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Life of Pi by Yann Martel
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Life of Pi

by Yann Martel

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19,43239222 (3.98)402
(73) 1001(87) adventure(226) animals(266) book club(98) Booker(89) Booker Prize(240) Booker Prize Winner(81) Canada(97) Canadian(206) Canadian literature(107) contemporary(81) contemporary fiction(129) fantasy(171) fiction(2,682) India(451) literature(150) magical realism(117) novel(330) ocean(71) own(132) philosophy(166) read(293) religion(371) shipwreck(217) survival(379) TBR(96) tigers(271) unread(141) zoo(119)
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English (377)  Dutch (7)  French (3)  Swedish (2)  German (1)  Norwegian (1)  Italian (1)  All languages (392)
Showing 1-5 of 377 (next | show all)
Life of Pi is one of those books appears out of nowhere and is amazing. When you first notice it, you may just pass it by. "Boy on a boat with a tiger." Then you start to notice that everybody's reading it, and it's apparently been nominated, and wins, this thing called a "Man Booker Prize" (which may be more relevant if you live in the UK or the Commonwealth, and less if you're in the US).

Piscine, or Pi, as he prefers, to avoid the obvious nicknames, upsets his parents when he determines that he loves God so much, that he goes out and joins two other religions, on top of Hinduism. He joins Islam as well as Catholicism. Needless to say, this not only has upset his parents, but also upsets the respective religious leaders. Nevertheless, Pi stands firm: he has justified his multiple faiths.

His father, the proprietor of the Pondicherry Zoo, determines he does not like this new Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, and wishes to relocate his family to Canada. Likewise, he manages to sell many of his animals to American zoos. So, they pack up the animals and the people, and make their way across the Pacific Ocean.

"The weather started getting rough," the popular television theme song goes, and their not-so-tiny floating menagerie sinks. Pi, one of the survivors, finds himself, a boy, on a boat, with a tiger.

The rest of the story deals with Pi's survival, Pi's religion, and a friendship of necessity.

I greatly enjoyed Life of Pi, and I know I'm not alone. If you too would like a captivating tale of the deep blue sea, the wild orange tiger, and a giant, green floating island, then you'll definitely enjoy Life of Pi, a story that only comes 'round once in a while. ( )
2 vote aethercowboy | Nov 18, 2009 |
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was in the middle of The Life Of Pi, and by the time I got to the end of it I have to admit that I was underwhelmed. Given that it won the Booker Prize, I was expecting to be blown away, whereas I was merely satisfied by it.

The concept of it is incredible, of that there’s no doubt, but as a piece of literature I found it a little lacking. It’s just not that good style-wise. Maybe I’m being picky. If it hadn’t been awarded the Prize, I might find myself being less hard on it, but then I probably wouldn’t have picked it up in the first place.

Colour me disappointed. ( )
  gooneruk | Nov 17, 2009 |
I found this book quite interesting and enjoyed the entertainment aspect of the story. I did feel that it ended very quickly and it felt rushed in closing. I did like this book however and would recommend it to anyone who loves reading for the sake of adventure and the human interest aspect. ( )
  igjoe | Nov 16, 2009 |
This is the worst novel I have ever had the discomfort of reading. Understand that I am not making a farce when I say it was a discomfort. Putting aside that a large chunk of the overall narrative used words and phrases that I find it hard to believe any east indian boy using, it was horriably written. At one point in the book the author decided to compair a fish out of water to a fish out of water. Never have I been so glad to have finished a book that I hope never to read again. All joking aside, the story was potentially exclent but page after page only added to the painful tourture of reading this novel. The back cover claimed it would make the reader believe in God. All reading this book made me believe was that I refuse to give up no matter what the situation is and that Life of Pi is one novel I will never read again. How anyone enjoyed it, and how it won any kind of prize, is something I can only attribute to the obvious fact that everyone has different opinions and preferences. I, for one, could not wait for this book to be over simply to have it done with. Might have been ok as a movie though, if and only if it was under 45 minutes.
  Aaroncast86 | Nov 13, 2009 |
I felt like the author at one point bored of carefully writing the book and decided to just dump all his notes as last chapters. He starts really good, in a very short amount time I already felt very close the main character and the setting of the book.. However the minute he decides to break the flow of the and starts telling random bits the book died for me. ( )
  yufufi | Nov 3, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 377 (next | show all)
Granted, it may not qualify as ''a story that will make you believe in God,'' as one character describes it. But it could renew your faith in the ability of novelists to invest even the most outrageous scenario with plausible life -- although sticklers for literal realism, poor souls, will find much to carp at.
 
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
a mes parents et a mon frere
First words
My suffering left me sad and gloomy.
Quotations
The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity — it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud.
Evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart.
I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality.
Animals in the wild lead lives of compulsion and necessity within an unforgiving social hierarchy in an environment where the supply of fear is high and the supply of food is low and where territory must constantly be defended and parasites forever endured.
If you take two steps toward God, God runs toward you
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Life of Pi

Book description
After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship in the Pacific, one solitary lifeboat remains, carrying a hyena, a zebra, a female orangutan, a Bengal tiger, and a 16-year-old Indian boy named Pi. His story is a dazzling work of imagination that will delight and astound listeners in equal measure. It is a triumph of storytelling and a tale that will as one character puts it, make you believe in God. (from PPL catalog record)

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