LIFE of Pi - To Infinity and Beyond!
Written: Jun 23 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: An amazing story
Cons: Starts a little slow
The Bottom Line: Three point one four
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| proxam's Full Review: Yann Martel - Life of Pi: A Novel |
When I came across The Life of Pi by Yann Martell in the resident's lounge of an hotel in Spain, something stirred and I immediately grabbed it with both hands, furtively slinking off with it. Naturally, I left the book I'd just finished reading in its place (what do you think I am, some sort of filcher?)
So I swapped books...and I'm so very glad I did.
The basic premise of the book is the story of a young, 16-year-old Indian boy, Piscine Molitor Patel, who survives a shipwreck only to find himself sharing a lifeboat with a badly-injured zebra, a hyena, an orang-utan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger called Richard Parker (don't ask).
Not so ridiculous as it first sounds. You see, Pi's father is, or rather was, zookeeper at Pondicherry Zoo. The family have decided to up sticks and emigrate to Canada, and many of the animals have been sold to zoos in the USA and therefore accompany the family on the voyage.
Of course, it all goes horribly wrong and young Pi finds himself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with only the aforementioned animals for company.
That's when the fun begins...
The book is written in the first person narrative - the author forming it as though he interviewed Patel and has documented his fascinating tale.
The first few chapters of the book give us some of the background of Pi's early life - why he's called Pi, for example. He turns out to be a remarkable young fellow who, although brought up in a non-religious home, follows the indigenous Hindu faith obediently. That is, until he meets a Muslim cleric who impresses him so much he begins to pray to Allah. He also encounters a Catholic priest and opens his soul to that religion too. He doesn't convert, he follows all three religions.
When he and his family are confronted by the priest, the pandit, and the imam, there follows an exquisite passage where the three religious men try to convince Pi that he must choose just one. Their arguments are somewhat ridiculous and it ends with Pi protesting, "But I just want to love God".
These few chapters at the beginning can be rather heavy-going, but it's worth persevering to the aftermath of the shipwreck, because at that point the book explodes into a wonderful, crazy, magical story. A tale so fantastic, so illusory and incredible, it's hard to believe. Don't worry, it all makes sense eventually.
Besides, these opening chapters serve to let us understand PI and his thought processes later in the story.
Part Two of the book begins with a simple sentence: The boat sank.
What then follows is a meticulous account of Pi's 227 days floating aimlessly in a sea of...well, sea. Nothing is left from the description, the minutest details are all documented - even down to the tying of knots when he lashes some life-jackets and oars together to make a raft that he can tow behind the boat and escape to when necessary (there's a ruddy great tiger on board, remember?).
Danger lurks at every turn. At first the hyena is the biggest worry but, one-by-one, Richard Parker dispatches all the other animals on the boat. Then there are the sharks which constantly patrol the water around them.
Add to this the constant hunger, thirst and the ravages of the weather, and this could hardly be described as a pleasure cruise.
There are survival packs on the lifeboat, but Pi must learn to make use of everything around him - on the boat and in the water, to exist.
Not surprisingly, when sharing a small life-boat with a fully-grown Bengal tiger, thoughts tend to drift towards the big, striped, killing machine. To survive, Pi must control the tiger. He can never hope to out-live the tiger - if it gets hungry enough, Pi will become dinner. Therefore, for him to survive the ordeal, so must Richard Parker.
It's this relationship that makes the story so very interesting. In keeping the tiger alive, Pi also keeps himself alive.
There's a lot more to it than a boy and a tiger on a lifeboat though...in fact, that has very little to do with it at all!
The story is full of symbolism and I must admit, I didn't understand all of the references, but I knew they were there. As I read the book, I kept getting the impression of what a clever man Yann Martell must be.
There are mathematical references - Pi, 227 days (22/7=3.14286), even the fact that there are exactly 100 chapters. There are also religious references and parallels, some of which even intertwine with the mathematical symbolism (1 Kings 7:23). But, I'm in danger of disappearing up my own rectal passage here.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
What seems like a frivolous, yet symbolic flight of fancy, is actually much, much more than that. As an adventure story, it's exciting, entertaining and has just enough humour to prevent it being morose. As a horror story, it's inventive, innovative and grisly without being sensationalist.
However, as a tale of human endurance, it positively excels.
We learn of the lengths a human (or any animal) will go to to survive, and how the mind copes with it.
It's a wonderful, evocative, transfixing piece of literature which stretches the reader's credulity tauter than one of Britney Spiers' G-string, then snaps it like a dry twig. Bloomin' marvelous. If you haven't already read it, do it now - you won't be disappointed.
Yann Martell won the 2002 Booker prize for this work - he thoroughly deserved it.
Published by Canongate 2002
ISBN: 1 84195 392 X
Thanks for reading
Šproxam2004
Recommended:
Yes
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Alcohol & calculus don't mix. Don't drink & derive
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