Life of Pi

by Yann Martel

Yann Martel's Life of Pi is a transformative novel, an astonishing work of imagination that will delight and stun readers in equal measure. It is a triumph of storytelling and a tale that will, as one character puts it, make you believe in God. After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wide, wild Pacific. The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyena, one zebra (with broken leg), an orang-utan, a 450-pound Royal Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker and Pi - a 16-year-old Indian boy. As the 'crew' begin to assert their natural places in the food chain, Pi's fear mounts, and he must use all his wit and daring to develop an understanding with Richard the tiger. Life of Pi takes the reader on an extraordinary journey - geographical, spiritual and emotional. A rare thing, here is a novel that will change your view of the world.

• ISBN10: 0156027321
• ISBN13: 9780156027328
• Publish Date: 1 May 2003 (first published 1 January 2002)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Mariner Books Classics
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[mitabird]

I found this book incredibly boring. Just not my kind of story at all. DNF'd at 21%

[flybymoonlight]

Life of Pi was a really good story wrapped in chapters of tedious extras. The first section was interesting and I learned a few things about religion and zoology but I felt that it was a little boring and made the book hard to get into. Once I got to the middle of the book where Pi is now a castaway, trying to survive life on a small boat with a Tiger. After the religious heavy beginning, I was a bit surprised there weren't more tie ins back to that in the middle. The end brought back the spiritual feel but not in the way I had anticipated. Overall, a decent book.

[mary]

Very interesting read, you want to believe that it's true. . I feel sheepish now. There was something I didn't like though... I still think it is a well-worth reading.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

This book reminds me so much of [b:The Alchemist|865|The Alchemist|Paulo Coelho|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1287827991s/865.jpg|4835472] in the sense it was very basic and it tries to talk about religion in and philosophical but turns out to be incredibly overrated. I know a lot of people like both book but I never connected with either, I was expecting a lot more from this but I was left hanging. It’s interesting to see books like this that seem to be either well loved or well hated but not much in the middle. This book is just a story about a kid trying every religion out and then get trapped on the boat with some animals, nothing really exciting or interesting happens.

[clementine]

I really, really liked this book. It got off to a bit of a slow start to me, but I ended up liking the beginning more than anything else. I love the story behind Pi's name, the fact that he lived on a zoo, and his highly unorthodox religious background.

The story was somehow not very exciting. I don't even mean that in a bad way, because it had a lot more to offer than pure excitement. But for what it is - a teenage boy trapped on a lifeboat with a 450 pound Bengal tiger for 7 months - the pace was surprisingly leisurely. It was like Pi was in no real rush to tell the story, which I suppose is true.

There were a lot of threads in the book to follow, and a lot of things to think about. I certainly didn't come away from the book any more a believer, but there was still a lot to ponder. It's odd - generally such a religious character would drive me away, but I was drawn to Pi's religious views. Maybe because it was so open, and as much about the world and the nature of reality as the power and glory of God, but it didn't seem overbearing.

My two main issues: 1) The weird flash forwards told from another POV were inconsistent and confusing and didn't really add anything to the story. 2) Sometimes I found it difficult to picture what was happening. For all the technical descriptions, I never had a terribly firm grasp of the layout of the boat.

In the end, I came away from it feeling almost confused. Not in a bad way, either - I just don't know if I should believe Pi's story. It's left rather open, I think, which is part of the charm of the story.

I'm not sure if this is going to be one of my ultimate favourite books yet. I need more time to sit back and ponder it. I do know that I thoroughly enjoyed it and will probably read it again.

[Eve1972]

Good read!

I hated this book. I had to read it for school. And it sucked.

Yeah I spent however many pages reading a made up tale about animals eating each other - when it was humans eating each other. It just made me sick. The whole thing. I hated it.