Life of Pi

published	2006 by Seal Books
first published	2001
binding	Mass Market Paperback
isbn	0770430074 (isbn13: 9780770430078)
pages	480
literary awards	2002 Booker Prize Winner
description	Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure...more [close] Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion." An award winner in Canada (and winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize), Life of Pi, Yann Martel's second novel, should prove to be a breakout book in the U.S. At one point in his journey, Pi recounts, "My greatest wish--other than salvation--was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and fresh understanding each time." It's safe to say that the fabulous, fablelike Life of Pi is such a book. --Brad Thomas Parsons [close]
date added	12-06-06 edit book

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Eva rated it:

11/17/07

Read in October, 2002

It is not so much that The Life of Pi, is particularly moving (although it is). It isn’t even so much that it is written with language that is both delicate and sturdy all at once (which it is, as well). And it’s certainly not that Yann Martel’s vision filled passages are so precise that you begin to feel the salt water on your skin (even though they are). It is that, like Bohjalian and Byatt and all of the great Houdini’s of the literary world, in the last few moments of your journ...more It is not so much that The Life of Pi, is particularly moving (although it is). It isn’t even so much that it is written with language that is both delicate and sturdy all at once (which it is, as well). And it’s certainly not that Yann Martel’s vision filled passages are so precise that you begin to feel the salt water on your skin (even though they are). It is that, like Bohjalian and Byatt and all of the great Houdini’s of the literary world, in the last few moments of your journey – after you’ve felt the emotions, endured the moments of heartache, yearned for the resolution of the characters’ struggle – that you realize the book is not what you thought it was. The story transforms, instantly, and forever.

And in those last few chapters, you suddenly realize that the moral has changed as well.

You feel Martel’s words lingering, suggesting, and you find yourself wondering whether you are his atheist who takes the deathbed leap of faith – hoping for white light and love? Or the agnostic who , in trying to stay true to his reasonable self, explains the mysteries of life and death in only scientific terms, lacking imagination to the end, and, essentially, missing the better story?

There is no use in trying to provide a brief synopsis for this ravishing tale of a young boy from India left adrift in the Pacific in a lifeboat with a tiger who used to reside in his father’s zoo in Pondicherry. There is no use because once you finish the book you might decide that this was not, indeed, what the book was about at all. There is no use because, depending on your philosophical bent, the book will mean something very different to your best friend than it will to you. There is no use because it is nearly impossible to describe what makes this book so grand.

Read this book. Not because it is an exceptional piece of literary talent. It is, of course. But there are many good authors and many good books. While uncommon, they are not endangered. Read this book because in recent memory - aside from Jose Saramago’s arresting Blindness – there have been no stories which make such grand statements with such few elements. As Pi says in his story “Life on a lifeboat isn’t much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The elements couldn’t be more simple, nor the stakes higher.” It is the same with Martel’s undulating fable of a book about a boy in a boat with a tiger. A simple story with potentially life altering consequences for it’s readers.

As Martel writes, "The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no?" Like Feynman’s cat in the box, the way this book is understood, the way it is perceived affects what it is. There has been some talk that this book will make it’s readers believe in god. I think it’s a question of perspective. To behold this gem of a novel as an adventure of man against the elements (the “dry, yeastless factuality” of what actually happened) is certainly one way to go about it. But to understand this piece to be something indescribable, something godlike, is by far the greater leap of faith.

Oh, but worth the leap, if the reader is like that atheist, willing to see the better story.

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Julia rated it:

06/18/08

Read in June, 2008

recommended to Julia by: book club, lots of friends, Amazon, Powells, Man Booker judges o
recommends it for: zookeepers and/or shipwreck memoir aficionados

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Is it possible to recommend heartily a book that I almost stopped reading on three separate occasions? Based on some amazing recommendations for this book, I broke some of my book-buying rules. So utterly assured was I that this book brimmed with potential to become my new Favorite Book For A Few Months that I bought the book instead of checking it out from the library. In addition, I purchased the hardback and not the paperback - that hasn't happened for a very long time - harkening back to ...more

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Trevor rated it:

03/05/08

I found a lot of this book incredibly tedious. I tend to avoid the winners of the Man / Booker – they make me a little depressed. The only Carey I haven’t liked won the Booker (Oscar and Lucinda), I really didn’t like the little bit of Vernon God Little I read and I never finished The Sea despite really liking Banville’s writing. So, being told a book is a winner of the Booker tends to be a mark against it from the start, unfortunately.

