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| purchase: $14.00 |
Life of Pi:
Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion." > An award winner in Canada (and winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize), Life of Pi, Yann Martel's second novel, should prove to be a breakout book in the U.S. At one point in his journey, Pi recounts, "My greatest wish--other than salvation--was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and fresh understanding each time." It's safe to say that the fabulous, fablelike Life of Pi is such a book. --Brad Thomas ParsonsPrice: $14.00
Edition: 1ST US
Published by Harvest Books on 2003-05-01.
Average rating (1599 reviews):
|
 Rating: 8.0 |
Recent reviews:
Reviewed by anonymous on 2006-09-04: Although the description of the plot did not entice me, this book has many deep, spiritual issues presented in it. The ending through we for a total loop and made me think, "What really occured here?" I like Pi's adoption of (read more ...)
Rating: 6.0
Reviewed by anonymous on 2006-09-01: This is a fantastic book. It is one I think everyone should read. It also makes a great discussion/book club selection.
Life of Pi is the story of a Hindu/Christian/Islam boy whose father owns a zoo. They sell the zoo (read more ...)
Rating: 10.0
Reviewed by anonymous on 2006-08-29: This book is a hard to believe novel. It is not quite a thriller. It does not make you want to keep reading. It is quite dull. I am glad I read this book though. It is one of those books (read more ...)
Rating: 4.0
Reviewed by anonymous on 2006-08-28: Of all my summer reading this was the most edifying. This is a book I would read again. I found myself writing down segments that moved me and there were at least eight. Though many found the ending perplexing, I found (read more ...)
Rating: 8.0
Reviewed by anonymous on 2006-08-23:
This novel works best when viewed not as a possibility- like most modern fiction- but as a fable, with the events exaggerated and elements of the fantastic present. Only then is it possible to accept the improbable here, and see (read more ...)
Rating: 10.0
