Monday 1 May, 2006
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Yann Martel's book Life of Pi won the Booker prize few years back, so it inspired me to give it as a Christmas present to my mom the same year. My mom liked it, I think, and asked me some time later if I'd read the book myself. Well, no, of course not - I don't generally read books like this although I know my mother enjoys them. That statement made me feel a bit guilty though, so after years and years of it, I finally got around to reading it (or listening to it, in this case).
It's a story about a boy called Pi who is on his way from India to Canada (it's never said explicitly - but to Vancouver as that's the only Canadian port on Pacific), in a cargo ship full of zoo animals when the boat suddenly sinks without an explanation. Pi is stranded on a life boat as the sole survivor - the sole human survivor, that is - as his companion on the life boat is a large Bengal Tiger.
First part of the book tells Pi's childhood story in Pondicherry, India, and concentrates a lot on psychology of zoo animals (Pi's father is a zoo keeper) and at times reads like a biology book. After the fateful sinking of the ship the next part starts that details Pi's adventures on the sea - at first fairly believably but then starting to resemble a Baron Munchausen story more and more. And the third part is Pi's alternative story of the events to the ship's Japanese owners who refuse to believe the story "with animals" that really makes you think the different layers in the story.
It's a very good book, no wonder it has gotten all the praise it has. It's also a very strange book, and at times very gruesome and bloody. The highlights for me where the total surprises out of nowhere - who is the mysterious Richard Parker, how long is Pi stranded on the sea, and the tiger's mystical French accent. In the end the reader is not sure what really happened, and to whom - how much of the story should be taken literally and how much allegorically.
I have to also mention Jeff Woodman's wonderful narration - he used such a convincing Canadian-Indian accent I was sure he had to be Indian himself, but turns out he's just very very talented. Wonderful voice that made the story really come alive.
I'm really glad I finally read this book.
Posted by kolibri at 1 May 22:29, 2006For me, the bhe book was like a blow on the belly. Just after reading I felt like deceived by author, like he had found me with trousers in anckles. What did this all mean? After thinking over, I see that the author tells us how difficult it is to see the truth about the world, even for an eyewitness. What we see, we understand in a frame of our own life, experience, and feelings.
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