Life of Pi by Yann Martel Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Life of Pi
Book Review: "Pi" Lacks Life
Summary: 2 Stars
Looking for a strong tale of adventure, courage and fun? Then this is SO not the book for you. Although it actually starts out as an interesting concept: a young boy, Pi, is learning and exploring things about himself, his religious beliefs and so on. His father owns a zoo and they get aboard a ship to travel to America. The ship sinks and everyone on board, including Pi's family, drowns. Pi is stranded in a lifeboat with few supplies, a hyena, a zebra and a Bengal tiger.
At first his situation is exciting, bringing up the essential and inevitable questions, such as: how will he survive? what'll he do when the monstrous carnivores get hungry? should he shove them off the boat while they're sleeping so he can prevent any attacks? But as soon as these questions are answered, boredom sets in. Having grown up on a zoo, Pi uses his knowledge of the instinctive nature of the animals and quickly resolves to make the tiger afraid of him, for that is the only way he stands a chance of surviving. He rubs his scent all around the boat, as if marking the area as his own. This presents good thinking on Pi's part, but truthfully it isn't very believable. A pre-teen boy stranded in the middle of the Pacific on a tiny boat with a zebra (who is eaten by the hyena), a hyena (who eventually dies) and a tiger? And these animals never even threaten or injure him once? Doesn't sound too realistic. (Then again, it's fiction - it isn't supposed to seem real.)
After what seems like weeks of reading about Pi's daily and nightly rituals of getting food, praying, and so on, he finally reaches shore at some island consisting of cannibalistic plants. The ending is a bit confusing, at least it was for me. Detectives are trying to understand Pi's story, and they conclude that the portrayal of the hyena, zebra and tiger were all metaphors (or symbols) of himself and others in the shipwreck. So I was confused: Did those animals really exist at all? Or had they just been made up to accomodate Pi's tale after all? It all turned out unclear to me, and I don't think it was worth the read. Out of 400 pages, only about 250 held my interest. But who knows? -If you're interested in reading about the uneventful semi-struggle of a boy and his tiger, by all means, check it out.
Book Review: "Pi" not lost at sea
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an unusual book. As it began, the author's descriptions of the Pondicherry zoo his father owned were, I admit, tedious; I wondered, where is the author going with this. But in the end, it all comes together beautifully. Pi, whose full name is Piscene Patel after a swimming pool in Paris, shortened his name after his peers at school began to call him "pissing." This small detail of this book is only one of the reasons why Life of Pi is such an interesting, intriguing book: Yann Martel places an emphasis on the details, little things that you might miss otherwise. Pi is a character who defies all that might be expected in a character of his caliber: he notices everything, and thus makes for a very reliable narrator. The emphasis on water, first in Pi's name and later in the boat, is also important to note.Book Review: "Sacrificing my imagination on the altar of crude reality"
Summary: 2 Stars
I liked much of "The life of Pi" but it never followed through on the old man's promise that the story would "make me believe in God." Instead the story took the rug from under my feet and left me wondering what if anything to believe of the story's final 200 pages. This is too bad. It's my disposition to believe in the fantastic given the opportunity and instead the story's end offers a crude ultimatum "believe my story because it is unbelievable or you have no imagination." This is the literary equivalent of those silly chain letters I used to get in my inbox all the time. Make a wish and forward this to ten friends within 24 hours and all your dreams will come true, but if you don't then you will be met by a horrible fate, your parents will die and you will never again know anything but the taste of ash. Thanks for making be feel like a jerk for not believing Yann.Book Review: 'Incredible' Story
Summary: 4 Stars
The book is an easy and engaging read. I couldn't wait to finish it in several hours.
The story is original, rich in details, well-structured, imaginative, and incredible.
The story-line is itself like the ocean, it rises and falls, sometimes placid and sometimes violent. Though it gets gory and a bit boring in the middle, the ending is stunning.
It taught me a lot about animals and survival skills, but I don't think it makes one believe in God so easily.
Book Review: (4.5 stars). a fable-like novel
Summary: 4 Stars
Like a M. Night Shyamalan movie, "Life of Pi" reveals its secret in the very ending but don't worry, the novel doesn't rely solely on its conclusive revelation (which, by the way, you can either believe or not)!Basically "life of Pi" is the tale of Pi Patel, a 16-year-old Indian boy who is shipwrecked in the Pacific and manages to survive for 227 days, all of this in the troublesome company of a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
Soon he realizes that the only way to prevent Richard Parker from attacking, is to tame him (being the son of a zookeeper Pi is somewhat advantaged in this). There is a wealth of research behind this novel, mostly zoological and botanical (in the midst of his drifting across the ocean the lifeboat bumbs into an island that eventually turns out to be something else, adding a further sprinkle of magic realism to the novel).
I found this novel greatly enjoyable and well written (it won the Booker after all) and I practically devoured the last part, starting with the discovery of the inslan onwards, till it's final, upsetting, ending.