book review: The Life of Pi

[vernacular_life]

The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel



This is the third time I tried to read this, and finally finished...liked the second half a lot, but, the beginning dragged oho so much.


I

I really liked the whole shipwreck bit of the book, but the whole "this will make you believe in God", um, whatever. Yeah, I'm an athiest. I'm able to suspend belief and enjoy the story about the animals on the life boat. The carnivorous island was one of my favorite parts.

And I think I "get" it -- Pi has to compartmentalize his less-than-admirable traits in order to live with himself and to survive his ordeal...kind of like convinent multiple personalities. The readers' faith in the story is equal to the faith that Pi has in God, but ENOUGH with the whole allegory and the pompous waxing about truth/love/God...I felt the 'moral' of the book to be pretentious and gently preachy



A question for those of you who've read this: If Pi was Richard Parker, didn't he kill both the hyena AND the frenchman? Or did the hyena jump over the side? I can't remember...

Comments

[angelgirl8.livejournal.com]

it has been SO long since i read this book...so i have no idea. it all sounds vaguely familiar, though!

[monkeysmama.livejournal.com]

Eek - I read this years ago and really liked it. But of course now I remember nothing about it at all!

[djoyusone.livejournal.com]

I can't get through the first 30 pages. That book has been collecting dust for quite some time.

[njlorelei.livejournal.com]

I read this many years back and while I don't really remember the plot I remember not really liking it. I just went and found my short review and it's basically the same as what you wrote - "I had trouble getting into this one. Too much animal and religion talk in the beginning. Once he was shipwrecked it got better and the end made it worth thinking about."

I have no idea the answer to your last questions.

[ee-chick.livejournal.com]

I loved this book as an imaginative story, but agree with you on how it has too much in terms of expectations and symbolism, especially religious symbolism.

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

seems the conceneous of my FL is the same - basis of story was good, but a bit heavy-handed. And this is coming from someone who ENJOYED deciphering Faulkner in high school advance Lit class...


Glad I'm not the only one who's not swooning over every word of it.