I had heard of this book as you do when a book is a best seller and an Oprah's Book Club selection, like flies buzzing in your ears every now and then. You try to ignore it and bat those pecky flies away. I have better things to read, I thought like book after book that is set in Victorian England in the same time period with the same sort of characters. So I had fallen into a bit of a reading slump. And I decided to take a chance on a different sort of book.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel begins in Pondicherry India and introduces us to a little boy named Piscine Molitar Patel. Named after a French swimming pool he tormented by his classmates who call him Pissing. He eventually insists on going by just Pi. I formed an instant kinship with him as only someone with a last name that rhymed with Pooper can.
When political unrest comes to India Pi's mother and father decide to move the family to Canada. The boat they are on shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean. From there the story becomes one of desperate survival, harrowing experiences and a lesson in faith and love of God.
I equal parts loved and hated this book. It reminded me of my experience reading The Kite Runner. Maybe it's the sign of a good book when you can't decide if you've just read the most depressing book in the world or the most inspiring. Life of Pi spares it's readers none of the awful and horrible details of surviving a shipwreck and floating on an ocean for months. It's also faith promoting and a triumph and testament to the capabilities of the human spirit and the divine within all of us. It's what life is. Light and shadows. Darkest night and dazzling day. I can and probably will continue to indulge my reading taste for stories that contain romance and true love and happy endings, but they don't really make me think. There is a lot of symbolism in this book and is a bit of a parable for the underlying story.
A word to the wise. This is not a true story. I read the entire 319 pages loving and pitying Pi Patel as a real person. The author sets this book up as if this is a true story and he has spent time with Pi and researched his story. Can you blame me for believing him? As one book review I read put it..."You have to be incredibly naive to believe that as the story unfolds that any of the events could possibly be true." I have been called naive before and it's probably not the last time. I think this book would be a great book club selection to read and discuss with others. When I finished this book I immediately wanted to call my brother and tell him to read it so we could discuss.
P.S. I love the picture of the slogan used in Britain in WWII. The message of this book is not far from this.
3 comments:
I can tell this is not a book for me. I liked your review but I need books that uplift me. I don't want to read sad or of misfortunate things. Who names their son after a swimming pool!!! lame.
I have owned this book for years and have yet to read it. I started but had a very hard time getting into it so I stopped. Perhaps I will dig it out again and we will discuss it. Right now I am reading the 19th wife.. I will have to let ya know what I think of that one.
Chan, it is hard to get into the book. I kept waiting for the story to start. It will eventually. As soon as the family plans to leave India it gets interesting. Before then it seems like it's just giving us background info on what Pi is all aout.
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