Rating: 
Summary: A deeper look
Review: Life of Pi was a wonderful book, with notes of philosophy and theological thought tied into a well crafted story. While it may start with a slightly slower pace than other books in the genre, it is worth the effort. If you liked this, I would also recommend Golf in the Kingdom.
Rating: 
Summary: SWEET
Review: The sheer number of views post on this title and the publicity it has generated tells a lot about what should be expected from the story. It is catching. This is one of the best works of fiction that my eyes have roved through and which my mind has appreciated. I like Martel's poetic style of writing, his plot and the vivid descriptions he gave of things , characters and events results the story. I was so caught up by the book that I was unable to put it down until the last page. In the end, I saw The Life of Pi became so popular. Any book who knows a good story may think he/or she is starting this book at a stroll and but would be surprised to end it at a compelling rush. The story is completely captivating, fast-paced, thrilling, inspiring, shocking and hilarious. I smiled, sighed, laughed and even wiped a tear while reading this book.
Also recommended: DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE,THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES
Rating:
Summary: Three Day Read
Review: I don't like to have to try to decipher books. I want to get lost in the story, not sit there and reread each sentence trying to figure out what witticism the author is impressing himself or herself by using. That's how I felt reading "Middlesex." I think underneath the prose it was probably a good book, but a good book shouldn't make you work that hard to realize it is. "Life of Pi" is written exactly how a good book should be. I didn't have to put on my thinking cap and force myself between the lines. I didn't have to search to decipher a regional cadence. I didn't have to use a thesaurus and dictionary. All I had to do is read. Thank heaven! This was a good book, every bit as good as "My Fractured Life" and "Atonement." It is easy to read and easy to get lost in. I read it in three days.
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping adventure in the sea
Review: The story is similar to a story by a Brazilian writer in which a boy is stranded in a boat with a panther after shipwreck. And Martel won a Booker after this. Well, good for him.
Nevertheless, it was fun reading about Pi's life. His school days where his mates tease him for his name 'Piscine', his childhood spent in a zoo in south India, his wonderful mentors, the ones "who came into my dark head and lit a match" - a baker who teaches him the wonders of religion and an atheist science teacher, and his adventure in a lifeboat with Mr. Parker - a huge Royal Bengal tiger.
A well-crafted tale that juggles zoology, role of religion in our lives, survival tactics, and Math.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Adventure Tale Indeed
Review: I suppose after reading all of the promises made by this book (it will make me believe in God ect..) that I was a bit disappointed by its philosophical and theological aspects. Instead of being the center theme of the story, they were more of simple, surface level references, which were pleasant to read and ponder but nonetheless a bit shallow.
The book is pretty slow to get going, as it spends an awful lot of time establishing the main characters personality. But once it does get going the main character's personality truly comes into play. Also, I found the last portion of the book to be unnecessary; the idea of an alternate story and ambiguous realities didn't necessarily tickle my brain or bring to light any great philosophical revelations.
That being said, the story itself was great. The idea of a boy stranded alone in a boat with a tiger is far fetched but interesting, and the situations it brings up are intelligent and entertaining. The descriptions of the ocean put you right in the middle of it. The story of the living island was my favorite part, the descriptions of it are breathtaking. There is a sort of romanticism about the whole situation. It read a bit like a child's book with a simple naivety that was nothing short of charming. I loved every minute.
I truly began to enjoy Life of Pi when I stopped waiting for some great religious experience to jump off the pages and began to take the book as simply a great story. Maybe if my expectations had been the other way around the results would have been too. But that is impossible to tell. All in all, the meat of the story overshadows its otherwise trivial shortcomings. I would suggest that you take Life of Pi simply as a well written, wonderful story, and nothing more.
Rating:
Summary: Not a math book, but well worth reading
Review: The book started slowly for me, and I must admit that I almost set it down. However, the story really picked up a few dozen pages in, after Pi jumped onto the life raft and his solitary adventures began. I was hooked, and thoroughly enjoyed the pages between then and the end of the novel. I was sorry to reach the end.
