Rating: 
Summary: Life of Pi
Review: I began reading Life of Pi while sleeping at a friend's house. I picked it up shortly before bed, thinking I would read a few pages, and, if it was good, I would ask to borrow it in the morning. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.The novel begins with a man telling the author that he has a story "which will make you believe in God." This is a tall order to fill, and I think it was this promise that kept me reading past the book's initial slowness. By the time I finished Life of Pi, it was 3:00am and I was blown away by the depth of what I had just read. As many reviewers have said, the book leaves the reader with a choice of which reality to believe, and I stayed up the rest of the night pondering the ending.
The book had promised to "make you believe in God." Here, and only here, was I dissapointed. I felt no different about God at the end of the book. What I did feel differently about was religion and the way different people interpreted God. But religion is not God, and the book fell painfully short of its promise. But PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't let that stop you from reading the book. It is a little slow to start off, as the narrator relates the early childhood of Pi. While this was mildly entertaining, I found myself wanting to skip ahead to "the good stuff." The "good stuff," in this case, is what I would call Act 2 of the book. Long story short, Pi's family is moving to Canada, their boat sinks, Pi ends up on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, and a full-grown Royal Bengal tiger. Soon all the animals have killed one another off, with the exception of Pi and Richard Parker, the tiger. This sets the stage for "the good stuff:" the story of Pi's survival. Yann Martel's style is fresh and engaging. His use of language and sentence structure is very modern, and occasionally doesn't quite fit together. But overall it is very stylishly written. Some have complained that the book is too violent. There are graphic descriptions of killings, feedings, and the rot that follows. Yes, the book is violent, but so is life. Anyone who was expecting a story of this caliber without violence was expecting a Disney version of life, a version which is, frankly, untrue. But the book stays true to reality (or as close as possible) even as it ventures into the absurd.
This book was excellent. It turned out to be my favorite kind of book: the one you can read over and over. Buy a hardcover copy, becuase it will get plenty of use. SPOILER ALERT!!!
There are two stories we can believe at the end of this book: the one with the tiger and the one without. Personally, I chose to believe the one with the tiger, and I'll tell you why. First of all, Pi has to think before he can tell the non-tiger story. It seemed to me that he was making up a story that would please the two Japanese men, and not one that was truthful. But I think that I also chose to believe the tiger story because it's more beautiful, it's more engaging, and because I loved Richard Parker. It seemed a shame to erase him from existence. But, as it has been said, the choice is up to the reader, and it is a wonderful novel either way.
Rating:
Summary: Life of Pi is a work of masterpiece!
Review: Life of Pi is the kind of book that makes you yearn for more. As you flip through each page...the excitement that Martel builds carrys on and elevates till the last word of the book. Life of Pi is about an Indian boy who discovers the will to survive when he found himself on a lifeboat for more than six months in the Pacific Ocean when the ship that was carrying his family and zoo animals (which his family was transporting to Canada) sinks. A story of truth, religion, life, and hope!! Very eccentric indeed! Pi's story, believable and yet so strange captures you because he tells you about a few animals on the lifeboat which survived with him. But at the end he tells a different story which leaves you thinking...which one is real? The story with the animals or humans? Indeed you must read and find out for yourself!! One of the best books I've read, thus far!! Happy Reading!!
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Rating:
Summary: Life of Pi
Review: I read Life of Pi in August 2003 and since then it has stayed close to the top of my ten favourite books of all time. I honestly can't recommend this book highly enough. The story is simple: A boy is stranded in a lifeboat with a tiger. But it is the themes that the book deals with that make it so great. By the end of the book, I was pondering the true nature of truth and the different branches of reality. Truth - What is truth? Is it something we know, or something we say? If nobody knows the real truth behind something, is it better to believe the most desirable truth? Religion - All have a different path to a heaven of some sort, so does it really matter which is right? Are they all right? Is the Islamic religion the road up the mountain while Christianity is the escalator? These are the questions that were in my mind at the end of the book. Martel wisely does not give the answers (Are there really any?) but instead allows the reader to think it out for himself. I *highly* recommend this book. The story is told well, the subject matter is refreshing enough, and the underlying tones will make you think long after Richard Parker has left your mind.
Rating:
Summary: Simplistic Genius
Review: When teaching life lessons, you can take an entire course and get an entire degree in some things, but never learn the essential ingredient. Then, comes along a proverb, or a parable, so simple, yet it ingrains in your mind forever. It's not the size of the book, but the heart within it. In that sense, this book reminds me a lot of the book, "The Little Guide To Happiness". A stupid little thing, but packed with wisdom.
