
Review: Life of Pi is a refreshing story about survival, human spirit, and perseverance. Martel's voice is fresh and humerous. The story, and Pi's perspective are very thought provoking. I have not read many novels that change the way I look at the world, if only for a short time, and this book has done that. If you have ever found yourself questioning your faith, or denying the exisitence of something more, you will greatly appreciate this story. This is a great book.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Weekend Read, But Not Booker Material
Review: After winning the Booker prize this year, this book has been generating lots of press here, and in Mongolia. While I enjoyed chapter 3, the rest of the chapters were not of the quality I've come to expect from good ole' Yam.

The story begins in a kind of space age Noah's Ark, with a zany host of characters from across the galaxy. After nearly being destroyed by an asteroid, the Ark crashes on a nearby planet. The rest of the story follows a family of Zarks and a family of Bopahs, as they try to survive on the formidable ice world they crashed on. In the end, the story is about redemption, as the youngest Zark learns to love young Christoph Popah.

I spent a weekend reading the book, and while I was entertained, it certainly wasn't what I expected from a Booker prize winner. Better luck next time Yam.

Rating:
Summary: A Deeply Moving Discovery
Review: A boy, a tiger, and the ocean. Let me tell you the true story of how this book led me to a very strange discovery.

I found it in the living room of a friend, when my wife and I were over for his birthday dinner. I have never been a very social person, so while the others were chatting around the fireplace, I started reading Martel's novel. I felt so transposed to a different land, something inside me was awakening to an intensity I did not remember having experienced ever before, and I had to restrain myself from shouting to the group that they should stop their chat and listen to what I would read to them. But then I didn't. I did, however, take "The Life of Pi", of which by then I had already read close to two hundred (of the about three hundred and fifty) pages, home when the evening was over.

The next morning - I swear - my highschool sweetheart, whom I had not seen in 11 years, stood in front of my door, holding a copy of "The Story of Pi" for me. "You have to read this", she said. She had read it herself, and from the scene early in the book where the boy meets his mother on an island, in a very irrational way - because there is no story linking myself or my mother to an island - she could not stop thinking of me. I invited her in, but she had to go, and she said it would be better if I didn't know her address. In the nights that followed, my dreams were filled with scenes of the book, of the tiger that teaches the boy how to love, of the seagull that whispers to him in a woman's voice, and of the band that plays on the other side of the ocean, its songs carried over the water at night.
One week later, I got a note from my ex-girlfriend's (the highschool sweetheart's) sister, informing me that Aline had died in a taffic accident, and that I was included in her will.
Needless to say, I was profoundly sad and shocked.
When the will was read to me, I learned that she had left me her tropical getaway, a rudimentary hut on a pristine beach in southern Sri Lanka. During this year's summer vacation, my wife and I flew there. In the hut, which was looked after by a boy from the fishing village nearby, we found a toy stuffed tiger, as well as an envelope. The postage stamp on the sealed envelope was October 9th, 1961. Inside, there was a note saying that my wife and I (she was mentioned by her maiden name) would stand in this hut near this beach on this day.
Call me at [phone] if you don't believe this story.

Rating:
Summary: A delicious slice of Pi
Review: After reading the Life of Pi I realize that the story is much like a delicious literary pie. The crust or foundation is faith . Pi's faith encompasses three organized religions and demonstrates itself in Pi's limitless love and respect for the animals and nature that surround him. The filling of the literary pie is the astounding ocean adventure where Pi's faith and knowledge of the animal world is put to the ultimate test.The whipped cream of this literary pie are the many questions that leave the reader thinking long after the pie is eaten. Yann Martell is a master chef mixing all the ingredients of great storytelling into a Pi that leaves a sweet taste on the mind.

Rating:
Summary: An advertisement for the 60's
Review: Okay, first I must say, this book reminded me of my younger years...when I always seemed to be confused and lost in this big world. Never knowing who to turn to for help, until I found religion. The 60's were the best time to live, everything was free (much like this book was to me)...and the Acid, oh the 'cid. It was my saviour!

I guess this is why I related to this book so well, it's like the author was reading my mind during the 60's, taking notes as I experienced life...either that or Martel was stoned and hallucinating in a basement somewhere when writing this book.

Pi, the main character, is a pretty sweet little kid, sitting in a lifeboat with a bloody tiger. A TIGER! Who would have thought of that?

As Pi and the tiger travel across the ocean, they experience a multitude of assinine adventures and realizations. None more blatantly crude than the bludgeoning death of the poor Zebra for the simple, sarcastic comment "eat me".

I would recommend this book if you are seeking to revive your glory days with your drug of choice, however, if you are expecting to read this book and actually finish it without puking, I'd suggest taking Gravol at regular intervals.