I’m going to have to a...more

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Jesse rated it:

07/14/08

Life of Pi was a fairly engaging story in terms of plot and character, but what made it such a memorable book, for me at least, was its thematic concerns. Basically, this is one of the most thematically interesting books I've read in a while. Is it a "story that will make you believe in God," as Pi claims? I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I would say that many people who enjoy thinking about the possibility of God would find this a compelling read. (I happen to be one of those people...more Life of Pi was a fairly engaging story in terms of plot and character, but what made it such a memorable book, for me at least, was its thematic concerns. Basically, this is one of the most thematically interesting books I've read in a while. Is it a "story that will make you believe in God," as Pi claims? I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I would say that many people who enjoy thinking about the possibility of God would find this a compelling read. (I happen to be one of those people, and what follows is a much too long summary of my thoughts on some of the questions and themes raised by this book.)

To me, the entire thrust of The Life of Pi [SPOILER ALERT] is aimed at the idea that reality is a story, and therefore we can choose our own story (as the author himself put it). So if life is a story, that leaves us two basic choices: we can limit ourselves only to what we can know for sure - that is, to "dry, yeastless factuality" - or we can choose "the better story." I suppose in Pi's world the "better story" includes God, but he doesn't suggest that this is the only meaningful possibility. In fact, Pi calls atheists his "brothers and sisters of a different faith," because, like Pi, atheists "go as far as the legs of reason will carry them - and then they leap."

Pi's point, in my opinion, is that human experience always involves interpretation, that our knowledge is necessarily limited, that both religious belief and atheism require a leap of faith of one kind or another. It's not that you must believe in God to be happy (even though Pi clearly finds peace in his beliefs); rather, the important thing is that you make a choice to bring meaning and richness to your life, that you look beyond pure, uninterpreted fact and find a better reality, that you exercise faith and strive for ideals (whatever the object of your faith and whatever those ideals might be ). Or as Pi himself puts it: "To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."

In the end, I didn't necessarily read this book as an invitation to believe in God, but rather as a mirror held up to the reader, a test to see what kind of world view the reader holds. [SPOILER ALERT] That is, as Pi himself says, since "it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with the animals or the story without the animals?" Or, as I took it: Is it my nature to reach for and believe the better but less likely story? Or do I tend to believe the more likely but less lovely story? What view of reality do I generally adhere to?

Another equally important question is this: How did I come by my view of reality? Do I view the world primarily through the lens of reason? Or do I view it through the lens of emotion? For Pi, I think it's safe to say his belief comes by way of emotion. He has, as one reviewer noted, a certain scepticism about reason (in fact, Pi calls it "fool's gold for the bright"). Pi also has what I would call a subtle but real basis for his belief in God, namely, "an intellect confounded yet a trusting sense of presence and ultimate purpose." But belief still isn't easy for him. Despite his trusting sense of purpose, Pi acknowledges that "Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer." So it's not that a life of faith is easier, in Pi's opinion, it's that for him belief is ultimately more worthwhile.

This is not to say, however, that Pi holds a completely postmodern view of God or that he believes in God as a matter of art rather than in a sincere way. [SPOILER ALERT] True, Pi suggests that whether you believe his story has a tiger in it is also a reflection of your ability to believe in something higher. And of course it's easy to read Pi's entire story as an attempt to put an acceptable gloss on a horrific experience. Still...there are a number of clues throughout the book that, in my opinion, give the reader at least some reason to believe that Pi's story DID have a tiger in it (for instance, the floating banana and the meerkat bones). As such, Pi's two stories could be seen as an acknowledgement that both atheism and belief in God require some faith, and therefore it's up to each of us to choose the way of life that makes us the happiest. He's not necessarily saying that the truth is what you make it, he's saying we don't have unadulturated access to the truth: our imagination, personalities, and experiences unavoidably influence the way we interact with the world. But that's not the same as saying whatever we imagine is true. I think Pi, for instance, knows which of his stories is true. It's not Pi but the reader who is left with uncertainty and who therefore has to throw her hands up and say "I don't know," or else choose one story or the other. And to me, this isn't too far off from the predicament we all find ourselves in.

