I took a detour from my sci-fi path to read Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Annoyingly, I see no publication date in the book, but the first copyright is in 2001. The book won the “Man Booker Prize” which seems to be a relatively new award for contemporary fiction. Emili initially bought this book because it is apparently going to be made into a movie. Instead of actually reading it, she gave it directly to me.
In a nutshell, the book is about an Indian boy named Piscine Molitor Patel. Piscine, or Pi, becomes stranded in a lifeboat at sea in the company of a Bengal tiger. Most of the story is about how Pi survives for nearly a year at sea with this oft hostile tiger in close quarters.
Pi grows up in India as the son of a zoo owner. The beginning of the book contains lots of information and thought-provoking ideas about animals and zoos. As Pi gets a little older, he becomes deeply religious – to the point where he becomes a practicing Hindu, Christian, and Muslim. Religion is a strong theme in the book and, like the talk of animals, one that makes the reader think.
Pi and his family wind up making a trip to Canada by boat, carrying with them a number of animals that they intend to sell to other zoos. The boat sinks and this is when Pi finds himself alone on a lifeboat with a tiger who managed to escape the sinking ship. Seeing how Pi survives on the ocean along with dealing with the tiger was very interesting. This part of the book was very fanciful at times. But at the very end of the novel, there is a realization that makes the reader suddenly see deep layers of meaning across the entire story.
Changing gears, Quite a few of the reviews talk about how funny the book is:
“An impassioned defense of zoos, a death-defying trans-Pacific sea adventure a la Kon-Tiki, and hilarious… This audacious novel manages to be all of these.”
-The New Yorker
Yes, there were some amusing parts, but I didn’t find it to be the non-stop chuckle-fest that some of these reviewers apparently thought it was. I felt that Life of Pi was more dark and searching than it was funny. One thing I really liked is that there are “Reading Group” questions in the back of the book. I read all of these questions and they helped me to think about the novel’s meaning.
Anyway, I always like my departures from sci-fi to be deep and enriching. This book was certainly that and so I give it the Ross stamp of approval.