The book has nothing to do with math--a misconception I originally had based on the title. The story concerns a young boy who spends nearly a year on a lifeboat. Lots of wonderfully imagined encounters and beautiful prose. Well worth reading. I hope you enjoy it!
Rating:
Summary: Definite page turner
Review: I usually do not read novels from the the NY Bestseller Lists, because they usually don't live up to the hype. However, over the past year I've picked this book up a dozen times and was just never able to leave the store with it. I finally purchased with a gift card and read it. Wow! Was I ever surprised.
I don't agree with most of the other reviewers in that it started out slow. I was immediately sucked in and really wish that I had started it early on a Saturday morning so that I could've just plowed through it.
Pi's (Martel's) narration constantly makes you wonder what is going to happen next. The only thing you know is that he lives. He makes you realize how small we are on this planet and that life exists and goes on outside of the bubble in which we each live. I highly recommend this to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: An Aid to One's Self-Understanding...
Review: My favorite books are those that stay with you long after the reading. This book is one of them.
The narrative itself is straightforward: Religiously promiscuous boy from India is shipwrecked on passage to Canada and finds himself the only survivor (or so it seems) on a lifeboat with a hyena, a lame zebra, an orangutan, and a Bengal tiger. Throughout the 200+ days on his "floating zoo" (or circus) Pi survives the inherent dangers through faith, determination, wit, and the tricks of the trade learned from his zookeeper father.
Although not a religious book by any stretch, the reader is confronted with the deep spiritual wellsprings of the human condition. In the end this book forces one to confront the questions of who we are and how we know. Is Pi's story a concrete, scientific account or an allegorical story? While the book resists the provision of an ultimate answer (the facts could conceivably lead to either conclusion), the reader's journey with Pi suggests something about what it means to live as a religious person in an age of science and secularism.
For one who takes his religion and theology straight, the book suffers somewhat for its incipient religious relativism. A serious appreciation and love of religion demands that we attend to the particularities of a faith as much as to its commonalties with other faiths. Pi's religious promiscuity is endearing and understandable in an adolescent, but Islam is not Hinduism and is not Christianity. Love for God and love for godly people demands that we not impose a false uniformity upon spiritual visions that are inherently different. That the novel cannot grapple with this is a fairly minor flaw, but a flaw nonetheless.
In the end, what we conclude about the life of Pi Patel probably says something more about us than it says about Pi. That we must inhabit the narrative as interested players makes the work a richly rewarding experience.
Rating: 
Summary: What a waste of time...
Review: What a waste of a good snowy weekend to read. I was a little skeptical of the book based on the prologue but decided to stick with it anyway. It was so boring, repetitive, and how many different ways can the author describe interactions with the tiger and fishing for food?? I have never been compelled to write a review before, but this book did it for me. i would have had better time spent reading old National Enquirers!!
Rating:
Summary: Another slice, please
Review: LIFE OF PI is by far the best book I've read in a very long time (and I read a lot of books). At first I was skeptical of a book about a boy trapped in a boat for 400 pages- how exciting could it be? But this book was absolutely riveting until the very last sentence. It's about the very basic human drive for survival, but also so much more; the primal bond that connects all life forms, the universality of religion, philosophy under duress, the meaning of truth. It takes a special author to be able to explore and encompass all these themes without neglecting the story. Martel writes a very compelling tale about a boy struggling to survive on a life boat with only a Bengal Tiger for company. Defiantly an original idea to say the least. I know that I am raving- but it's not often I find a novel that is this compelling. You need to read this book, it will not only entertain you, it will really make you think. If you have to pick a book to read, LIFE OF PI is the one-don't be put off by the hype. I would also recommend another very unusual book titled THE CHILDREN'S CORNER by Jackson Tippett McCrae-it's very well done and encompasses a wide range of emotions and feelings.
|