[SPOILER ALERT] And that's what makes Life of Pi such a challenge to the reader: Pi's first story is fantastic, wonderful, but hard to believe. Yet there's some evidence that it happened just the way he said it did. And Pi's second story is brutal, terrible, but much easier to accept as true. Yet it's not entirely plausible either, and it leaves no room for the meerkat bones or Pi's "trusting sense of presence and ultimate purpose." If the reader personally dismisses the tiger story out of hand, I suppose that's another way of saying the reader, by nature, tends to believe the more likely but less lovely story. In the same way, if the reader gets to the story's payoff and still believes there was a tiger in the boat, the reader is probably inclined to believe the more emotionally satisfying story. But it should be born in mind that Pi doesn't definitively state which story was true, something which only he can know for sure. All we can really be sure of, in Pi's universe, is that he was stuck on a lifeboat for a while before making it to shore. [SPOILER ALERT] So which story do I believe? I struggled with that question for a long time. But after thinking about it for a couple of days, I'll end this review with the final lines from the book: "Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal Tiger." ...less

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Adrian rated it:

06/06/08

bookshelves: fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

No need to reinvent the wheel. Here's my Amazon.com review:

It doesn't matter whether what you tell people is truth or fiction, because there's no such thing as truth, no real difference between fantasy and reality, so you might as well go with the more interesting story. That's "Life of Pi" in a nutshell. Sorry to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet.

Remember that season of the TV series "Dallas" that turned out to be just a dream? That's kind of how you feel a...more No need to reinvent the wheel. Here's my Amazon.com review:

It doesn't matter whether what you tell people is truth or fiction, because there's no such thing as truth, no real difference between fantasy and reality, so you might as well go with the more interesting story. That's "Life of Pi" in a nutshell. Sorry to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet.

Remember that season of the TV series "Dallas" that turned out to be just a dream? That's kind of how you feel after you've invested hours of your time reading page after page of a quite engrossing survival narrative, only to find out that it was all something the survivor made up.

Or was it? Ah, there's the twist that we're supposed to find so clever. But the officials from the ship company who tell Pi they don't believe his story are such hopelessly weak strawmen that the author pretty much forces you to accept the "better story." Pi, and, by extension, Martel, have no patience for the "dry, yeastless factuality" that the ship officials want, you see. Never mind whether it's closer to the truth -- it's just too boring, and we need colorful stories to make our lives richer. Besides, Pi and Martel say, as soon as something leaves your mouth, it's no longer reality -- it's only your interpretation of reality. So why bother grasping for the truth? You prefer the Creation story to the Big Bang? Then go with the Creation story, even if it defies logic and scientific discovery.

That's all well and good. Everyone likes a good story. But there's a time and a place for them, and the ship officials didn't need a story -- they needed to know what happened to their ship. To that end, Pi's entire tale is irrelevant anyway. And that, in turn, makes you wonder what the whole point of the book was. Other than, maybe, to laud the power of storytelling in a really hamfisted manner. Or to advocate for taking refuge in fantastical fiction when reality is too harsh. Or to champion shallow religious beliefs ("Why, Islam is nothing but an easy sort of exercise, I thought. Hot-weather yoga for the Bedouins. Asanas without sweat, heaven without strain."). Or to bash agnostics. Or something.

Be advised that this is not a book for children or the squeamish. Pi's transformation from vegetarian to unflinching killer, and Richard Parker's dietary habits, are rife with gratuituously gory details about the manner in which animals suffer and are killed and eaten.

The story promises to make you believe in God. Yet with Martel's insistence that a well-crafted story is just as good as or even preferable to reality, he leaves us not believing in a god of any kind, but rather suggesting that we embrace the stories that religions have made up about their gods, regardless of those stories' relation to scientific knowledge, since the stories are so darn nice, comfy, warm, and fuzzy in comparison with real life. Whether the God in the stories actually exists, meanwhile, becomes totally irrelevant. So ultimately, Martel makes a case for why he thinks people SHOULD believe in God -- it's a respite from harsh reality, we're told, a way to hide from life rather than meet it head-on with all of its pains and struggles -- and that's quite different from what he ostensibly set out to do. He trivializes God into a "nice story," a trite characterization sure to offend many readers.

