LIFE OF PI by yann martel
Life of Pi by Yann Martel was the winner of the Man Booker Prize 2002. And well, it deserved it. Life of Pi is one of the best books that I have read and I will remember it for a long, long time.
Life of Pi follows the life of Piscine Molitor Patel. His father owns a zoo and he was named after a swimming pool in France. If you haven?t read the book, it may seem weird to you but once the magic of the book pulls you into it, it all seems perfectly natural.
Here, Yann Martel?s writing has the power to change your entire perspective about zoos. Some very ingenious opinions are expressed here. Then, the author expands all about Pi?s life as he grew up and how his name became the object of ridicule amongst others. (Some one decided to nick name him Pissing Patel). Then, later, he decided to do a bit of improvisations and named himself Pi Patel. (Pi as in 3.142) After that, he had to move to Canada and the whole process of moving and selling of animals is bound to make you laugh.
The Tsimtsum (the ship he was boarding to go to Canada) sank. Did he survive? Of course he survived, or there would be no story. Unfortunately (or fortunately you later wonder), members of other rather different species also survived along with him. Very different species. Pi was left alone on a lifeboat along with a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), and a female orang utan and?? A 450-POUND ROYAL BENGAL TIGER.
With such clashing ecosystems, you don?t expect all to survive, do you? And so, one by one they destroy each other until finally Pi is left alone with Richard Parker (the Bengal tiger?s name). Thankfully, a RAT, of all mighty creatures, saves him from the jaws of Richard Parker. And so Pi survives for 227 DAYS, all the while deserted, bobbing on a raft and lifeboat, in the middle of the blue Pacific, having no one but Richard Parker for company.
However, somewhere at the end, he actually meets someone else. Read the book to find out more. Basically, the book is about his survival and all the events and incidents that led to and happened that time. Life of Pi does have a religious zeal to it; after all, Pi was a devotee of THREE religions. How does he get to be so pious? Read the book.
The book is filled to the brim with many witty dialogues that are funny and will get you laughing out loud. Descriptions, especially those when Pi was at sea, were vivid, imaginative and creative. Yann Martel never fails to amaze with all the unheard of but nevertheless, perfectly enjoyable similes and comparisons. For example, he compares being a castaway at sea like being caught in a harrowing ballet of circles.
?To be a castaway is to be a point perpetually at the center of a circle. However much things may appear to change, the geometry never changes. Your gaze is always a radius. The circumference is ever great. In fact, the circles multiply. You are at the center of one circle, while above you two opposing circles spin about.?
Brilliant, isn?t it? I wish I can include all my favourite moments here but obviously I can?t as that would be like typing out half the book. The incident of how Richard Parker got his name too is quite amusing. The ending is perfectly correct and practical but still I wished that Richard Parker at least looked back before running off into the jungle.
Overall, Life of Pi is a MUST READ. Sometime in the middle of the book, you will find yourself pondering where Yann Martel gets such ideas from. By the time you finish this book, you would have learnt how to butcher a turtle, how to establish alpha-omega relationships with Bengal Tigers and how to carry on, to fight against all odds even though the situation may seem patently hopeless.
What are you doing, still seated at your computer??!!! Go and get the book. If you already have it, go read it!!!!!
Before that, feel free to rate my review and leave a comment. ;)