Book Review: Life of Pi
May 2nd, 2008 by admin
- Yann Martel
Kudos to Yann for taking The out of the title and just starting with the word Life. It sounds a lot more engaging that way. And kudos to my wife for convincing me to read this. She bought it a good half a year before I even heard of it and she read it on her flight to Hawaii and came back raving about it and I gave her the ‘whatever, I am already reading really good stuff so nyah!’ roll of the eye. And then, my pile of good stuff ran empty and I found myself scrounging my house for a read like a junkie needing a fix and all there was in the house was this book. So I picked it up and oh boy am I glad I did!
Imagine a young boy, a young West Indian boy who is so religious that not any single religion seems to be enough. Hinduism is not enough. So he adopts Christianity and Islam as well and he keeps up with all the rituals and all the prayers and everything that his pastor/mentor/priest/whatever expects of him while living with his family in a zoo, because zoo-keeping is the family business. Well then, one day due to hardships they decide to move to Canada and they pack all the animals and get on a big ship.
The ship sinks, everybody dies.
Everybody except for young Pi, who finds himself in a lifeboat with a few other crew mates, namely an aggressive hyena, a sea-sick orangutan, a zebra with a broken leg and an honest to goodness Bengal friggin’ tiger. Needless to say, one by one lives are being lost in the raft and help is not on its way. Soon enough it is down to the boy and the tiger.
“This raft…is not big enough for the two of us.”
That’s not a quote from the book, I am just saying, it gets really interesting with some of the most cleverly written and amusing insight and heartfelt moments I have read on paper. This one, ladies and gents, is a buy, not just a run to your library so you can drop it back off later. Don’t be stingy.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Category: Fiction – Awe-freaking-mazing insanity on a life boat.