Life of Pi

I'm a huge fan of Yann Martel's allegorical story.
I read Life of Pi shortly after it had won the Booker, heavily intrigued by the story's improbable premise (boy in lifeboat with Bengal tiger). I was keen to see how the author could pull this off.
But pull it off he did, taking me back to a wondrous childhood of adventure tales and fables.
And you are welcome to whack me over the head with a leather-bound copy of War and Peace, but I am such a sucker for exotic book covers!
Please read the book, don't see the film: Ditto, Captain Corelli.

"Life of Pi" is a classic text that yielded even richer rewards for me on my second reading of it. It is easily in my top five favorite books of all time. The reason is very simple. Yann Martel has written a work that is quite engrossing and interesting on two levels: the literal, and the much more satisfying metaphorical.
I first read "Life of Pi" three years ago. I reread it recently because it was a book club choice. Although this novel carved out a niche in my brain on that first reading, I found even more to appreciate and digest during my second.
This allegorical novel explores many themes so fundamental to human existence. Faith, religion, storytelling, survival, love, companionship, etc. Not only does "Life of Pi" explore these themes, it sheds new light on these very overdone topics. That is not easily done. For Mr. Martel to take such universal themes that have been written and discussed a million times over, and make them fresh and new is a testament to his own prowess as a thinker and a writer.
Mr. Martel's writing is also rarely didactic, and his use of figurative language is at times breathtakingly beautiful. As one who enjoys good writing, and am impressed by those who have such tight control of style and language I was not disappointed in that aspect of this text. Too many good storytellers are not good writers. Mr. Martel thankfully does not fall into that category
To not read this book with an open and inquiring mind is to miss "the better story", regardless of what you make that out to be. As I read the text I found and saw a very heavily Christian influence in the book's events and themes. It is just as conceivable that someone else could read it, and see none of those things. What is so wonderful is that both points of view can be defended from the text.
One critic talked about how this novel makes one believe in the "soul sustaining power of fiction." "Life of Pi" lives up to that praise.
Read this text and enjoy one of the few modern novels that gives the reader a real chance to "explore".

I found a lot of this book incredibly tedious. I tend to avoid the winners of the Man / Booker – they make me a little depressed. The only Carey I haven’t liked won the Booker (Oscar and Lucinda), I really didn’t like the little bit of Vernon God Little I read and I never finished The Sea despite really liking Banville’s writing. So, being told a book is a winner of the Booker tends to be a mark against it from the start, unfortunately.

I’m going to have to assume you have read this book, as if I don’t I won’t be able to say anything about it at all. Apparently, when Yann Martel wrote this he was feeling a bit down and this was his way of plucking himself up. Well, good on him. That’s just great. I was a little annoyed when I found out that the person the book is dedicated to had also written a story about a man in a boat with a wild cat and had considered suing for plagiarism.

The book is written by a member of that class of people who are my least favourite; a religious person who cannot conceive of someone not being religious. There is some fluff at the start in which atheism is ‘discussed’ (read, discarded) as something people inevitably give up on with their dying breath. But the religious are generally terribly arrogant, so it is best not to feel insulted by their endless insults – they know not what they do.

Parts of this were so badly over written that it was almost enough to make me stop reading. The bit where he is opening his first can of water is a case in point. This takes so long and is so incidental to the story and written in such a cutesy way that I started to pray the boat would sink, the tiger would get him … I would even have accepted God smiting him at this point as a valid plotting point, even if (or particularly because) it would bring the story to an abrupt end.

This is a book told as two possible stories of how a young man survives for 227 days floating across the Pacific Ocean told in 100 chapters. That was the other thing that I found annoying – much is made of the fact this story is told in 100 chapters – but I could not feel any necessity for many of the chapters. Just as I could not feel any necessity for the Italic voice that sounded like Tom Waits doing, “What is he building in there?” Well, except to introduce us again to Pi some number of years later. You know, in Invisible Cities Calvino has necessary chapters – this book just has 100 chapters. It was something that annoyed me from early on in the book – that the chapters seemed far too arbitrary and pointing it out at the end just made me more irritated. There may well be some Hindu reason for 100 chapters – but like Jesus ticking off the ancient prophecies on his way to martyrdom, I still couldn’t see why these chapters were needed in themselves.

