Reviews

Sunday, 23 September 2012 10:40

Life of Pi by Yann Martel Featured

Written by
Rate this item
(0 votes)
Life of Pi
Yann Martel
Paperback: 348 pages
Publisher: Harvest Books (May 1, 2003)
ISBN-10: 0156027321
ASIN: B0029LHWL8

Pi Patel, an East Indian youngster, has two loves—religions of the world and animals. The son of an owner of an Indian zoo, Pi grows up around the animals of the world. As times worsen in India, however, his father decides it is time to sell the animals and move to Canada. Some of the animals end up being shipped to their new zoos on the same ship as Pi and family are on. Mysteriously, the ship sinks and Pi finds himself on a large lifeboat. He is not alone. His companions are a zebra with a broken hind leg, a hyena, an orangutan and, unbelievably, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. The plot thickens.

Obviously, the carnivores soon attack the zebra and the orangutan and eventually, Pi is all-alone with the tiger, fearfully trying to make plans to keep from being eaten. This saga on the sea goes on for around nine months.

In what seems to be a simple little adventure story, however, the masterful author, Yann Martel, has woven a thread of the mysteries, mysticism, miracles, and embodiments that embody religions of the world throughout the story. Are the animals really on the boat, or has Pi substituted the humans who actually were there, with the animals. The reader will have to decide.

***

Review by H. Steven Robertson

Read 1130 times Last modified on Sunday, 14 November 2021 19:08

Comments powered by CComment

Latest Posts

  • Sakshi
    I have been in a state of ‘emotional unwell-being’ for seven years. There, I’ve said it. Why? Well, after my father died, I believed that if I reached out with love to ‘good friends’, counsellors, suitors, and relatives, there could be pockets of joy to offset my grief and loneliness,…
  • The Creative Industry Needs to Look at Things Differently Post Budget 2022
    On 29 October 2021, the Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz tabled Budget 2022 in the Malaysian parliament. RM50 million has been allocated for the arts and culture industry. This comes after a year and a half after the entire industry came to an absolute standstill. With…
  • ‘The Covid Positives’ – life lessons learnt from the pandemic by Phanindra Ivatury
    After a long drawn battle with the biggest catastrophe in our living memory, global humanity is finally getting to see some quintessential ray of light at the end of the treacherous tunnel in the form of COVID-19 vaccines, currently being rolled out to all parts of the globe. A ‘COVID-19…
  • Chaos of Whole Books
    Is it possible to read several books at once? Aneeta Sundararaj finds out. When I was a child, my cousin used to boast that he could read four storybooks at a time. As an adult, when he invested in an e-Reader, he continued to boast that he could…
  • Writing for You? Or for Me?
    Writing for You? Or for Me? ‘You must always write with your reader in mind.’ This was one of the first pieces of advice that I received when I began my writing career. Honestly, I found this extremely hard to do because more often than not, I couldn’t picture my…