Books - Life Of Pi.

LIFE OF PI

Yann Martel (b. 1963)

Published 2002.

The Man Booker Prize for 2002, this was written by a Canadian, who has basically lived all over the place.

First sentences:

"My suffering left me sad and gloomy.

Academic study and the steady, mindful practice of religion slowly brought me back to life. I have kept up what some people would consider my strange religious practices. After one year of high school, I attended the University of Toronto and took a double-major Bachelor's degree. My majors were religious studies and zoology. My fourth-year thesis for religious studies concerned certain aspects of the cosmogony theory of Isaac Luria, the great sixteenth-century Kabbalist from Safed. My zoology thesis was a functional analysis of the thyroid gland of the three-toed sloth. I chose the sloth because its demeanour - calm, quiet and introspective - did something to soothe my shattered self."

This story takes place in three places. India, the Pacific Ocean and briefly in Mexico. And each place has its own section, so there is none of this switching about and faffing between places and times, which isn’t always the best structure.

In the first bit the main protagonist and narrator, Pi, grows up on his father's zoo in 1970s Pondicherry and bonds a great relationship with the animals. Fascinated by life and the world, and being unable to understand how there can be so many different gods for different religions claiming the top spot, he becomes interested in his familial religion of Hinduism, as well as Christianity and Islam for the love of a god and the positive areas from all three religions, no matter where he comes from.

Due to problems arising in India, the family decide to move to Canada, selling off their zoo and shipping animals with them across the Pacific. However, the ship sinks during a storm, and Pi, a Bengal tiger called Richard Parker, a hyena, an orang-utan and an injured zebra manage to get on a lifeboat, whilst all other animals and humans perish with the ship. And Pi, with these animals, endures life aboard a lifeboat for seven months (227 days in fact, a reference to his nickname, however his real name Piscine originates from his uncle being a famous swimmer in France), encountering a mysterious island made of a type of seaweed, the struggle to live with deadly animals such as a Bengal tiger and a hyena, as well as the struggle with the elements and the basic needs of survival.

And the final part, when he is in hospital and recovering from his ordeal, he is interviewed by the Japanese maritime department (since the ship was Japanese owned) about what had happened and how he survived... and here, as he explains to the officials, who seem difficult to convince that the story is true, you’d realise the significance of the animals and how Pi depended on Richard Parker to survive, despite the grave danger he posed to the boy, but yet how he was also his saviour. He somewhat developed a loving relationship with this tiger, despite him knowing it could never be mutual, despite his efforts to “tame” him.

The book, very easy to read and follow, is such a joy to read, since it shows determination of survival, and can be rather spiritual: a boy who wants to the positives of all religions to come together to make one, and he uses his faiths and knowledge of science and nature, which are often conflicting perspectives in life, to endure such a long, dangerous and horrific time at sea. Martel uses language which is simple to read, but conveys great and detailed descriptions of sea life, the characteristics of the sea and weather, the stars, the lifeboat and how every last part works as well as how to survive in such conditions.

And the outcome is very well thought out and the concept and how the story finalises, it’s just fantastic. I don’t want to get into detail about how it ends. It really is worth reading for yourself.