Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

Life of Pi was written in 2001 by Yann Martel.  It tells the story of Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi), following his youth in India, where he grew up on a zoo owned by his father, as well as some brief information about his current status in the world as a zoologist himself.  One of the crucial elements of the story focuses on Pi’s religious beliefs:  he is a practicing Christian, Muslim, and Hindu, all at once.  The majority of the story, however, follows Pi’s adventures following the crash of the Tsimtsum. 

Pi’s father sold his zoo in India and moved the family to Canada.  As the ship they were sailing on, the Tsimtsum, made its way from India to Canada, it sank.  Pi found himself cast off the ship and into the dark, cold, Pacific Ocean.  He made his way to safety  on a life boat; the lifeboat later came to be home to an injured zebra, and orang-utan, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.  Over the first few days of the trip, the zebra, orang-utan, and hyena are all killed and eaten, leaving only Pi and Richard Parker.  The story tells of their life together on this small little boat, and how they have to rely on one another to survive.  Many different tragedies and joyous moments happen to them as they go.

I loved this story.  It is such an unbelievable tale, full of adventure, full of meaty religious dialogue, full of humor.  I recommend this to anyone who loves to read.  Pi’s inner thoughts on being a Christian/Muslim/Hindu are great, and his reliance and life with God are very interesting, especially given his situation at hand.  His relationship with Richard Parker is also amazing.

The ending is amazingly well paced and is quite simply an all-time great ending to a story.  I’ll obviously not ruin anything, but I suggest that once you have completely read the story, you re-read it.  Once you know the ending, re-reading it changes the book entirely.  I give Yann Martel a great deal of applause for this book, as so many stories I have read recently haven’t really made me stop and go, “what the hell?”  This one did, and I must admit, it left me shaken at the end.

Pi Patel is no ordinary boy, and Life of Pi is no ordinary story.  It is one that needs to be read and re-read and re-read again until the book is so tattered that you must buy a new copy.  The last line of the story, once you know the ending, has so much meaning, is so powerful, that I think I will write it down to think about in future times:  Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger.  This line really gets at what makes us human, and I implore anyone who reads this review to read this book and then ask themselves if they could actually claim that they could join Pi in this feat.

 

5/5 Life of Pi.