Book - Life of Pi

[elusivek]

Life of Pi
Yann Martel
Amazon Product Link

After the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan—and a 450-pound royal bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and beloved works of fiction in recent years.

= + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = +

I can't give a 3.5 rating, so after some serious thought, I'm giving this a 3.

I first heard of this book a few years back, but didn't bother reading it. Then, last month, I saw the trailer for the Ang Lee movie, and thought it really beautiful (at least for the scenery!). That coupled with some friends highly recommending the book, I bought it and I read it.

I did not like it.

It started out quite well. The story itself was good too, I'll give it that. But, I didn't like how it ended in such an abrupt way.

So the way the story goes, is this author wanted to wrtie a book and someone had told him to look for someone else because he had a story that would make you 'believe in god'. OK. Fine. So with that whole story out there - and after, the ending was just a report on how the sink sunk. That's the great wrap up?

Maybe I'm like Pi himself, who needs a grand and symbolic ending, so I really disliked the ending of the book. Or I'm just stubborn.

A few things to note (spoilers)
- I will have to agree that the "first story" is a lot better than the "second story" without the animals.
- I got very confused, very, very confused indeed when Pi went blind and was either hallucinating or whatever that it was...
- however improbable, I liked the idea of that meerkat island

Comments

[blue-aardvark.livejournal.com]

3 out of 4, or 3 out of 10?

[notte0.livejournal.com]

Ooh, sorry... I copied it straight from my post on goodreads... They use a 5-star rating, so it's 3 out of 5 :-)

[pinotgris.livejournal.com]

I sort of read it a few years ago (more specifically, I started reading it, then lost interest but hoped that there would be something redeeming to draw me in, so I started skimming it, but I got to the end and was more confused than ever) and I have to say that I would only give it 1 star. 0.5 or even 0 if that were an option, heh.