** spoiler alert ** 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.