Pi sums up this postmodern worldview by telling the ship investigators, "The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no?" Well, no, the world IS just the way it is, in all of its highs and lows, triumphs and tragedies, happiness and sadness. But Pi and Martel's solution is to avoid the whole messy thing altogether, pretend that the way things are don't really exist, and pull a security blanket of fiction over your head. Create your own reality as you see fit. That's called escapism. It's fine when you want to curl up with a good book on a rainy day and get lost in the story for a few hours, but it's a lousy way to try to deal with real life.

Pi would tell me that I lack imagination, just as he told the investigators they lacked imagination when Pi claimed he couldn't "imagine" a bonsai tree since he's never seen one, as a way of mocking the investigators' reluctance to believe in Pi's carnivorous island. (Nice cultural stereotyping with the bonsai, by the way -- the investigators are Japanese.) But you see the problem, right? It's not a matter of lacking imagination. It's a matter of conflating things that are obviously imaginary with things that are obviously real. They're not one and the same. It's ludicrous to suggest otherwise. You might as well say that the story of Frodo and the Ring is every bit as real as the American Revolution.

Pi also tells us, quite pointedly, that choosing agnosticism is immobilizing, while atheists and religious folks make a courageous leap of faith. Yet immobility is precisely where Pi places us, so that by the time the book ends, you're stuck not knowing what to think about what you've just read. Do you accept the original shipwreck story just because it's more engrossing, even if it's less believable? Or do you accept the plausible but boring story Pi gives to the officials after he's rescued? Fanciful religious allegories or cold, scientific recitation of facts that might come from the mouth of an atheist -- we're expected to pick one or the other.

But it's a false dichotomy. We needn't make a choice between embracing religious tales merely because they're more interesting or settling for the sobering realities of science and reason. We can go as far as our reason will take us and then leave ourselves open to further possibilities -- just as Pi himself suggests. That's not immobility. That's intellectual honesty -- an admission that I don't know all the answers but am willing to keep an open mind about whatever else is presented to me.

Seems better than saying you might as well just accept the better story since it really makes no difference. That's laziness. And it doesn't make for a very good story. ...less

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Tiffany rated it:

03/16/08

bookshelves: 2008, literature

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Tiffany by: media hype
recommends it for: atheists who want confirmation for their beliefs

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I discovered early in The Life of Pi why the main character was named after a infinite number - the book is an interminable bore. This book is sort of a Rorschach test for religious belief, so here's my take. If you haven't read Pi yet and want to, the rest of my review will spoil it for you, so be warned. The story is told in 3 parts. The opening is a reflection back on Pi's childhood at the zoo in Pondicherry. During this segment, he tells us that his story will lead us to have faith in God, a...more I discovered early in The Life of Pi why the main character was named after a infinite number - the book is an interminable bore. This book is sort of a Rorschach test for religious belief, so here's my take. If you haven't read Pi yet and want to, the rest of my review will spoil it for you, so be warned. The story is told in 3 parts. The opening is a reflection back on Pi's childhood at the zoo in Pondicherry. During this segment, he tells us that his story will lead us to have faith in God, and that the next part of the story "has a happy ending."
In the next section of the book, Pi is on a boat that sinks. His family dies and he floats on a lifeboat with several animals including a very dangerous tiger. At first, the tiger is hidden from Pi's view, but as he becomes more desperate to survive and more willing to stretch the boundaries of his civilized nature, the tiger emerges and the two survive together. The tiger is symbolic of Pi's animal nature, which allows him to resort to whatever he must do to survive such a harrowing experience. He resorts to cannibalism, eating feces, and several other disgusting things in his efforts to survive, and advises the reader not to judge him harshly.
In the meantime, he is performing religious rituals that he makes up and says that God helped him survive. My reading of this was fairly dark and I'm assuming this was tongue in cheek. He talks in one breath about atrocities and in the next about God saving him. It struck me as the opposite of Martel's stated intent to make someone believe in God; rather, he was making fun of people who do. Pi finds an island of algae where he floats for several days. It appears to be beautiful and a respite from his troubles - in actuality, it's an ugly, horrible place where innocent, peaceful creatures are gobbled up by the tiger, and Pi is happy for them to be sacrificed. Pi's feet are burned by the ground. Fruit has teeth. Nothing is at it seems. In my opinion, the island is a representation of the promise of organized religion. It looks beautiful and promises respite from grief and sorrow, hunger and despair. But in actuality, beliefs divide us; people are killed for religion. Many times we float "alone" but for the presence of God, or we face illness, pain, death, despair. We are left to ask ourselves why God has abandoned us if our faith is not strong. What should be good turns hideous.
In the final section, Pi leaves the island and is rescued. The men who come to interview him are told the story of Pi's journey to safety, and they don't believe him. Pi at first tells them that they should take his story on faith, much like we take our religion beliefs and Biblical teachings on faith.
When the men are not satisfied about Pi's account, he changes his story so that it's easier for the interviewers to understand - saying that each animal actually represented a person. Which is true is left open to the readers interpretation. Pi tells of the atrocities he committed, and the atrocities committed by the other survivors. He explains how he murdered one of his crewmates to survive. Then, after the other man's death, "Solitude began. I turned to God. I survived." It's over the top ironic - he only turns to God AFTER he murders someone! If he hadn't committed a murder, he would have been killed by the other man. God comes into play after there is nothing to fear.
Pi asks the interviewers which story they prefer - the cleaned up version with the animals, or the version with the people committing murders and atrocities against each other. They prefer the animal version. Pi says, "And so it goes with God." We prefer the nicer version, the cleaned up version. Not the version where God leaves us to struggle and we suffer, but the version where love triumphs and God stands beside us. The "happy ending" is one that is manufactured - Martel's truth seems to be that we people of faith are dupes; if only we would look at the darkness, we would see the humanity in it. He fails to understand that that is exactly the point of faith.
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Mark rated it:

