A Classic for Life | Life of Pi

One of the Best Reads | Life of Pi | Yann Martel

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	• Life of Pi Yann Martel Harvest Books, 2003 - 326 pages average customer review:based on 1938 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Leave my agnostic imagination alone!

Yann Martel anticipated readers like me. He wrote, in Chapter 22, "Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self ... to the very end, lack[s] imagination and miss[es] the better story." That is where he was wrong. Just as an evolution biologist can better admire the intricate beauty and infinite possibilities (as well as statistical improbabilities) of the universe than a Bible-thumping creationist zealot, an agnostic can better appreciate the duality of humanism vs. supernaturalism.

Martel's treatment of the ending made light of the Japanese officials' interrogation of Pi and made the officials incompetent and irrelevant laughingstock. In spite of the otherwise well written novel (albeit having an excruciatingly slow Part One), I found myself thoroughly disappointed in Martel's reluctance to let alone the reader's imagination of what truly happened at sea.

Oh, don't even get me started on the reading group guide. If I were a lawyer, I would accuse this guide of leading the witness!

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A Classic for Life

"I have a story that will make you believe in God." - Pi Patel

"I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality." - Pi Patel

This novel was easily one of the most unique books I have ever read and far from "dry, yeastless factuality". While reading it, I often wondered if it was not based off of a true story in some way simply because the story seemed too unbelievable to NOT be true! This book would appeal to a variety of literature-minded tastes as it covers topics that range from philosophy, religion, travel, and biology to suspense, horror, and even comedy.

On the surface, the story is about an Indian boy that survives on a lifeboat with a lone Bengal tiger after his ship sinks, taking the remains of a zoo and his entire family with it. Woven into the plot are threads of Pi Patel's passion for religion as a whole. He seeks to survive - both mind and body - 227 days at sea, using both the knowledge of three world religions and the experience of growing up in a zoo.

What makes this book rise above the general expectations of the fiction genre is that the main character's frequent monologues on his present circumstances inadvertedly cause the reader to evaluate his or her own life in light of Pi's words. Take for instance Pi's explanation of the battle between good and evil:

"These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart." (Ch. 25)

Page after page, chapter after chapter, Pi's personal philosophy is laid out as his life hangs in the balance. At one of his lowest points he discusses the power of fear:

"I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. ... The matter is difficult to put into words. For fear, real fear, such as shakes you to your foundation, such as you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: it seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it." (Ch. 56)

In the midst of reading this highly imaginative text, I realized that the musings of this castaway were reflections of what any person standing on dry land could be feeling at any given moment:

"When you look up, you sometimes wonder if at the centre of the solar system, if in the middle of the Sea of Tranquillity, there isn't another one like you also looking up, also trapped by geometry, also struggling with fear, rage, madness, hopelessness, apathy." (Ch. 78)

My favorite part of the book was when in the midst of a storm, Pi was nearly struck by lightning. The description of this encounter in chapter 85 put me in nearly as much awe as it did Pi Patel and reminded me of how the Holy Bible often described the voice of God as the voice of a great thunder, which completely fit in with the overarching theme of religion as a framework for life.

When at the end of the book, Pi Patel offers an alternate, more-believable version of his survival at sea, I realized that this novel could be read as an allegory to symbolize life and its survival. This is what truly allows The Life of Pi to make the leap from contemporary fiction to enduring classic.

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One of the Best Reads

This book is a very smooth read for me so much so that I feel compelled to re-read. The story is so unique but at the same token very identifiable with my life. The situations are told by the author Y. Martel, are very uncommon but the main character's reactions are very human, I see myself in the same way. There are so many things you can learn and love in these pages. It is a different thing I take away after the second and third reads. I have my friend H.J. to thank.

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Survival of the fittest, with several twists

Piscine Patel is a 16 year old boy from Pondicherry, India. His father, a zookeeper, takes his wife, a younger brother, and Piscine (who chooses to rename himself "Pi," like the Greek letter and mathematical symbol) on a long voyage to Canada. The main passengers are all sorts of animals, huge and small, who must be relocated to various zoos. For reasons completely unknown, the ship sinks and the only survivors are Pi, a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a ferocious Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Pi and his animal companions wind up on a large lifeboat. Darwin's law ensues, and the only two left are eventually Pi and the tiger.

This is a truly marvelous and incredible adventure story. I would not want to minimize the imagination and inventiveness that went into transforming this novel into "an astounding story of courage and endurance in the face of extraordinarily difficult and tragic circumstances." That Pi and Mr. Parker form a symbiotic relationship, akin to a friendship, while travelling on the Pacific Ocean for several hundred days, is amazing. What serves young Pi in good stead and provides Pi with much of his courage and much of the novel's strengths, are his adherence, and not merely lip service, to the cherished values he has found in three of the world's great religions.

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A Unique and Compelling Story

Life of Pi, a skillfully written novel by Yann Martel, is an interesting piece of literature that grabs your attention and pulls you along with his original story about the instinct of survival and human nature in the face of death. The character of Pi, the hero, encourages, enlightens, and thrills the senses every step of the way.
In the beginning of Pi's saga, a description of Pi's life with his family is mentioned. He was raised in a zoo, literally. His father owned the Pondicherry Zoo in what was French India. Piscine "Pi" Molitar Patel was named after a swimming pool in Paris, France. Pi also introduces us to his various religious beliefs and his pious lifestyle. When his family decides to move to Toronto, Canada and sell all of their animals, Pi is uncertain about the changes it will bring into his life. They set out on a ship across the Pacific Ocean. In the midst of a storm, the cargo ship on which they ride, sinks, leaving Pi along in the middle of the ocean with a hyena, a crippled zebra, an orangutan, and a tiger, all on one lifeboat. Soon all of his companions are killed except for the tiger. To survive, our hero must train the tiger to believe that he is the dominant of the two. How Pi manages to survive this journey which takes over 200 days is an amazing accomplishment of the human nature.
This novel is a really good insight into human nature in general. It provides ways in which to look at yourself, not just Pi. As you watch the battle between the elements and Pi's own personal integrity, you are struck with a realizastion of how powerful the circumstances can be on a bedraggled soul. The language of this book is easy enough to read for young readers, yet has many multiple connotations for those who yearn for a mind-probing excursion into the realm of the human mind through fiction. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a unique and compelling story.
Each person goes through a period in their lives when they make the decision to hang on to life, to love, to believe in God or to forget who they are inside and forsake their love for life, the desire for love, and the longing to fill the gap where God once was. This story portrays the trial of the soul and the struggle of the mind against the worries of this world and the essence of grabbing for that invisible hand that is so much stronger than our own.

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The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional--but is it more true?

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