Pi is the central character in the book who, for some odd reason, is named after a swimming pool – I started playing with the ideas of swimming pools and oceans in my head to see where that might lead, but got bored. He is an active, practicing member of three of the world’s major religions. There is a joke in the early part of the book about him possibly becoming Jewish (ha ha – or perhaps I should draw a smiley face?). The only religion missing entirely from the book is Buddhism. Well, when I say entirely, it is interesting that it is a Japanese ship that sinks and that the people Pi tells his story to are Japanese engineers. I’ve known Hindus who consider Buddhists to be little more than dirty, filthy atheists – so perhaps that is one reason why these Japanese engineers are treated with such contempt at the end of the book.

The Japanese make the connections between the two stories – but we can assume that they stuff up these connections. While it is clear the French Cook is the hyena, Pi’s mum is the orang-utang, and the Asian gentleman is the zebra, I’m not convinced Pi is meant to be the tiger. In fact, the one constant (that’s a pun, by the way, you are supposed to be laughing) in both stories in Pi.

My interpretation is that the tiger is actually God. Angry, jealous, vicious, hard to appease, arbitrary and something that takes up lots of time when you have better things to do – sounds like God to me.

The last little bit of the book has Pi asking which is the better story- the one with animals or the one he tells with people. I mean, this is an unfair competition – he has spent chapter after chapter telling the animal story and only the last couple telling the people story. The point of this, though, is Pascal’s wager said anew. If we can never really know if there is no god and it ultimately makes no difference if we tell the story with him or without him in it, but if the story is more beautiful with him in it – then why not just accept him in the story and be damned.

Well, because the story isn’t improved with the animals and life isn’t just a story and kid’s stories are great sometimes, but I often like adult stories at least as much – and sometimes even more.

This is yet another person all alone survival story, but one I don’t feel that was handled as well as it could have been – mostly because the writer had an ideological message that he felt was more important than the story – never a good sign. Worse still, in the end I really couldn’t care less about Pi – I knew he was going to survive and knew it would be ‘because of’ his faith.

He does talk about Jesus’ most petulant moment with the fig tree – so I was quite impressed that rated a mention – but, all the same, I haven’t been converted to any or all of the world religions discussed in this book.

Compare this tale with the bit out of A History of the World in Ten and a Half Chapters about the painting – I know, it is not a fair comparison, Barnes is a god, but I’ve made it anyway.

I didn’t really enjoy this book, I felt it tried too hard and didn’t quite make it. But Christians will love it – oh yeah – Christians will definitely love it.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the second half of this story, when Pi is trapped in a lifeboat with an orangutan, a hyena, a zebra, and a tiger in the middle of the ocean and has to survive after the tiger kills all the other animals, is fascinating. (and no, that does not count as a spoiler, because the back of the book tells you the exact same thing.)
On the other hand, nearly everything that happens before the boat crash that leads to Pi's lifeboat problem is incredibly, mind-numbingly boring.
I liked learning about zoology and the inner workings and secrets of zoos that Pi's father reveals, and the information was important to later plot developements.
But then Pi spends at least four long chapters describing how he decided as a teenager that he was going to be Christian, Muslim, and Hindu all at the same time. (He may have dabbled in Judaism as well, but I honestly can't remember if he did or not because by that point in the book I was ready to throw the thing out the window) I realize that Pi's faith is an important factor during his time in the lifeboat, but it just takes so damn long for him to lecture the readers on his multi-road faith journey. I remember reading it and wondering when he was going to be in the damn shipwreck already.
And the ending...at the risk of giving anything away, I'll just say that it's one of those endings that makes you go, "Wait...what?" After I finished the book, I felt like Yann Martel was ordering me to reread the book and observe all his oh-so-brilliant symbolism etc etc. But then I remembered the first half of the book and I was like, "Screw you, Yann Martel. I'm going to read something else now."

So essentially, I guess I liked most of the book, but I will not be rereading it anytime soon.

من أفضل الروايات التي قرأتها في حياتي
صراع مع التاريخ
صراع مع النفس
صراع مع الطبيعة
صراع مع العقل
وفي كل صراع يتغلب الإنسان على صعوبات الحياة.
اعتبر نهايتها عبقرية، خصوصا عندما يقص عليهم الفتى خبر ما حدث له من غرائب فلم يصدقونه، فيكذب ويقص عليهم قصة عادية فيصدقونها.

إنها رواية عن الإيمان، لم أقرأ لها مثيل.


