Author: Yann Martel
First Published: September 2001
Publisher: Vintage Canada
356 pages (paperback)
My sister nagged me to get this book. “It’s soooo good,” she gushed. But I ignored her for the most part, since we tend to read different kinds of books, and also the title made it sound kind of religious-y or some sort of spiritual book, which I am really not that into. Then the movie trailer came out, and again, my sister started up with her you-should-read-this-it’s-so-good thing again. She never really provided a reason why she thought it was good, I just kind of went out on a limb here and decided, fine, I will read it.
Well. This turned out to be one of the most awesome books I’ve ever read.
Life Of Pi is about a boy named Pi. He lives in India, is the son of a zookeeper and believes and practices three religions at once (calling himself a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim). One day, his father decides that they should sell the zoo and move to Winnipeg, Canada. They sell most of the animals to zoos in America and board a large cargo ship with their animals to North America.
Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, the ship sinks and animals are all let loose and running around in a panic. Pi luckily escapes the ship in a lifeboat, only to find that it is also refuge for an orangutan, a hyena, a zebra and a tiger. As the lone lifeboat drifts aimlessly in the Pacific Ocean, the inhabitants of the lifeboat dwindle down to just Pi and the tiger.
You might be thinking how can a story about a guy and a tiger drifting in the sea for 227 days can possibly be interesting but it was surprisingly hard to put down. I read this book originally as a commuting book — it has clear writing and is easy to read and understand, which is one of my ‘requirements’ for being a book worthy of commuting — but when I got to part two (the part where he is adrift at sea), I couldn’t wait till the next day to continue the story on the bus. I had to keep reading it now!
The ending is a twist. I’m not going to reveal it (though skip this paragraph if you wanted to know nothing about the ending at all), but I really liked the ending despite the feelings of conflict it created in me. I think the ending is supposed to make you think about God (or religions) and even as a non-religious person, it made me think a little bit about God and philosophy and all that kind of stuff. The moral, to me, seemed to be saying, “If you can believe this story, you can believe in God too, no?”
This is one of those books that can be deeply meaningful and thought provoking. Definitely highly recommend!
My Rating: 5/5
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