Life of Pi
Posted by Doug Sat, 03 Jan 2004 04:24:00 GMT
Since our Sirius satellite radio wasn’t work on our trip to South Carolina, I bought and returned Life of Pi by Yann Martel from Cracker Barrel. This was a marvelous book. What I liked most about it was the originality. The story is about an Indian boy growing up in the ‘70s whose father owns a zoo. Because of the political and economic situation of India in the ‘70s his father sells all the animals in the zoo to zoos around the world (mainly the US), and moves his family to Canada. Unfortunately, the ship that’s carrying Pi, his family, and all the zoo animals to Canada sinks in the middle of the Pacific. Pi ends up in a life boat with a zerbra (who has a broken leg), an orangutang, a spotted hyena, and an adult bengal tiger. Before too many days pass, it’s down to Pi and the tiger. The bulk of the book is about the 200-some-odd days it takes Pi to float his life boat across the Pacific to Mexico. While sometimes gruesome and often funny, the book reads like a true story. I kept thinking through out the book, “This isn’t real, is it? I would have heard of this wouldn’t I?” But the story is told with such detail that it seems true. Overall, I give the writing at 10. The book was billed as a Spiritual book. I guess it is. He mentions God through out. To most secular reviewers that would make it a Spiritual book. Pi pretty much creates his own religion by merging Hindu, Islam, and Catholicism. But I don’t consider this really a spiritual book. Martel doesn’t cover any new ground. He’s not trying to make a point that I ever figured out. There are some small point here and there; a really good chapter on fear. But no overall Spiritual theme (such as you’d find in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance). It’s just a story about survival. I highly recommend the book. I’m pretty sure Carla won’t agree, but you’ll have to ask her.