يظهر يان مارتل تأثرا كبيرا برواية "روبنسون كروزو" للروائي البريطاني دانيال دافو، مع وجود مفارقات وتباينات الحقبات الزمانية، بين الأولى الأكثر كلاسيكية و"حياة باي" الأكثر حداثة.
فالشخصية المحورية "باي" الفتى الهندي في السادسة عشرة من عمره، هو اختصار اختاره البطل المحوري لاسمه "بيسين" بمعنى حوض سباحة باللغة الفرنسية، يعيش هوساً بالأديان والعلوم اللاهوتية دفعه إلى اعتناق كل من الهندوسية والإسلام والمسيحية.
يشعر "باي" بأنه يتحرك داخل رحم كوني مقدّس، وبأن الإيمان بالله هو انفتاح كامل، انفلات مطلق في ثقة عمياء، يصاحب ذلك إحساسه الدائم بالسمو والابتهاج والفرح. ما يناقض البيئة التي تربّى فيها بوالدين أكثر "عقلانية" مستنكرين تدينه واختياره أكثر من دين، ويشبّه هو قناعته بأن "الدين منزل يحمل غرفاً عديدة." ويهتف ببساطة إنسان غارق في الإيمان "أريد فقط أن أحب الإله".
حين غرقت السفينة التي كان على متنها، واختفت في ثقب صغير على خريطته. بات إنساناً منذوراً للموت، فقد كل شيء وتعلّق بزورق نجاة شاركه فيه نمر بنغالي شرس يدعى ريتشارد باركر. لم تعد تظهر عليه تلك الثقة العمياء التي كان يواجه بها معلم الأحياء الملحد كومار وقوله إن "الدين سينقذنا".
يتخيل مزيجاً من شخصيات مقدسة كان يستمد قوة معتقده منها، الأم العظيمة المباركة، وإلهة الخصوبة في بونديتشيري، جميعهم لا يعرفون شيئاً عن البحر سوى مناجاته. يرقب ريتشارد باركر النمر الشرس الذي يشاركه القارب بعين، ويرقب بالعين الأخرى النجوم، ويشهد عظمة صور الطبيعة مما يزيد من تعمقه الروحي، ويفشل في مدّه بمعرفة جغرافية واستدلال موقعه بواسطة النجوم. يشعر بضآلة موقفه. "قد تظن أنني فقدت كل الأمل في تلك اللحظة، وقد فعلت. وكنتيجة شعرت بانتعاش وبأنني أفضل كثيراً". فـ "باي" لديه قصة "ستجعلك تؤمن بالله"، وإن كان في الجزء الأول من الرواية يستمد قوّته ويتغلب على ضجر حياته الروتينية بالغوص في المعتقدات والأديان المختلفة، إلا أن التطرق إلى الإيمان يتضاءل تدريجياً في سياق أحداث محاولته مواجهة الموت. فيصف الشك متنكراً في هيئة شكوك صغيرة، وتولد العتمة فيه رهاب الاحتجاز في مكان ضيق. كما أنه خشي "أن يغرق إيمانه في قاع المحيط". يعيش حالة من السأم الكثيف يتخلله هذيان وتخيل لحوارات مع آخرين "عثرت لنفسك على قارب نجاة كبير، وملأته بالحيوانات.. أتظن نفسك نوح أو شخصا من هذا القبيل؟" يظهر إيمان "باي" كهذيان قائم على خلاصة ما تعلّمه في حياته قبل أن يضيع في وسط المحيط، وكأنه أشبه ببرهان الفيلسوف الفرنسي باسكال الذي يشير إلى ضرورة الإيمان بوجود الخالق. تظهر معجزات توثق من إيمانه كارتطام قطيع من الأسماك الطائرة بقاربه كوليمة طازجة. يشعر بالانبهار وهو يشهد صاعقة يصفها بالمعجزة، في محاولة لإخماد قلق النمر المتوثب بجانبه. وفي أوقات خلوده للراحة كان يتمتم ببضع أدعية إسلامية بحثاً عن السلوى. كل ذلك لا يسهم في إنقاذه. فهو يقاتل حتى الرمق الأخير بسبب "نهم أحمق للحياة". لم ينقذه إلا التفاصيل العملية المباشرة للبقاء على قيد الحياة، وتعلّق بكتيب مبلّل يحمل إرشادات للنجاة، في مشاركة "ريتشارد باركر" يا لها من رحلة تعيسة في مصارعة الموت وسط محيط شاسع، ومواجهة أحوال طقس وجغرافية مرعبة لا يمكن للمرء أن يتجاوزها دون أن يفارق الحياة، تتخللها عواصف وأمطار وأسماك قرش. كما ساعده انشغاله بتفاصيل كالصيد وتخطّي العطش وإطعام النمر وترويضه. فقد لجأ إلى استخدام المنطق في "كل لحظة" متطرقاً إلى أهمية المنطق للبحث عن الطعام والمأوى. يتساءل القارئ إن كان فعلاً بطلاً ذكياً استفاد من ظروف حياته وخبرته في علم الحيوان، أم أنه بطل "دون كيشوتي" اختلق أسطورة وهمية ليتجنّب أحداث بشعة واجهها مع بشر متوحشين اضطروا في ظروف خانقة إلى تناول لحم بشري وتشويه جثّة بسادية مفرطة. ومن جهة أخرى، قد يرمز يان مارتل إلى الغريزة الحيوانية داخل "باي"، التي ظهرت إلى الوجود في محاولة مستميتة للعيش تحت ظروف قاهرة، أجبرته على أن يتنازل عن مبادئه التي تمقت القتل وأكل اللحوم، حتى أن بيسين تطرّق في سياق هذياني في زورق النجاة بأن من الممكن أن يعتاد المرء أي شيء حتى القتل، ساعده النمر ريتشارد على البقاء حياً ثم اختفى كلياً، ليفقد بيسين وحشيته التي اضطر إلى إظهارها وقت الحاجة. وتزيد نهاية الرواية من تشكيك القارئ في حقيقة تلك الرحلة الخرافية. فحين عجز المحققان اليابانيان اللذان يبحثان عن سبب غرق السفينة، عن تصديق قصته بلجوئهما المطلق للمنطق، وانحياز القصة إلى خيال لا يمت للواقع بصلة. في نهاية المطاف لا يكترث باي بعدم تصديق من حوله لوقائع ما جرى من أحداث بعجائبيتها، فقد كان دافعاً ليكافح اليأس الذي كاد ينتابه، وليسافر عبر طريق الحياة، وترك البحر يجرفه حتى وصل إلى الجزيرة اعتبرها ملاذاً له على الرغم من شراستها، فكل موجة تمتصها الجزيرة ولا تترك إلا بعض الزبد. وعلى أية حال هو يرى أن الحياة رائعة إلى حدّ أن الموت واقع في غرامها، وأن "من نلتقيهم يمكن أن يغيرونا وأحيانا يكون التغيير عميقاً إلى حد أننا لا نعود الأشخاص ذاتهم بعد ذلك". سواء كان الذي التقى به نمراً بنغالياً، أو إنساناً آخر متوحشاً أو حتى ذاته.

