Life of Pi was, for me, a delight throughout. The first portion of the book seems to have garnered criticism in some corners but I found it to be a gentle and drily witty look at the way the world works. It provides the grounding for what follows, including the religious journey the book takes. Bearing in mind that I’m atheistic, I didn’t feel like I was being preached to at any point in time. What’s important here is that Yann Martel doesn’t ram anything down the reader’s throats. Pi relates all the events that occur to zoology and / or religion but the reader is always allowed to make their own judgement as well.
The story really picks up post-shipwreck and has some lovely twists and turns along the way. It’s a paean to the survival instincts of the human spirit told through a series of increasingly bizarre and imaginative anecdotes. Wonderfully, everything is thrown askew at the end with a marvellous plot twist that leaves the reader considering the book long after they have finished it.
I read through Life of Pi in a little over two days; it was both enthralling and captivating and is that rare thing in modern art and literature – a positive and hopeful comment on the nature of the human being.
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Life of Pi stands with Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude as the most surprising and inventive book I have ever read. The description I read of the book said simply that it was the tale of a boy marooned on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific with only a zebra, orangutan, hyena and tiger for company. I was prepared for a fantasy with talking animals who help Pi throughout an adventure until they inevitably wash up on the shore. What I didn’t expect it to be was a savagely brutal tale of survival teeming with blood, viscera, fear, despair and the very real teeth and claws of a 450 pound Bengal tiger. What I also didn’t expect it to be was a beautiful, moving, heartfelt, loving exploration of loss, determination, belief and spirituality. That it can be both these descriptions at the same time tells you something of the power of this work of art. Life of Pi will be to some people a cracking adventure story, to some a philosophical treatise on the nature of belief and religion and to some a dizzying and confusing mix of the real, the assumed and the fantasy. To me it was quite simply astounding. The realisation of the point the narrator makes to the Japanese investigators at the end made me laugh and cry at the same time and for the first time in ages I felt a tug at my soul towards a higher power. Everyone in the world should read this book and after the last word, close it, take a deep breath and come out changed.
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The Booker Prize was awarded to this book shortly after I read it.
Despite the sea voyage being, quite rightly, the important part of the book I found myself enjoying the 100 or so pages leading up to it just as much. The self-description of Pi’s life in India was wonderful and packed with discoveries for the reader. It actually came as a bit of a disappointment when he got on the ship for Canada.
The book’s write-up provided the main appeal for me, especially the assertion that it would make you believe in God. Well, as it turned out that was a bit ambitious, but I did draw great comfort from Pi’s acceptance and practice of different faiths.
The secrets for me were the simplicity of the writing and the way I was drawn out of myself to a calmer, less complicated place.
It wasn’t a book that I thought back on longingly for days and weeks afterwards, but at the time of reading it I did travel to a special place.
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An absolute delight,
Life of Pi was, for me, a delight throughout. The first portion of the book seems to have garnered criticism in some corners but I found it to be a gentle and drily witty look at the way the world works. It provides the grounding for what follows, including the religious journey the book takes. Bearing in mind that I’m atheistic, I didn’t feel like I was being preached to at any point in time. What’s important here is that Yann Martel doesn’t ram anything down the reader’s throats. Pi relates all the events that occur to zoology and / or religion but the reader is always allowed to make their own judgement as well.
The story really picks up post-shipwreck and has some lovely twists and turns along the way. It’s a paean to the survival instincts of the human spirit told through a series of increasingly bizarre and imaginative anecdotes. Wonderfully, everything is thrown askew at the end with a marvellous plot twist that leaves the reader considering the book long after they have finished it.
I read through Life of Pi in a little over two days; it was both enthralling and captivating and is that rare thing in modern art and literature – a positive and hopeful comment on the nature of the human being.
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|Big cats, big love, big impression,
Life of Pi stands with Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude as the most surprising and inventive book I have ever read. The description I read of the book said simply that it was the tale of a boy marooned on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific with only a zebra, orangutan, hyena and tiger for company. I was prepared for a fantasy with talking animals who help Pi throughout an adventure until they inevitably wash up on the shore. What I didn’t expect it to be was a savagely brutal tale of survival teeming with blood, viscera, fear, despair and the very real teeth and claws of a 450 pound Bengal tiger. What I also didn’t expect it to be was a beautiful, moving, heartfelt, loving exploration of loss, determination, belief and spirituality. That it can be both these descriptions at the same time tells you something of the power of this work of art. Life of Pi will be to some people a cracking adventure story, to some a philosophical treatise on the nature of belief and religion and to some a dizzying and confusing mix of the real, the assumed and the fantasy. To me it was quite simply astounding. The realisation of the point the narrator makes to the Japanese investigators at the end made me laugh and cry at the same time and for the first time in ages I felt a tug at my soul towards a higher power. Everyone in the world should read this book and after the last word, close it, take a deep breath and come out changed.
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|SIMPLICITY IS THE SECRET,
The Booker Prize was awarded to this book shortly after I read it.
Despite the sea voyage being, quite rightly, the important part of the book I found myself enjoying the 100 or so pages leading up to it just as much. The self-description of Pi’s life in India was wonderful and packed with discoveries for the reader. It actually came as a bit of a disappointment when he got on the ship for Canada.
The book’s write-up provided the main appeal for me, especially the assertion that it would make you believe in God. Well, as it turned out that was a bit ambitious, but I did draw great comfort from Pi’s acceptance and practice of different faiths.
The secrets for me were the simplicity of the writing and the way I was drawn out of myself to a calmer, less complicated place.
It wasn’t a book that I thought back on longingly for days and weeks afterwards, but at the time of reading it I did travel to a special place.
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|