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Life of Pi

Yann Martel

Start date: February 1, 2013

Finish date: February 28, 2013

Discussion: 1001 books

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Dec 27, 2012 Thomas Acland rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-classics, 2000-s, 21st-century, adventure, set-in-india, set-at-sea, seen-the-film, world-book-night-2011, man-booker-prize-winner, man-booker-prize-nominee

Life of Pi has not been around for over a decade and for many of these years has been a book that I really felt that I should have read. However it took Hollywood to get me to actually go out and get a copy of the book for myself, as soon as a book comes out as a blockbuster film you know that everyone will start discussing it, I really didn't want the plot to be spoilt before I had the chance to read it and as a result have spent a lot of this week walking round with my fingers in my ears tryin Life of Pi has not been around for over a decade and for many of these years has been a book that I really felt that I should have read. However it took Hollywood to get me to actually go out and get a copy of the book for myself, as soon as a book comes out as a blockbuster film you know that everyone will start discussing it, I really didn't want the plot to be spoilt before I had the chance to read it and as a result have spent a lot of this week walking round with my fingers in my ears trying not to hear any spoilers. As far as such tactics go I was fairly successful.

Now to talk about the book itself, the hype surrounding this book is immense, out of all the books that I have read it is probably the one where the most people have said "you have to read that" or "how have you not read that yet". It has won countless awards worldwide yet still seems to draw a very mixed set of reviews with considerable numbers of people saying that they could not finish it or did not find it interesting. My overall consensus of the book in a line is that, Life of Pi is a well written and interesting book that is an enjoyable and easy read but is overhyped and therefore falls a little short of expectations.

The brilliant thing about this book is that a reader can appreciate the quality of writing style of the book and yet still find it relatively easy to read. I absolutely hate it when people go on and on about how well written a book is only for me to get bored of the story or the overuse of language within the first twenty pages. Fortunately with this book that was not a problem and I could happily read the book while commuting.

The plot of the book everyone already knows, an Indian boy by the name of Pi floats across the atlantic in a lifeboat with a Bengal Tiger. A lot of the story is simply describing the day to day activities of how to survive such a journey and although you may wonder how this fills a novel, it just does. At no point was I bored even when the author was describing things that I would have found incredibly boring in another novel. Each activity has just the right amount of narrative, it is wonderfully descriptive building up a picture in you mind that makes you think you are right there trying to catch a fish or tame a tiger, but is short enough that the story is able to move on before it can become tedious.

My only real dislike of this book is to do with religion, this is purely due to my own opinion on religion and religious beliefs. Wherever possible I usually ignore the existence of religion and really am not interested in it in the slightest. Therefore I found religious passages of this book really hard work, however this not necessarily because they are a bad part of the book, they just didn't interest me in the slightest. Personally I would have happily cut them out and do not think I would have been detrimental to the overall story. Many people will disagree with me here but this review is my opinion and it is what it is.

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Dec 28, 2012 Amy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, five-stars

As a warning to those thinking of checking this book out, there are several moments described in graphic detail that aren't for the faint hearted. Saying that, though, I think they fit in well with the tone of the book, it being a survival story.
It starts off pretty slow and doesn't pick up until after the first 100 pages, but I would definitely recommend you reading to at least page 150 if you feel inclined to give up before then.
There is a noticeable spiritual element to the book which did bo ...more

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