It is not so much that The Life of Pi, is particularly moving (although it is). It isn’t even so much that it is written with language that is both delicate and sturdy all at once (which it is, as well). And it’s certainly not that Yann Martel’s vision filled passages are so precise that you begin to feel the salt water on your skin (even though they are). It is that, like Bohjalian and Byatt and all of the great Houdini’s of the literary world, in the last few moments of your journey – after yo...

LITTLE INDIAN BOY GOES ON WEIRD BOAT RIDE WITH MEAN CAT.

I found a lot of this book incredibly tedious. I tend to avoid the winners of the Man / Booker – they make me a little depressed. The only Carey I haven’t liked won the Booker (Oscar and Lucinda), I really didn’t like the little bit of Vernon God Little I read and I never finished The Sea despite really liking Banville’s writing. So, being told a book is a winner of the Booker tends to be a mark against it from the start, unfortunately.I’m going to have to assume you have read this book, as if I...

It's not that it was bad, it's just that I wish the tiger had eaten him so the story wouldn't exist.I read half of it, and felt really impatient the whole time, skipping whole pages, and then I realized that I didn't have to keep going, which is as spiritual a moment as I could hope to get from this book.

I was extremely surprised by this book. Let me tell you why (it's a funny story): On the Danish cover it says "Pi's Liv" (Pi's Life), but I hadn't noticed the apostrophe, so I thought it said "Pis Liv" (Piss Life) and I thought that was an interesting title at least, so perhaps I should give it a go. So I did. And... what I read was not at all what I had expected (I thought it was a book about a boy in the slums or something). It wasn't until I looked up the book in English I realized the title

Big Bois. Everyone's heard of them. The Libraries are full of them. But are they worth it?Click the link for my video review of the big bois in my life.The Written Review:The beginning is rough.It's all like - Why do we keep going on and on about religion? Where's the boat? Where's the tiger? Stop and enjoy the roses. The book will get to the tiger part when it wants to. Young Pi ( Piscine "Pi" Patel ) spends the first part of the book joining the Christian, Muslim and Hindu faiths. It's not a

Sift a pinch of psychology with a scant tablespoon of theology, add one part Island of the Blue Dolphin with two parts philosophy, mix with a pastry blender or the back of a fork until crumbly but not dry and there you have Pi and his lame-o, cheesed out, boat ride to enlightenment.Actually I liked the beginning of this book- loved Pi's decleration and re-naming of himself, his adding religions like daisy's to a chain, and was really diggin on the family as a whole and then....then, then, then...

Life of Pi was a fairly engaging story in terms of plot and character, but what made it such a memorable book, for me at least, was its thematic concerns. Is it a "story that will make you believe in God," as Pi claims? I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I would recommend it to people who enjoy thinking about the nature of reality and the role of faith in our lives. To me, the entire thrust of the book is the idea that reality is a story, and therefore we can choose our own story (as the author h...

I read this book two years ago, but when we discussed it this month for book club, I remembered how much I liked it. A good discussion always ups my appreciation of a novel as does an ending that makes me requestion my givens in the story. I find myself reading contradictory interpretations and agreeing with both sides. That's the beauty of symbolism: as long as you back up your cause, it's plausible. Initially it took me several weeks to get into the book. The beginning reads more like a textbo...

On the surface Life of Pi is a funny little book, heart-warming and audacious, but dig a little deeper and you’ll see how complex the story actually is. The magically real elements make the story doubt itself; they call into question the probability of these events actually happening because they are so ridiculously unrealistic. As Pi says to those that disbelieve him: "I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you

No need to reinvent the wheel. Here's my Amazon.com review:It doesn't matter whether what you tell people is truth or fiction, because there's no such thing as truth, no real difference between fantasy and reality, so you might as well go with the more interesting story. That's "Life of Pi" in a nutshell. Sorry to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet. Remember that season of the TV series "Dallas" that turned out to be just a dream? That's kind of how you feel after you've invested hours o...

Life of Pi, Yann MartelLife of Pi is a Canadian fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist is Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry who explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Life of Pi, according to Yann Martel, can be summarized in three statements: "Life is a story... You can choos...

I loved this book! I watched the film before reading the book and I loved both of them. I enjoy short chapters so this was good for me. Best scene was the 3 religious men arguing about Pi's religion. Found it really smartly done and funny.

‘life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it - a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can.’ and sometimes stories are so beautiful that souls have fallen in a love with them - a tender, quiet love that nurtures what it can. this is one of those stories.its a story that will always have a special place in my heart. its one of the only books that has ever made me re-evaluate my beliefs on faith, it helped me further realise the impact and importance of the connection be

ليست رواية قدر ماهي رحلة روحية..رحلة البحث عن الذات..و اللهوالفيلم المقتبس عنها ليس مجرد مؤثرات وتمثيل..بل لوحة فنية قدمت جزء من روحانية الرواية بشكل فني بديعلذا لا تكتفي بواحدة وتترك الأخريIt's One big journey into the Pacific Ocean.Just you ,an Indian small boy and a royal Bengal Tiger.But before you're thrown to that small life boat into the wide ocean...you learn so much about your companion Indian boy.. his curiosity about Life, the Creator, Ultimate Reality, Brahman, God ,Allah..Little Pi

People often see me walking down the street, casually, minding my own business, and they always stop and ask me, "Yo, Justin, what are you reading these days?" And I'm always happy to stop and engage in conversation about what I'm reading, and I share a few thoughts about the book. "Yeah, it's not bad. Pretty good so far.""Really enjoying it! Better than I expected!""Oh man, it's alright I guess. Kinda slow."I like to keep my comments pretty general in nature. Also, that never actually happens t...

