TheLifeOfPi

Yann Martel, The Life of Pi (2002) ISBN 0-676-97377-9 (amazon.com, search)

Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize.

A compelling tale of Piscine Monitor Patel, known as Pi, a young boy growing up in the forgotten French colony in India, Pondicherri, who decides to be Hindu, Muslim, and Christian in search of the better story. His zookeeper father decides to migrate the family to Canada, setting sail on a Japanese cargo ship doomed to the briny underworld. Pi is castaway on a harrowing 227 day journey across the Pacific, trapped with a Royal Bengal Tiger as his sole companion on his tiny lifeboat. The reader travels with Pi as he must face adversity with the very core of his being. Or at least along the better story.

---

Has anyone else read this? -- SunirShah

I enjoyed it. The "Author's Note" at the start had me puzzled: it presents itself as a real foreword from the real author, and the novel that follows as a true story the author was told. Early chapters (printed in italics) purport to be the author's voice relating his meetings with the narrator of the rest of the book, Pi. However, by the end, this fiction is dispelled -- the "carnivorous island" did it for me (in fact I didn't really like that section at all, it seemed very different from everything else). So it's clear to me now that the "Author's Note" is a meta-fiction -- but I'm still unclear as to what purpose it serves. -- tarquin

I thought Cast Away (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319061/) combined with BigFish? (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319061/) and directed by M. Night Shymalan (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0796117/). -- JasonYip

---

A BookOnTheBookshelf, depicting VisionsOfWonder