(review of isbn 0156027321)

03/16/08

Read in January, 2008

Yan Martel’s book, Life of Pi, is a good read: interesting, imaginative and cohesive. The book is interesting because of the seemingly painstaking research he did in writing about life as a castaway. The details in part two are helpful and in-depth without being drawn-out and dreary. Life of Pi is imaginative as well. Piscine, a small Indian boy is the main character and Martel succeeds in picking up what I consider to be Indian characteristics of both voice and attitude. I write that hav...more Yan Martel’s book, Life of Pi, is a good read: interesting, imaginative and cohesive. The book is interesting because of the seemingly painstaking research he did in writing about life as a castaway. The details in part two are helpful and in-depth without being drawn-out and dreary. Life of Pi is imaginative as well. Piscine, a small Indian boy is the main character and Martel succeeds in picking up what I consider to be Indian characteristics of both voice and attitude. I write that having spent time in northern India and Nepal, and the book reminded me of several Indian people I met as well as several I know today adding a more real flavor to it for me. Martel’s imagination and talent for story-telling (also part of the underlying story) leads the reader into some painful parts because it is not so hard to imagine the reality of the situation in which Pi finds himself however strange it may first seem. In reading Part I, it is hard to tell how it belongs with Part II, until one reads Part III. This cohesive rounding out of the story is often lost in novels, but Martel does a great job of bringing the first part around again at the end. Which brings me to the main point of this review: Life of Pi’s cohesive nature brings out the underlying question concerning reality, truth and religion: how and why we perceive and accept truth respectively.

