MY THOUGHTS:
Wow, it only seems fair that a book that blew me out of the water should be set on the ocean. The plot can be summed up in a sentence. Castaway boy survives for seven months in a lifeboat on the Pacific Ocean with a full grown Bengal tiger for company. It's written in three parts, and I spent most of Part Three saying, 'Aww, no way!' But there will be no spoilers because this is one book whose crux you can't un-remember.
Suffice to say author Yann Martel had a metaphysical agenda in mind. He intentionally draws readers to the point where he challenges us to make a leap of faith one way or another. And he presses the point that it's not all that different from the choice people make every day to become atheists on one hand or devout believers on the other. I think he pulls it off with real panache. (Martel and his protagonist Pi seem to have least patience with agnostics, who they accuse of choosing doubt as a life philosophy. This, says Pi, is tantamount to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. He has no problems with atheists, who he considers brothers and sisters of a different faith. They simply get to the end of their reason and make a leap, just as he does.)
Part One is all about Pi's boyhood in India, with a zookeeper for a father. Pi (full name Piscine Molitor Patel) is a seeker of truth from a tender age and follows three religions. He weaves all sorts of features from different religions into his own tailor made personal faith. He loves the sensual, colourful nature of his birthright faith, Hinduism, and its tenet that a bit of the divine runs through all creation. As a young teen he adds Christianity, because the concept of the suffering, sacrificial Son of God won't let go of him. Then finally he adds Islam to the mix, because he's so impressed by the all-encompassing unity of their call to prayer. When his parents urge him to narrow down to just one religion, Pi is unwilling to relinquish anything precious to him and surreptitiously keeps up all three.
I guess some may say that young Pi is swayed by anything, and has no filter at all, while others may consider his filter is sensitive and refined enough to extract the most valuable essence from everything. As he says, 'I just want to love God!' This would make a fantastic text for anyone studying inter-faith doctrines, and the story has hardly even started rolling yet.
In Part Two, Pi relates his tale of incredible survival. The Patel family are on a ship heading for Canada when it sinks, leaving him the sole human survivor in a lifeboat with four animals. There's a motherly orangutan named Orange Juice, a gorgeous, suffering zebra with a broken leg and a wily, opportunistic spotted hyena. And most majestic of all is the stunning flame-coloured tiger, Richard Parker. Pi soon realises he has no choice but to train RP to understand that he, the skinny 16-year-old, is alpha animal on the boat.
I can't describe how Martel pulls it all together without venturing into the sensitive landmine area of spoilers. I'll just finish off with a few general Pi-isms which he takes on board from his long ordeal on the water. First is his acceptance of the fact that sometimes life doesn't roll like we think it's supposed to. But what can we do but take each day as it comes and make the best of it? Pi grits his teeth and resolves to 'make miracle into routine' to the greatest extent in his power.
He delivers such stunning descriptions about all sorts of things, ranging from the nature of fear to his lifestyle on the water. Pi likens the Pacific Ocean to a huge city with highways and boulevards that he never noticed until he got the chance to stroll through at walking pace, so to speak. Reading his account is like the virtual tourism we'd never choose for ourselves, yet can't help finding quite awe-inspiring coming from Pi. He calls the barnacles 'oceanic hitchhikers.'
And we can all learn something from his honesty about how he tackles the heavy blanket of despair whenever it descends. Basically, Pi figures the best ploy is to do nothing but wait it out, because it always passes. 'The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain a shining point of light in my heart, and I would go on loving.'
Even though we readers are used in a way as guinea pigs by Mr Martel, to prove the vital impact of a great story, I didn't mind at all. I way prefer Life of Pi to the other metaphysical book set on the high seas that springs to mind; Moby Dick.
I'd recommend this one to anyone and everyone. And when you've read it, watch the movie too. It really keeps true to the book, and complements it beautifully.
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