Yann Martel has definitely penned a book worthy of readers everywhere. Life of Pi is a fictional masterpiece. With lines that will resound in readers for decades, this riveting national bestseller, will entice and keep readers appetites for great literature going. Filled with many sad and funny scenes, at times heartening and disheartening at the same time, readers will understand that irony plays a key factor in how Pi’s life gets played out. Questions will be answered, more questions will be raised, but one thing to be sure of is that readers will definitely be impressed by this adventurous and fantastical story.
Summary
Pi Patel, a bookish God loving sixteen year boy finds himself thrown into an incredible situation. On a life boat with zoo animals that could make a meal out of him anytime, he must find a way to survive. Using the stories of his fervent faith and practices of not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam, he finds a way to survive. He must also deal with the lost of his family, his mother, father, and brother, Ravi, who were onboard, the Tsimtsum, a Japanese cargo ship when it sank.
Pi has one thing that will save him. Born the son of a zookeeper, he has absorbed the lessons his father had unknowingly taught him about zoo life. With his only companions in the raft: a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger, named Richard Parker, he must use the resources at hand and his hard learned lessons to survive.
At times even his fervent faith fails him, but it is surprisingly Richard Parker who renews it. It is oddly enough, this 450-pound Bengal Tiger, almost as controllable as the elements, who saves him. Richard Parker gives him purpose, a purpose otherwise unseen if he were to do this alone. Ironically, Pi is thankful this 450-pound Bengal tiger was on the raft. Otherwise alone and adrift he would have long ago perished.
Highly Recommended
Life of Pi is a moving tale about survival and faith. The San Francisco Chronicle calls it “a real adventure: brutal tender, expressive, dramatic and disarmingly funny.”
With different fonts and italics, Life of Pi will disarm readers with its different point of views, making this a meta-fictional book. Told in the eyes of different narrators, this tale cleverly condones studies in zoology and religious studies. With shocking scenarios, Life of Pi will definitely open your eyes to the outrageous. Readers will become believers, renewing their faith in a never-ending tale of faith and courage.
Martel, Yann
Life of Pi
Harcourt Books
2001
978-0-15-602732-8
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