Book Review: Yann Martel - "Life of Pi"

We are introduced to a young man call Pi Patel, whose father owns a zoo. During the early part of the book, Pi searches for the answers to life, and through his questioning ends up a practising Hindu, Christian and Muslim. This section of the book is whimsical, with Pi's charm winning over everybody, the reader included. This spirit will stand him in good stead for what happens later.

When his father sells the zoo, they board a ship bound for Canada, which becomes wrecked. In the sinking, his family and most of the zoo animals perish, although he manages to find himself on a lifeboat, with only a zebra, a hyena, an orangutang and a 450 pound Bengal Tiger, called Richard Parker, for company. What follows is much darker than the beginning, with Pi trying desperately to survive, and to not become prey to any of the animals himself.

Yes, the story is unbelievable, but then it's not really about what happens - given the chance to tell his story after the event, he tells it two ways, challenging the reader to question whether any of what he has read is true. This story is more about about how possessing imagination, and an unquenchable spirit for life, can conquer our greatest enemies: loneliness, starvation, fear, sadness and loss. It also questions how much any of his adopted religions actually help him, when he all but abandons his spiritual and moral beliefs in order to survive.

Some of the passages in the book are a bit slow, and at the beginning it is a little difficult to get started, but the story more than rewards. This book won the Man Booker Prize; for me it doesn't rival the previous winner that I read, Vernon God Little, but remains an imaginative, thought-provoking, spirited read nevertheless. 7/10

You can buy the book here.