’ Life is a peephole, a single tiny entry onto a vastness.’We have all heard the phrase ‘you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.’ While this is a good life lesson, especially when taken as a metaphor that extends beyond books and into people, places, foods, etc., sometimes the cover of a novel is very telling of what lies within. Yann Martel’s Life of Pi wears it’s heart on it’s sleeve. A quick glance at the cover shows the overzealous stamp of ‘Winner of the Man Booker Prize’, INTERNATIONAL BESTS...

Once, while riding the bus, I told a friend I hated this book. A guy I'd never met turned around to tell me that he was shocked and this was a beautiful book. I can sum up my hatred of this book by saying this: At the end of the book a character asks "Do you prefer the story with animals or without?" I can say with conviction I prefer the story without the animals--the stupid, boring, symbolic animals.

UPDATE: Some will see this as good news...there is a movie based on this piffling 21st-century Kahlil Gibran ripoff, directed by Ang Lee, coming out...trailer here. As one can readily see, no smarm or treacle has been spared.The whole world has a copy of this book, including me...but not for long. Over 100,000 copies of this on GR, so how many trees died just for our copies alone? Don't go into the forest, ladies and gents, the trees will be lookin' for revenge after they read this book.There is...

On the surface, it's the story of a 16 year old Indian boy named "Pi" who, when he and his zookeeping family decide to transplant themselves and some animals to Canada, ends up stranded on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-lb Bengal tiger named "Richard Parker."Don't let the Rudyard Kipling-ness of the plot fool you! In reality, this book is an examination of faith in all its forms. Young Pi loves God, and to prove it he becomes Christian and Muslim in addition to his nat...

I'm a huge fan of Yann Martel's allegorical story.I read Life of Pi shortly after it had won the Booker, heavily intrigued by the story's improbable premise (boy in lifeboat with Bengal tiger). I was keen to see how the author could pull this off.But pull it off he did, taking me back to a wondrous childhood of adventure tales and fables.And you are welcome to whack me over the head with a leather-bound copy of War and Peace, but I am such a sucker for exotic book covers!Please read the book, do...

For years I noticed this book on display, particularly its cartoonish paperback cover. Was it a children's book? This Pi stuff -- was it something about math? It's a castaway story and like all castaway and shipwreck stories it's about human endurance, indomitable spirit and man vs. nature. The things that distinguish this story from Robinson Crusoe or Tom Hanks in Cast Away, is that the main character (Pi, short for Piscine) is trapped in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. He's Indian and multi-re...

As a sort of parable on the value of storytelling, Yann Martel's fantastical adventure, Life of Pi, is astonishing. In the most desperate of circumstances, while Pi is on his lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, imagination and storytelling are the keys to Pi's incredible story of survival. Issues about believability, what really happened on the boat, take a backseat to wonder, love, creativity and to a certain extent, madness. The novel is heavy on spirituality, but it is compelli...

This is not a story of a boy and his BFF tiger.This is nothing like Calvin and Hobbes.The tiger is nothing like Tigger or Lassie.This is not a YA book.That is worth pointing out I think, because the movie poster and trailer gave me this impression.This book has teeth.My initial thoughts on Life of Pi is that it is a book that demands to be read slowly due to a rambling nonlinear narrative in the first few chapters. Actually it is not, it can be read fairly quickly once you hit your stride with i...

Oh finally I get it. I read this a couple of years ago and it was supposed to be all about God. But no, it's not a religious allegory at all. It's about the collapse of communism. As the ocean liner of communism sinks under the weight of its own massive incompetence (a good idea, but the captain was drunk and the crew were sticky-fingered rascals), you leap overboard, clamber on to the only available boat (capitalism) only to find that there's a giant tiger on board which will eat you unless you...

As near as I can say, this should probably be 3.141592654 stars.I was disappointed in this novel, but not really surprised at this. Rather I was somewhat prepared for it, because the ratings for it, specifically by my GR friends and reviewers (people I follow), are all over the place. While over half of these ratings are good (4s and 5s), fully 28% are bad (1s and 2s). This is the highest percent of bad ratings for a Booker award winner since 2000 among these people.And, as indicated by my own r...

A man very much aware of the literary elements (obviously an avid reader and serious lit student), Yann Martel proves that a classic can certainly be construed. First off, start with a ridiculous scenario &, doing the reverse of what the Bengal tiger does in the lifeboat, fill it up with meat. He layers the inspirational tale beautifully, & it really helps that the writer's note at the beginning takes you straight to the main source. He knows tons about storytelling. This could have been a 60 pa...

“The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no?Doesn't that make life a story?” Life is a story and the story of Pi Patel is one of the most extraordinary stories that I have read in awhile. The story begins before the fateful shipwreck that makes up most of the novel. Pi is a little boy who lives in India on a zoo that his father owns. Pretty much the greatest place to live as a kid is on a zoo. After watching

Here’s another book I read, but never reviewed. I’m going to give you a glimpse into my “creative process,” if you will, when it comes to reviewing. First, I have to limber up . . . Then I rack my brain for inspiration . . . always making sure it’s super highbrow and spectacularly literary. In this case? This is a book about a boy . . . who survives a shipwreck only to find himself adrift on a life raft with an orangutan . . . a hyena . . . and a tiger . . . .Yep, that’s

I don't think Life of Pi deserves the low 2 star rating I gave it. But how could I help myself, after Martel got my hopes so high in the beginning, only to dash them against metaphorical rocks in a metaphorical sea? I don't think Pi went through such pain as I did when I realized to my dismay that the middle and the end of the book didn't come close to the engaging, complex beginning. I loved the incorporation of the religious theme into Pi's life at the beginning. The time in the zoo set the st...