Martel attacks this question in several ways. First, he seems to be stating that because animals (including human beings) are not partial to change, we are missing the real religious truth: that God is in no one religion. I believe that this point is the underlying storyline between Pi’s and Richard Parker’s relationship. In order to understand God’s “real” nature, a departure from the religious norm is imperative. Part one sets up this underlying storyline nicely, but all along the way, religious belief seems to play a large part with the main character, until Chapter 16 when it is clear that the point is: no one religion is right, all religions are man-made, and there is only one God. Piscine is involved in discovering ways of worshipping and concludes that “to me [Piscine], religion is about our dignity, not our depravity.” (71). The point being that “If there’s only one nation in the sky [God], shouldn’t all passports [religion] be valid for it?” (74) All of this seems to have no place in Part II, which reads like a detailed documentation of Piscine’s strange adventure/nightmare at sea, and the typical relationship between predator and prey. Part III, brings the mysterious importance upon religion in Part I together. Adding to his first point, one God/no religion, Martel seems to draw on two other sources of spiritual thought: William James and G.K Chesterton’s view of the reality of religious experience, and the apparent belief that all stories are true based upon our perceptions and abilities to accept truth (which can be seen as one in the same). This is exemplified in Pi telling the story of his experience to the ship owners who do not believe the real story but fall for a story that Piscine invents using his experience as a basis. Martel seems to be pointing out that many times reality is not accepted because it seems so unreal and that the unreality of a story is not necessarily proof of its falsehood. While his story is well worth reading, I think that the underlying religious ontology is both dangerous and mistaken.
Life if Pi is exemplary of modern day spirituality. In posing thoughts such as those above, Pi becomes the quintessential spiritualist. The story is a good one, but the underlying message seems to be: truth depends upon how we perceive it. The argument is an old one, but no less dangerous in its consequences. The ontological argument is entailed in modern spirituality, except that modern spirituality, instead of trying to prove itself through rationality, steeps itself in mystery while at the same time (most of the time indirectly) demanding truth for its claims. Spirituality of this sort is not agnostic by nature, but theological and as such is nothing more than a new twist on an old idea: that a God exists and hence purpose exists. Setting the religious aspect aside Life of Pi starts slow and picks up speed throughout. It is a book that grabs the reader slowly but hooks the imagination as the story unfolds; it seems to be meticulously researched in parts, and has a philosophical undertone that is at the very most somewhat interesting. The story is both humorous and gripping leaving the reader with a good literary after-taste, but this reader very skeptical of the author’s true literary intent.
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pipitta rated it:

05/30/08

Buku ini betul-betul melabrak semua batas imajinasiku... :D Ini adalah buku pertama yang gw beli di awal tahun 2005. Lumayan lama banget yah, gw baru sempet nge-review sekarang nih. Komentar gw: Top banget! a must have book of the year… Bener lho, buku yang ditulis Yann Martel ini emang bener2 pantes dapet penghargaan Man Booker Prize karena ceritanya yang fantastis. Hasil terjemahan buku terbitan Gramedia ini juga bagus. Selera humor si penulis terasa sangat pas, gak sia-sia deh ngeluarin sek...more Buku ini betul-betul melabrak semua batas imajinasiku... :D Ini adalah buku pertama yang gw beli di awal tahun 2005. Lumayan lama banget yah, gw baru sempet nge-review sekarang nih. Komentar gw: Top banget! a must have book of the year… Bener lho, buku yang ditulis Yann Martel ini emang bener2 pantes dapet penghargaan Man Booker Prize karena ceritanya yang fantastis. Hasil terjemahan buku terbitan Gramedia ini juga bagus. Selera humor si penulis terasa sangat pas, gak sia-sia deh ngeluarin sekitar Rp 50.000 untuk buku dengan desain cover yang juga unik.

Tokoh “aku” di cerita ini adalah Piscine Molitor Patel (Namanya berarti Kolam Renang Molitor, diambil dari nama sebuah kolam renang di Paris). Karena namanya sering jadi bahan olok-olok di sekolahnya, Petit Seminaire , dan diplesetkan menjadi “Pissing Patel”, akhirnya dia memperkenalkan dirinya sebagai “Pi”.

Pi tinggal dengan orang tua dan kakaknya, Ravi, di Kebun Binatang di Pondicherry. Ayah Pi, Mr. Santosh Patel, adalah pendiri, pemilik, direktur sekaligus pimpinan staf kebun binatang itu. Karena terbiasa bergaul dengan banyak binatang, Pi punya teori menarik: binatang punya sifat teritorial, konservatif—malah cenderung reaksioner. Jadi sangat penting untuk tidak melakukan perubahan sekecil apapun lingkungan binatang karena mereka ingin segala sesuatunya sama dari hari ke hari.

Di usia ke-16 tahun Pi telah memeluk Hindu, Katolik, Islam sekaligus. Ketika para pemuka agama tersebut saling mencela agama yang lain untuk mempertahankan Pi, ia berkeras tetap beragama sekaligus tiga karena katanya: …aku cuma ingin mengasihi Tuhan…. Bagi Pi umat Hindu, dalam kapasitas mereka untuk mengasihi, bisa diibaratkan orang Kristen tak berambut, begitu pula kaum Muslim yang menganggap Allah ada dalam sesuatu , bisa diibaratkan orang-orang Hindu berjanggut, sementara umat Kristen, dalam kecintaan mereka kepada Tuhan, bisa diibaratkan orang-orang Muslim bertopi. (hal 85).

