Life of Pi by Yann Martel Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Life of Pi
Book Review: This story will make you believe in God
Summary: 5 Stars
I feel like I've read the story that is the reason for all stories. In reading fiction we sometimes try to learn something without working hard to do it. This book teaches you the biggest lesson you will learn in life if you do not have faith already. It's not religious, but the experience is - and I'm not talking about God in particular here, but possibility. It's about perception.What makes it different from other philosophising novels that aim to make you think (the dire 'Sophie's World' for one) is that this one does it entirely through its compelling story, you don't get bored and you don't even realise what you're learning until you've been through the journey. And it's a damn good read.
Book Review: living up to the hype
Summary: 5 Stars
Sophie`s World, Pincher Martin and A Clockwork Orange, were all novels that came to mind during the reading of Yann Martel`s excellent Life of Pi. As with Sophie`s World, the first third of the novel is suffused with a love for the unusal wonders that dominate life. During this highly compelling introduction the narrator opens the readers mind to the beauty of the natural world (even in the confines of a zoo), the meaning of freedom and territory in the wild, the social structure of pack animals and the similarities between the worlds great religions. The narrative is fused with a lightness of tone and is both quietly funny and informative. Martel informes the reader of all the information needed to survive PI`s journey and in doing so sets the scene for the books center piece, a voyage of survival around the mini eco-system of a life raft.From the minute PI finds himself shipwrecked with a Royal Bengal Tiger, a Zebra, a Chimpanzee, a rat and a Hyena the novel steps up a gear. The lightness of tone in the earlier chapters is tainted with an altogether more dark and macabre voice as the true nature of Nature is revealed in all its terrorifing glory.
As with Golding`s Pincher Martin, Martell has created a story that is as believable as it is absurd. He restrains from giving the animals a human voice and the Zebra, Chimpanzee and Hyena are all mercilessly killed off. By leaving only Richard Parker, the Bengal Tiger and Pi alive, Martel is able to explore many of the theories disclosed in the novels opening charpers. In one memorable scene (itself a homage to A Clockwork Orange), Pi attempts to gain alpha male status on the life boat via association. By associating Richards Parker's feelings of sea-sickness with his noise of his screaming whistle PI is able to gain Alpher Male Status.
As the story progresses Pi becomes an unreliable narrator untill the point where the novel becomes an absurd canvas of mid pacific meetings between blind, starving sailors and impossible islands. Upon finding dry land (in Mexico), Pi`s fantistic story is picked apart by two insurance brokers, witnessing such narrow-mindedness Pi offers the brokers an alternative, rational version of this story. It is here that the true meaning behind Life of Pi can found. This novel is a story about the limitless potential of the imagination, and thus the Story. Mantel asks the reader which version of PI`s story is the best, and even if the revised version remains the most believable, the answer will always be Pi`s journey across the Pacific with a Bengal Tiger.
Book Review: Very enjoyable but
Summary: 4 Stars
But I'm not quite sure what the 'but' is. I'm not a huge fan of the 'and then we did this and then that happened and then this happened which meant we did that' style of writing, which this does fall into for a while. Although what else can you do when you have a boy and a tiger stuck on a boat eating raw fish?
The end is a slight let down; there's one bit that has you wanting to scream THERE'S NO NEED TO SAY THAT, I'D ALREADY WORKED IT OUT. I'M NOT STUPID YOU KNOW! but at the same time it's nicely done and rather intriguing.
The opening section is wonderful, as others have said. It's very easy reading and very enjoyable. But
Book Review: Disappointing and juvenile
Summary: 1 Stars
I had to do a double check to make sure I was reading the same book as the previous reviewers had read. The plot is 2nd year high school level, simple and not believable. I found no emotion or passion in the writing and there was nothing very much that made me want to keep turning the pages. "Make you believe in God", I don't think so. Floating acid islands with human teeth wrapped up in leaves ? Please. Bumping, mid-vast-ocean, into another, blind, shipwrecked person who he forgets to tell about a Bengal Tiger sharing his boat ? The only reason I finished it was because I was on a long flight and had already read the in-flight magazine from cover to cover.Take out the few bits of gratuitous gore and it would be a good book for 12 year olds.
This is my first read of a Booker Prize winner and probably my last. How bad were the runners up ?!
Book Review: Fantastic - but what really happened?
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was incredibly enjoyable and easy to read. I zoomed through it in 2 days never really wanting to put it down. Then suddenly towards the end it felt like I had been kicked in the stomach, when it seemed like the author was asking me to review what I had read and enjoyed so far and potentially place a much darker and more sinister interpretation onto the happenings. I have read all the other reviews to try to understand what other people thought of this? It appears that several others have faced the same questions that I did. Some people clearly do not like facing the possibility that all is not as beautiful and wondrous as they would like. What is clear to me, is that the animal world, although at times brutal and dangerous is actally less dark and sinister than the human one. I suppose that the events that really unfolded will only be totally clear in the head of the author. However it is the questions and uncertainties that he raised in my own head that made me truly awestruck by this book.
However that does not mean it made me believe in God.
Anyway.. so what really happened? I have my own suspicion, and so will you when you finish this fantastic book (although judging by other reviews we may not have the same interpretations).