Life of Pi
One solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue pacific. In it are five survivors: Pi, a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, a female orang-utan and a 450 pound Royal Bengal Tiger. The scene is set for an extraordinary adventure.
This is how the book is described on its back cover. But it gives an impression of the book that is not quite true. Because the story is not about how the 5 survivors make their way through the journey. The book is about the Pi-the boy, and the tiger named Richard Parker The rest are dead by the time 3 days are over.
The book is good. And it is bad. But whatever it is, it IS quite entertaining. And engrossing. I COULD not leave it till I had read the whole of it.
Then why is it bad, you ask? Because the end leaves a lot to be desired. I think a person reads a book, a story, with only one intention- to know what happens finally, hoping that any questions that arise while reading, will get sorted out when we come to know its end. But the end of this book makes you feel as if the whole exercise of reading it intently without moving from your place, and staying up all night, proved futile. Because the end, leaves you facing a question again.
This is quite similar to movies that have a sequel. A good movie, a popular one, is the one, where you end one story, and move on to another, which becomes its sequel. But if the movie leaves you wondering about its end, declaring that the end will be made into a sequel, how would you feel?
Maybe this book is not as bad as I am making it sound, but then, when did I say its not good?
It is almost like the saying, that life is not about reaching your destination, the fun part of life is the journey. Just read the book for the fun you’ll have while doing so, and don’t wait anxiously to know what happens at the end.
I wont tell you about the story, because if I tell you just the end, you’ll be confused, and if I tell you the story without giving out the end, it won’t remain fun to read. So I will be writing about the things I liked and disliked in it.
The author, Yann Martel, is extremely talented. He skillfully weaves in diverse topics into one thread and nowhere do you feel that he is digressing from the actual story.
Its a story of survival, but includes long, interesting and very informative discussions on topics as contrasting as religion and zoo keeping.
I don’t know if you would like that if you are an animal hater and an absolute non-believer in God, but because I do not fall into any of those categories, I thoroughly enjoyed reading those chapters.
Yann Martel’s style of writing shows that he is an author with immense creativity and great imagination. There is also an interesting similarity between Yann Martel and (don’t be surprised) Satyajit Ray :the fact that, in the most unreal of fictional stories, the information they have supplied on various topics is correct. They have blended fact into fiction with perfection. This lends a certain credibility to an otherwise fairytale-like story.
Martel, has the gift of painting pictures with words, and believe it or not, you can really imagine a 16 year old boy Pi on a boat with a hyena, a zebra, and orangutan and a Royal Bengal Tiger (who’s named, Richard Parker) floating in the middle of the Pacific. By the way, if you are wondering about the tiger’s name, its actually Thirsty Not Given. Which one do you prefer? J
Now, here is something I didn’t like about the book.
The author describes certain events so vividly, that you can picturise them in your mind. And when that event is about a dying zebra being eaten by a hyena, or a boy who’s gone cannibalistic, you wish it wasn’t like that.
Everyone who’s reading, must have watched atleast one hollywood movie in their life which had utterly disgusting goooey aliens eating a man from another planet, this book sometimes turns into that. But even then I did not mind such ’graphic’ descriptions in the story, because the rest was very good. But when I read about eating another man, I really felt sick!
But thankfully, there aren’t so much of the ’ewwww-y’ parts that you wouldn’t feel like reading the book at all.
I recommend the book, and you should read it, but as they say, it’s not for people with a weak stomach! LOL
Its definitely an engrossing book, and you can’t help but marvel at the amazing style of writing of the author, but the end leaves you without a clear picture...
I am including some excerpts from the book that I liked a lot:
- When Pi first came to know about Christianity, his thoughts on why Jesus suffers for our sins: What? Humanity’s sins but God pays the price? I tried to imagine father saying to me, ’’Pi, a lion killed two llamas today and ate a black buck yesterday. Two of them ate the camels too. The situation has become intolerable and something must be done. I have decided the only way the lions can atone for their sins is I feed YOU to them.’’ What peculiar psychology!.
This was hilarious!
2.On his brother Ravi’s views on religion:
If Lord Krishna had held a cricket bat rather than a flute, if Christ had appeared as the umpire, and if the Prophet Muhammad had shown some notions of bowling, he might have lifted a religious eyelid, but they didn’t, and so he slumbered.
- About Richard Parker (THE TIGER!)
His paws were like volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica!
LOLOLOLOL
- Pi’s list of what all supplies he had on the lifeboat:
1 notebook. 1 compass. 1 survival manual. 1 Bengal Tiger. 1 lifeboat. 1 ocean. 1 God.
- Dreaming of food, after spending around 5 months on the lifeboat:
A Ganges of dal soup. Hot chapatis the size of Rajasthan. Bowls of rice as big as Uttar Pradesh. Sambars to flood all of Tamil Nadu. Ice cream heaped as high as the Himalayas!
LOL! I would love to have icecream heaped as high as the Himalayas! Is anyone listening! :-D
Thanks for reading my review, do leave your comments and let me know if you liked it. :)
Cya all
Ananya