Once, while riding the bus, I told a friend I hated this book. A guy I'd never met turned around to tell me that he was shocked and this was a beautiful book. I can sum up my hatred of this book by saying this: At the end of the book a character asks "Do you prefer the story with animals or without?" I can say with conviction I prefer the story without the animals--the stupid, boring, symbolic animals.

“It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.”



As a sort of parable on the value of storytelling, Yann Martel's fantastical adventure, Life of Pi, is astonishing. In the most desperate of circumstances, while Pi is on his lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, imagination and storytelling are the keys to Pi's incredible story of survival. Issues about believability, what really happened on the boat, take a backseat to wonder, love, creativity and to a certain extent, madness. The novel is heavy on spirituality, but it is compelling and Pi's evolving relationship with Richard Parker keeps their 227 days at sea interesting.

I'm so glad I read The Life of Pi before the movie came out. While Ang Lee does a beautiful job, the inner struggle of the main character is difficult to capture in film. Pi Patel, son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry, India, is a sensitive, philosophical young man, who is interested in world religions. After a shipwreck, he ends up sharing a lifeboat with a terrifying Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. In this harrowing coming-of-age journey, Pi's physical strength, courage and spirituality are all tested.

The Life of Pi novel shares a thematic basis with J.P. Donleavy's The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B, a literary wonder. The protagonist, Balthazar, is studying zoology, while his friend Beefy studies theology. Balthazar and Beefy come of age while exploring their hedonistic and spiritual natures. I love the way Donleavy breaks all the rules of grammar and goes straight to the funny bone.

I recommend both of these books to readers who enjoy beautifully crafted stories that take on animal vs. spiritual themes.