Review: Life of Pi

Author:Yann Martel

Genre: Fiction (2001)

About: Piscine (Pi), a 16-year-old boy, the son of a zookeeper, is moving with his family and their zoo animals from India to Canada. They are aboard a Japanese cargo ship when it sinks in the Pacific Ocean. Pi tells his story of survival aboard a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker (I love that name for a tiger, and the story about how he got that name is interesting.)

Descriptive Words: Multicultural, philosophical, bizarre, survival, gruesome

Thoughts: I've never read a book whose rating, while reading, varied as much as this one. From a 2 to a 5, back and forth. A 2 means I struggled to finish; a 5 means I loved it. Life of Pi and I had a love/hate relationship.

I don't like stories that are unbelievable; I don't have an imagination and I admit it. I enjoyed the beginning when Pi talked about his family and their zoo, and how he embraced the different aspects of Muslim, Christianity and Hindu. But then the boat sank and the Bengal tiger ended up in the lifeboat with Pi, and at first he avoided the tiger so as not to be eaten and then he wanted the tiger so he would protect him.... And then they ran into some other random guy in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean... And then the tiger was ripping and shredding and eating heads and legs and hearts and...bleh. I thought, This is so bizarre, why am I reading this? But what should I do now...stop reading? I was too far into it by then, and I had to find out what the fuss was all about. I'm glad I did. It's definitely interesting in an odd sort of way. I need to read it again. I think I might be able to wrap my head around it better the second time around.

Source: I own

Why I Chose: Peer pressure. Everyone else jumped off the bridge, so yes Dad, I jumped too.

Recommend? Yes/No - You decide (how's that for ambiguity)

Rating: 3.5 / 5 I think I would give this a higher rating if I re-read it

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