Life of Pi in Atheists and Skeptics

Mar 16, 2008 Mark Gowan rated it liked it

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 spe 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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Oct 26, 2008 Tara rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: own

This is the worst book I have ever read. I wish I could give it zero stars because that is what it deserves. I would never recommend this book to anyone, in fact, I would tell them to stay far away from it and spend their time reading a good book.

What angers me most, is all the critical acclaim this book received. There are so many other authors out there than have done a better job than Mr. Martel, and yet he receives the awards? This is exactly why winning an award is not necessarily an indica ...more

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Oct 16, 2008 Judy rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001-list

This is a particularly odd and imaginative story. I'm not so sure I agree with all the hype it got, but it was intriguing enough. Pi is the son of a zookeeper in India. Pi actively seeks out and tries on for size a variety of other faiths (an amusing and intriguing idea). When the family moves to Canada, a shipwreck leaves Pi fending for himself in a lifeboat for 227 days.

One reviewer said that this book would make you believe in God. Not so for me... ...more

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Apr 22, 2010 John J. rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001beforeyoudie, fiction, award-man-booker

I heard some of the audiobook in my wife's car, specifically: the part where piss-boy is adrift at sea eating tiger turds. The felidae coprophagia was preposterous but intriguing, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

It didn't take me long to realize that the "whirl" this turd should have taken is a spin down the porcelain drain. ...more

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