Buku ini berpusat pada petualangan Pi yang diawali dengan kepindahan keluarga besar Patel ke Kanada pada tanggal 21 Juni 1977, menggunakan kapal Tsimtsum, kapal barang Jepang berbendera Panama. Di tengah malam saat hujan di Samudra Pasifik, terjadi ledakan misterius di dalam kapal. Pi yang ketakutan lari ke anjungan, dimana hanya tiga awak kapal yang cuma bisa bahasa Cina. Setelah memakaikan jaket pelampung berpeluit jingga (dan peluit ini ternyata sangat berguna bagi Pi kelak), Pi dilempar begitu saja keluar kapal, ke dalam sekoci penyelamat. Tak lama, kapal barang tersebut tenggelam, dengan keluarga Pi dan binatang-binatang yang tersisa dari Kebun Binatang Pondicherry.

Selain Pi, yang selamat dalam sekoci adalah seekor Zebra jantan yang kaki belakangnya patah, seekor Hyena tutul yang buas dan buruk rupa, seekor tikus kecil, disusul Orang Utan bernama Orange Juice yang datang mengambang di atas satu ton pisang dipenuhi laba-laba besar dan hitam. Baru beberapa hari kemudian Pi tahu ada seekor harimau Bengali seberat seperempat ton, bernama Richard Parker, bersembunyi di balik terpal sekoci. Si Hyena rakus memakan si Zebra dan Orange Juice. Pada akhirnya Richard Parker ganti memakannya. Hingga yang tersisa dalam sekoci hanya dia dan Pi. Berlandaskan berbagai teorinya tentang binatang, Pi berhasil membagi teritori dalam sekoci menjadi dua bagian, melatih Richard Parker dengan peluitnya agar ia tak jadi santapan harimau yang kelaparan, dan bertahan hidup lebih dari tujuh bulan di tengah samudra luas.

Badai, kelaparan, halusinasi, serangan hiu, perjumpaan dengan ikan paus, menangkap ikan terbang, nyaris ditabrak kapal barang, kebutaan sementara, dan banyak hal lainnya mereka alami bersama-sama di tengah samudra yang luas. Petualangan mereka berakhir ketika sekoci mendarat di salah satu pantai Meksiko. Richard Parker pergi begitu saja (tapi kan tidak mungkin dia bersikap sentimentil mengaumkan ‘selamat tinggal’) ke tengah hutan, dan Pi berjuang untuk kembali sehat dengan bantuan penduduk setempat.

Pada akhirnya Pi tetap memeluk tiga agama sekaligus, dan selalu menyiapkan stok makanan segudang penuh…

PS: review ini udah pernah diposting di http://pipitta.multiply.com/re......less

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Holli rated it:

04/29/08

Read in March, 2006

I heard what this was about and put off reading it because I didn't think I would like it. It's one of those books that you just keep pondering. I'm still not sure what it was all about! But it turned out to be a great book. I listened to it on tape and the narrator did an excellent job. His innocent voice and observational style provide a great contrast to the multi-layered, truth-filled story as it unfolds. Many things took me by surprise. I used my “willing suspension of disbelief...more I heard what this was about and put off reading it because I didn't think I would like it. It's one of those books that you just keep pondering. I'm still not sure what it was all about! But it turned out to be a great book. I listened to it on tape and the narrator did an excellent job. His innocent voice and observational style provide a great contrast to the multi-layered, truth-filled story as it unfolds. Many things took me by surprise. I used my “willing suspension of disbelief” just to see where things were going and waited eagerly for the end to see how he would wrap it all up. I admit that the middle part of the plot got a little lengthy at points. I was tired of the castaway situation, but his beautiful descriptions and observations kept me interested. My favorite thing about the book was the way he played with the idea of what is real. I really enjoyed the dialogue between Pi and the Japanese representatives from the shipping company. They were so concerned with what “really happened” and Pi was so good at showing them that we can’t really be sure of anything. Just like Loving What Is. There was one line in particular, something about how with any “real thing,” we bring ourselves and our experiences to it and that changes it. It reminded me of quantum physics and What the Bleep Do We Know? Our influence on reality. Always multiple choices, multiple possibilities.
I really liked the main character, Pi, and his collection of religions. He is the kind of person you would want to be stranded on a lifeboat with, resourceful, thoughtful, well-read. Richard Parker is another story . . . .

