Highest Rated Review by the Community
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community Jun 23, 2004
Pros: An amazing story
Cons: Starts a little slow
Summary: 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 ... read more
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Apr 22, 2013
Pros: Yann Martel's story is fascinating and like no other.
Cons: I liked Life of Pi better as a film than as a book.
Summary: I love books and I love movies. I get into the age old question, "which is better, the book or the movie?" often. With most, I almost always prefer the book to the movie, whether or not I read the book first or the movie. Last Christmas ... read more
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Feb 9, 2013
Pros: interesting story, fast and easy read
Cons: slow start, abrupt ending
Summary: The book called Life of Pi entered my mind at least 5 years ago and maybe more than that. I was hearing and reading excellent reviews about it, but I pretty much ignored them and didn't consider actually reading this book for many years for ... read more
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Sep 10, 2011
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
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Jul 13, 2008
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
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Rated a Somewhat Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Apr 18, 2008
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
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Jul 9, 2007
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
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Rated a Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Jun 25, 2007
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
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Jul 17, 2006
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
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Jun 19, 2006
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
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Feb 16, 2006
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
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Nov 27, 2005
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
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Aug 6, 2005
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
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Rated a Somewhat Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Mar 2, 2005
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
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Feb 23, 2005
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
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Feb 17, 2005
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
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Sep 17, 2004
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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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Aug 9, 2004
Pros: Complex and beautiful story that really has something to say!
Cons: slow and convoluted in the beginning,
may be too surreal for some tastes
Summary: This is not the latest book I have read, but it is the most haunting. A couple of years ago I stopped reading fiction. A string of poorly written books led me into a non-fiction holiday. This book gives me fresh hope for the genre. Synopsis Life of ... read more
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Aug 1, 2004
Pros: GREAT Story, epic adventure.
Cons: Tragic in many ways.
Summary: My friend the librarian was reading this last year during one of our weekend long competitions. We spend a lot of time waiting on the kids between events. I can't scrape myself off of the wall long enough to concentrate on reading, but she dutifully ... read more
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Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Jul 2, 2004
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
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