Review of "Life of Pi" By Yann Martel

Review of:

Summary   

    Life of Pi is about an Indian boy named Piscine Molitor Patel, who decided to go by Pi to prevent his classmates from making fun of his name. He lives in a small town called Pondicherry, and his father is the owner of the local zoo. Pi has spent most of his life around animals, and is very fascinated by zoology. The start of the book is extremely uneventful, but instead is full of Pi talking about his animals; how interesting they are and how most people completely misunderstand them. I've never read a book that starts like this and actually enjoyed it until I read this book. After a while, the narrative changes into Pi describing his daily life in the present. He goes to school, practices religion, and helps out at his family's zoo. He becomes good friends with Mr. Kumar, his biology teacher from his school, who he describes as having a "triangle-shaped body". Another important detail in Pi's life is his decision to practice Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity all at the same time. He becomes good friends with an Imam who is also named Mr. Kumar. The funny thing is that one Mr. Kumar believes in science and hates religion, telling Pi about when he got polio as a young boy, and was saved by medicine, science, not God. The other Mr. Kumar is a strong believer in religion, and while I can't exactly remember the term he used to refer to scientists, I do remember that it wasn't particularly nice.

    Everything is going well in Pi's life for a while, until people in his town start to figure out that he's practicing multiple religions at once. This information spreads to his parents, who are worried. They talk to Pi and insist that he pick only one. Pi does not understand why he can't practice all of them, and is uncertain what to do. In addition, fellow Muslims, Christians, and Hindus start to lose trust in Pi, and reject him from their religions. The next big event that happens is Pi's parents decide to move to Canada. This is a tremendously tedious process, as they plan to bring all their animals with them (aboard a cargo ship), and the process of filling out paperwork, putting the animals in quarantine, and everything else involved makes it extremely difficult and time consuming. However, they are finally able to get the animals onto the ship and set sail for Canada. Pi is enjoying his life aboard the ship very much, although is also sad to leave his home. 

    Then, disaster strikes. The boat sails into a storm, and ends up flooding. Pi has to escape in an emergency lifeboat, and is forced to leave his family behind. He ends up alone in a lifeboat with one of his tigers, far away from land, in shark-infested waters. At this point you may be desperately wanting to know if he survives and what happens next, and the only answer I can give you is: read the book to find out!

 

Review

    I really enjoyed this book, and I think most others would too. If you like books that are fast-paced from the start and full of action, then I would not recommend for you to read this. However, if you enjoy more detailed, thought-inspiring books that are a little bit less straightforward than you'd expect, I highly recommend this book. While it starts out a bit slow, it certainly isn't boring. There are a lot of interesting events and important details that will help the reader understand later parts of the book, and it's told from the point of view of an intelligent and fascinating kid. At no point was this book boring.

     Additionally, if you like books that you can pick up and read really quickly, this book isn't for you. I think it's best if you read this book when you have plenty of time and you aren't reading in a rush, because you might miss over some important details. But if you give yourself the time to get into this book, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.    

    I think the strongest parts of this book are the details of the thoughts going through Pi's head and interactions he has with other characters. The plot is also quite intriguing and unique, because how many times do you read about kids who are bringing hundreds of live animals with them on a cargo ship to sail across the ocean? I would consider this book to definitely check that box. In my opinion, there are no obvious weaknesses in this book except for the fact that it might not interest a good number of readers. With all this in mind, I rate this book 4.75/5 stars.

 

-Rico