Amazon.com
Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion."
An award winner in Canada (and winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize), Life of Pi, Yann Martel's second novel, should prove to be a breakout book in the U.S. At one point in his journey, Pi recounts, "My greatest wish--other than salvation--was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and fresh understanding each time." It's safe to say that the fabulous, fablelike Life of Pi is such a book. --Brad Thomas Parsons --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Teresa rated it:

08/12/07

bookshelves: readandreviewed

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in October, 2005

On the surface, it's the story of a 16 year old Indian boy named "Pi" who, when he and his zookeeping family decide to transplant themselves and some animals to Canada, ends up stranded on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-lb Bengal tiger named "Richard Parker."
Don't let the Rudyard Kipling-ness of the plot fool you! In reality, this book is an examination of faith in all its forms. Young Pi loves God, and to prove it he becomes Christian and Muslim ...more On the surface, it's the story of a 16 year old Indian boy named "Pi" who, when he and his zookeeping family decide to transplant themselves and some animals to Canada, ends up stranded on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-lb Bengal tiger named "Richard Parker."
Don't let the Rudyard Kipling-ness of the plot fool you! In reality, this book is an examination of faith in all its forms. Young Pi loves God, and to prove it he becomes Christian and Muslim in addition to his native Hinduism. He also loves animals, and much of the book examines animal psychology and its relationship to human psychology in a vibrant, interesting way.

This book had me asking questions about my life, my beliefs, and my society on just about every page....and when the reader gets to the end (which I won't spoil here), the reader is forced to ask themself the kind of person they really are. If ever there was a novel that could be called a litmus test, it's this one. "The Life of Pi" will, at the very least, entertain through its sharp storytelling, but it can also help a reader examine how they see the world - and isn't that the point of great literature?

Favorite quotes:

"I felt a kinship with him. It was my first clue that atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith. LIke me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them - and then they leap."

"But I don't insist. I don't mean to defend zoos. Close them all down if you want (and let us hope that what wildlife remains can survive in what is left of the natural world). I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both."

"And so, when she first heard of Hare Krishnas, she didn't hear right. She heard 'hairless Christians', and that is what they were to her for many years. When I corrected her, I told her that in fact she was not so wrong; that Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims."

"Christianity is a religion in a rush. Look at the world created in seven days. Even on a symbolic level, that's creation in a frenzy. To one born in a religion where the battle for a single soul can be a relay race run over many centuries, with innumerable generations passing along the baton, the quick resolution of Christianity has a dizzying effect. If Hinduism flows placidly like the Ganges, then Christianity bustles like Toronto at rush hour. It is a religion as swift as a swallow, as urgent as an ambulance. It turns on a dime, expresses itself in the instant. In a moment, you are lost or saved. Christianity stretches back through the ages, but in essence it exists only at one time: right now."
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Marie rated it:

(review of isbn 0156027321)

03/23/08

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: people that can't get enough of Carl Jung and his wack-a-noodle ideas

Sift a pinch of psychology with a scant tablespoon of theology, add one part Island of the Blue Dolphin with two parts philosophy, mix with a pastry blender or the back of a fork until crumbly but not dry and there you have Pi and his lame-o, cheesed out, boat ride to enlightenment.
Actually I liked the beginning of this book- loved Pi's decleration and re-naming of himself, his adding religions like daisy's to a chain, and was really diggin on the family as a whole and then....then, ...more

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Paul rated it:

07/01/08

It's the story of a boy who finds himself in a small boat with some very curious companions at sea for a 227 day adventure on the open seas.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit -- but with qualifications. It was easy to read and I couldn't wait to see how things ended. In reading some other reviews of this book after the fact, I noticed some people actually complained that there was a sort of a jolt around page 100, but HEY, something had to happen. Until then, the story was quite mundane indeed. ...more