Yann Martel - Life of Pi: A Novel Reviews

Yann Martel - Life of Pi: A Novel

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    Highest Rated Review by the Community

  • A BREATHTAKING, POETIC SURVIVAL STORY

    Jul 02 '04
    Pros: Poetic prose concerning an unbelievable believable tale
    Cons: Not one

    Summary: I had heard about this book months before I bought it. I bought the book months before I read it. I buy and read several books (sometimes 2 or 3 at the same time, well, not literally at the same time, but you know what I mean). "The Life of Pi" ... read more

  • Life of Pi

    Sep 10 '11
    Pros: Fascinating story.
    Cons: Slow moving.

    Summary: My best friend recommended this book to me a couple years ago.  The cover looked interesting as did the premise, and it was a pretty popular book so I decided to take a look.  I read it through, decided I didn't know what to think of it, and ... read more

  • Review Rookie: Excellent novel that moves me greatly, but doesn't make me believe in God.

    Oct 27 '08
    Pros: Good flow of imagination
    Cons: Dragginess aren't picking up, arrgh

    Summary: WE ALL HAVE SINS - I'M FOR THE "FLAT TASTELESS" STORY I'm not an avid reviewer with a lot of fancy vocabularies. I don't care for misspelled words; I certainly am not a pro at this. Many people have done this review and geiven details of this ... read more

  • A Harmless, Soulless, Nigh-Meaningless Adventure

    Jul 13 '08
    Pros: Reads quickly; questions in the beginning are answered at the end
    Cons: flawed, depressing philosophy; parts read like encyclopedia entries; author tries too hard with foreign character

    Summary: Some printings of this book claim that it will make you believe in God, as does one of the characters. I believe in God. I disagree. Reviewing this book without providing spoilers is going to be much less fulfilling, but so be it. Suffice it to say ... read more

  • The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

    Apr 18 '08
    Pros: Beautiful message
    Cons: Starts off a bit slow

    Summary: Let me start by saying that this is my absolute favorite book. I heard about it from my pastor and went out and bought it. This book changed my life with its beautiful message. I will warn you, it starts off as a somewhat difficult read with lots of ... read more

  • Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

    Jul 09 '07
    Pros: - Riveting storyline - Full of unorthodox wisdom and truisms - Great characterization
    Cons: - Unstable rhetoric style - Story drags in the middle somewhat

    Summary: "This book was born when I was hungry." And so the yarn is spun, reflecting one of the most fundamental tenets of the human condition; that necessity is the mother of invention. Extreme tragedies and losses often provide the requisite platform for the ... read more

  • A SIMPLE SECRET OF THE UNIVERSE

    Jun 25 '07
    Pros: Philosophical content
    Cons: A tad grisly, in parts

    Summary: SPOILER WARNING: apparently there is a 'surprise ending' which this review gives away. Oops.A lot of people don't like my tangential reviews. As if the discussion of ideas were simply not enough. They tell me they don't like the way i skirt ... read more

  • Life of Pi - You'll like it!

    Jul 17 '06
    Pros: beautifully written. wonderfully story. thought provoking!
    Cons: hard to get into. parts are monotonous.

    Summary: When my Aunt first recommended this book and told me the premise, (a boy is shipwrecked and survives on a lifeboat with a Bengal Tiger,) I thought she'd lost her mind. That does not sound like a book I would be interested in, it sounds like a weird ... read more

  • A boy, his boat, and a tiger - Life of Pi by Yann Martel

    Jun 19 '06
    Pros: Great storytelling...
    Cons: Slow start...

    Summary: “Interpretation is not the art of construing but the art of construction. Interpreters do not decode poems, they make them.” – Stanley Fish (Is There a Text in This Class?) “The circus lions don’t care to know that their leader is a weakling ... read more

  • -Audio Book Review- I loved it but too much detail for some.

    Feb 16 '06
    Pros: Details, ethics and fascination in an enchanting package.
    Cons: 11 1/2 hours long and may be tedious for some.

    Summary: I was somewhat reluctant to read this book. After all, it is 11 1/2 hours of your life and reviews I read on most sites showed people who loved this book while others felt it was a thorough waste of time. I think you have to like two types of writing ... read more

  • Soul searching novel worthy of all its praise.

    Nov 27 '05
    Pros: Faith affirming first-class adventure. Makes you believe the unbelievable.
    Cons: There are some graphic animal violence scenes.

    Summary: How would you act if your entire family died on a scuttled ship? Now, what would you do if the only other survivor were a 500 lb. tiger? Who happened to also be in the same lifeboat. You will never be in this predicament (knock on wood), but Y. Martel ... read more

  • Fantastically unique and refreshing

    Aug 06 '05
    Pros: excellent prose, one of the original works ive read in a while
    Cons: none

    Summary: It's rare to come by books that seem to break the most conventional modes of storytelling. Life of Pi does that for me; it does not seem to fit into any genre, but is clearly a story, in the sense that it is not so radically written that it is the mere ... read more

  • A Story to Make You Believe in God

    Mar 02 '05
    Pros: Seamless marriage of story and abstract musings; excellent prose; extremely believable/engaging protagonist, if not plot
    Cons: Unnecessarily long introductory section; somewhat preachy treatment of the virtues of zoos

    Summary: (Preliminary note: This review was taken from jdjedi.blogspot.com, a blog I have maintained for some time. This review has not been plagiarized; I and the author of that blog are the same individual. Also, please note that this review contains ... read more

  • The Double Life Of The Life Of Pi

    Feb 23 '05
    Pros: A great story, endless interpretive possibilities.
    Cons: Slow to get going.

    Summary: Writing about religion can be a tricky business. If you're too controversial, you're pretty much guaranteed to upset an awful lot of people (although it never did Dan Brown any harm). Go too far the other way, and it can all seem a bit dogmatic, ... read more

  • Fantastic!

    Feb 17 '05
    Pros: Well written, easy to read, very deep, emotional
    Cons: Slow beginning

    Summary: So came the assignment. Read one book of Canadian fiction. And do a review of it. Hmmm. I’d read quite a bit of Canadian fiction in recent years. And for the most part I’ve been very disappointed. People in my country, despite living in one of the ... read more

  • A Boy, A Shipwreck, His Religion and His Tiger

    Sep 17 '04
    Pros: One of the best examples of story-telling I've seen in a while.
    Cons: None.

    Summary: This is a novel of such rare and wondrous storytelling that it may, as one character claims, make you believe in God. Can a reader reasonably ask for anything more? - from the dust jacket I'm not a religious man, so after seeing that ... read more

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ISBN13: 9780156027328. ISBN10: 0156027321. by Yann Martel. Published by Harcourt Trade Publishers. Edition: 01
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ISBN13: 9780156030205. ISBN10: 0156030209. by Yann Martel. Published by Harcourt Trade Publishers. Edition: 01
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