I had heard about ’Life of PI’ as a nice book..
Then the awards were announced and I had to buy it...I mean not that I always buy and like award-winners ..but the award just seemed to stress that my early opinion based on back-cover reading and general reviews was right..
So I bought it and eagerly started reading it...It is indeed like a fresh wave lapping onto you...bringing new ideas...peeks into a different life..life of a son of a zoo-owner..his sweet account of such an unusual name..Piscine(to be pronounced as ’Pi-seen’) Moliter Patel...the relentless and acutely believable teasing he had to endure because of it...
His ideas about religion..so different..so basic...so refreshing..so child-like innocent...’Why cannot I practise Hindu , Muslim and Christian religions at the same time ?’ .. I have never thought that !!
The practical things he learns about animals..their lifestyles...could make any person interested in zoology...
And then his peaceful existence is shattered..his whole family is moving to Canada...unimaginable !! and they get ship-wrecked .. Horrible !!
and he is stranded on a life-boat with a hyena, a zebra, an Orangutan and a Bengal Tiger...
here onwards begins his long journey of survival ...for abt 227 days..and here lies the glitch..it is indeed a long and gory account of his survival ..what things he had to do in order to stay alive...I dont know if this was all necessary...till that extent..his eating un-mentionable stuff...its too repetitive ...and goes on so long that one tends to forget the earlier good parts...
and the end also is very sudden...not sudden infact...but sortof anti-climax...the book just ends ..as if the end of the journey was end of life of pi...Pi lived after that...attended university..did lots of things ..why did the book end where it did ??
Nevertheless..I would like people to read the book and form their own opinions...