Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Life of Pi is a phenomenal book. It is terrifying, awe-inspiring, ironic, and extremely original, both in style and subject matter.
Piscine Molitor Patel (known to all as Pi) is a sixteen-year-old Indian boy living in the town of Pondicherry, one thousand miles South of Delhi, and with a population of 9,73, 829 ranging over 480 square miles of lush land. Pi loves swimming, animals, and God. He wants to, and does, practice three different religions: Hindu, Christian, and Muslim.
His family owns a large, colorfully variegated Zoo.
One impressive thing about Martel’s writing is his smooth, practical way of convincing you to leave some opinion behind you and take up another readily within the span of a half page. For example, my opinion of zoos (good ones, at any rate) has changed dramatically since reading Life of Pi.
The Pondicherry Zoo holds any number of animals, from Indian Rhinoceros, lions, leopards, and sloth to ostriches, swans, spotted deer, and goats. But when different times, the collapsing of the “New India”, and hope for a better life calls, Pi’s family, excepting many of their animals, decides to move, aboard a cargo ship crossing the Pacific, to Canada. They embark, and then, out in the middle of the ocean, an accident occurs, sinking the ship and most of its passengers.
The remaining survivors are Pi and the few animals caged and being transported, from the zoo to one in Canada, on the same ship: a hyena, an orang-utan, a wounded zebra, and a four hundred and fifty pound, magnificent Royal Bengal Tiger.
What ensues is a survival story in the most raw, un-romanticized sense. This book raises unique questions about humanity, faith, and fiction in the most simple, yet profound ways, and usually provides universal, wonderful answers to them.
The conclusion of Life of Pi will have you reconsidering things, and leave you feeling amazed, with a greater impression of what exists inside yourself and the outside world.