Rating:
Summary: A Delightfully Entertaining Novel
Review: A young Indian boy discovers religion, and is so taken with the idea of faith that he commits to Catholocism, Hinduism, and Islam. Then, in its voyage across the Pacific to Canada, the ship carrying the boy and his family, as well as a menagerie of zoo animals (his father is a zookeeper), sinks, leaving the boy alone in a lifeboat with a tiger, an orangutan, a hurt zebra, and a nasty hyena. The respective struggles for survival ensue, making up the majority of this fascinating, fast read. How do these two seemingly disparate parts of the novel connect? The answer is subtlely. Yann Martel is a quirky writer, and he's written a quirky book. It might be easy to finish this novel and think its various parts don't necessarily mesh, but I have a feeling that even if you felt that way, you'd enjoy it anyway, because the parts in and of themselves are so interesting. But actually, what the young boy Pi learns about religious faith has a great deal of bearing (and also is greatly influenced by) what happens to him during his ordeal. This novel always keeps its sense of humour, but be prepared for some harsh brutality. After all, the struggle for survival is never pretty, and the natural world, while offering many beauties, can be incredibly violent as well. During his journey, Pi learns that faith in general is much more important than faith in its specifics, and whether or not you're Hindu, Catholic, or Muslim matters little when you're simply trying to figure out how to capture enough water to prevent yourself from dying before the day ends. "Life of Pi" manages to be both thoroughly entertaining and thoughtfully profound, but never in a self-conciously literary way. Martel's writing style is loose and easy, and the pages fly by. I was greatly touched by the novel's ending, and it introduces a startling ambiguity that will immediately make you want to read the book again, accepting perhaps a completely different interpretation of events. I'm not exaggerating when I say this book is quite unlike anything I've read before. It manages to be truly original and heartfelt, containing an important message for our troubled, hate-filled times.
Rating: 
Summary: Religion's not that simple
Review: Granted, I love the interweaving of the different faiths, but the ending seems to imply that we choose faith because it's a more entertaining story and that a painful story (without animals) couldn't exist in the same world as God. If either story can be true, why is the animal version the one that assumes you can be faithful? Can't both stories include God? It's like saying scientists can't have faith. Is that why we have faith, because we prefer a more entertaining story? Faith is preference? Doesn't it go down to a deeper truth, not just what we like? Wasn't that the point of the first part of the book when the three religious men fight over Pi? We choose the animal version of the story because what we really see is too painful? If we believe the animal-less, painful version (#2) is the "accurate" story, does that rid us of God? God, pain, reason, and our interpretation can't coexist? Can't God exist in the pain? Okay, enough questions. I'll tell you what I think. I believe both stories, and in God.
Rating:
Summary: * Great read *
Review: I loved how the author was able to write about little tiny indian jokes that one wouldn't understand unless one was from south east asia. I had a tough time putting this book down because it was funny and painful at the sametime. I defintely recommended this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but didn't make me believe in God
Review: When I started reading this book, I really liked it. It was very enjoyable, but It said that when I was done, I'd believe in God. This story didn't change my mind. How can he believe in God with what happened to his parents?
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievabally good book
Review: What a fantastic read. For those who gave negative review, I am astonished at your lack of taste. This book is wonderful in every aspect. The style of writing. The images it produces. The tale it tells. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to all. Thanks to the author...a truly masterful storyteller.
Rating:
Summary: You don't need to be religious to enjoy this book
Review: I am a non-religious, non-spiritual person, despite the religious theme of this book I still found it a gripping and intriguing page turner. I found the first part a little slow but the second part which made up the bulk of the novel, the story of the shipwreck and survival on the lifeboat, was absolutely fascinating. [Possible Spoiler] I did however think "What the hell???" when I hit the part about him coming across the other guy in another lifeboat who like Pi had also gone blind. At first I thought this must be Pi dreaming or hallucinating but when no such explanation was offered I was left wondering what is the explanation for this unbelievable coincidence (was he the French cook from the ship?). Then of course the carnivorous island was a bizarre tale but yet fascinating (like something out of the 'Twilight Zone'). The third and final part begs more questions - which story was the real one? Is the better story the 'real' one? The author does seem to be pushing that point of view with his "And so it goes with God" line.
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