Life of Pi by Yann Martel Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Life of Pi
Book Review: What not to read
Summary: 1 Stars
After all the splendid reviews I looked forward to an inspiring book for the new year, I couldn't have been more let down.The book was slow to grab my interest and did so after i had skipped a few pages, even then it only captured my attention for a few pages and then got rapidly worse. Certainly cant say it made me believe in God as the author had promised, but rather left me with a sense of pity for the author if that was the extent of his faith.
Wish I had not wasted the money on the purchase price, didn't even get a third of the way through the book. The 0ne star was very generous in my opinion.
Book Review: A life on the Ocean Wave
Summary: 5 Stars
Life of Pi really is a most extraordinary story. Although it's a novel, you really do want to believe that it's all true (I have no idea whether or not it is). As with most good books, it's bit of a slow burner to start with, although I confess that its early setting of Pondicherry, a delightful place in Southern India where I spent a few happy days last year, had me eagerly scanning the pages for mentions of this most memorable town. Thereafter it's a a rollercoaster ride across the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger, a page turner and a tube stop-misser (anyone who lives in London will know what I mean!) Read it and smile, grimace, gasp and wonder at every utterly real detail. Whether you end up believing in God is another matter entirely, but you'll certainly end up believing in the ability of a great story to transport you to another world.Book Review: A touching and beautifully written book
Summary: 3 Stars
I was greatly looking forward to reading this, as it had been described to me as "the book I'd been waiting to read all my life", and I did really enjoy it. However, I don't think it quite lived up to the very high expectations I had of it. What started off promisingly with well-judged contemplation of philosophy and religion running through the tales of Pi's early life became simply an original, touching and, I found, compelling, adventure story, not that there's anything wrong with that, of course! On the plus side, however, I found the voice of the central character, Pi, engaging and affecting, and generally found the book hard to put down. The twists and turns of the writer's imagination create scenarios that could easily have come across as ridiculous, but somehow made sense here. Also, a delightful, gentle sense of humour persisted throughout the story. So, on the whole, I'd thoroughly recommend The Life of Pi, just don't expect it to change your life! (Oh, and the blurb on the cover said it would make me believe in God - it didn't do that either!)Book Review: How to avoid being a tiger's dinner
Summary: 4 Stars
In a nutshell: starts very poorly, ends in a very flat way, but the middle chunk (most of the book) is fantastic, I mean, a really fascinating adventure.The tale - based on a true story that Martel heard in India - centres on Pi, a strange lad raised in an Indian zoo. His father decides to emigrate to Canada with his family, planing to sell the animals to American zoos. But when the boat sinks in the Pacific Ocean, Pi ends up on a lifeboat with the other survivors; a hyena, an orang-utan, an injured zebra and a tiger called Richard Parker.
The food chain kicks in and a feast ensues, and you can probably guess who comes out on top.
As Martel writes early on, it's a story to make you believe in God - or ask yourself why you don't.
Book Review: A strange twist, a compelling read, an innocent boy
Summary: 5 Stars
Pi is the nickname of a boy who is as at home with religion as a fish is in the water. The first half of this Booker prize winning novel sets up the story, where Pi converts simultaneously to the 3 main world religions while living in his family's zoo. The second half describes a tale of great suffering, in very unusual circumstances (shipwrecked in a lifeboat, with a tiger, zebra and other animals). Both halves of the book are compelling. The writing style of "Life of Pi" is very simple and airy. But this style hides the author's cunning. A number of times in the story, the whole reality of what is being described is called into question. And these questions are never really resolved.
Please don't think this is some sort of "heavy" book, which is hard to read. It is as light as air, and as compelling as a breath of the same. But it has a twist that is both light, and heavy and dark. And the real twist is, I am not even sure if it was a twist! Even as I write this review, the implications of the (seeming) twist crawl deeper into me.
Put simply, this is a great read, it is great writing, it is great story-telling, and this writing is making a great, almost moral, point. When a book of such depth is so compulsive to read, then I feel I have had the best of both worlds and am totally satisfied! Or as satisfied as such a finally mysterious book can leave me feeling...