آه منك يا يان، آه منك
كيف استطعت، بقلمك الجميل ذاك، أن تجلو عن أعيننا هذه الغشاوة العظيمة من الظلام؟
وكأنك، يا يان، ولي صوفي، رجل من أهل الله، تحدثنا عن الله، كما لم يتحدث أحد من قبلك
تجليات، وممارسات، وظهورات نورانية، يبثها فيك، هذا الرجل، بقلمه، بأبطاله، بشخوص روايته كلهم
وبعبقريته الفذة، التي تتجلى لك، بمجرد قراءة الصفحات الأولى من روايته تلك.
"لديّ قصة ستجعلك تؤمن بالله"
هكذا ابتدأت قصته
أين هو الله؟ أهو رب الهندوس؟ أم رب المسيحية، أم رب الإسلام؟
من هو ممثل الله، ومن رسوله
كانت تلك الأسئلة هي ما تراود عقل هذا الفتى، باي.
فتى، وجد الله، في كل شيء، في المعبد، والمسجد، والكنيسة
وجد الله في قلبه، قبل أن يجده في السماء، وقبل أن يجده عند أولئك المتناحرين، حول الممثل الحقيقي للإله
يأخذك يان إلى رحلة، رحلة للماوراء
ما وراء المرئي، ما وراء المعنى، ما وراء الظاهر
رحلة للبحث عن الله، كيف يكون بحثنا عنوالله؟
في وجودنا، في ضمائرنا، في أفراحنا، وفي أتراحنا ومصائبنا كذلك.
يتجلى حضور الله في كل شيء، حتى في أصعب وأشد تلك اللحظات وطأة على النفس، وأشد تلك اللحظات ظلامًا، يتجلى حضور الله، في الأمل بالغد، في الأمل بالخلاص، سواء أكان خلاصًا مسيحيا، أو إسلاميا، أو حتى هندوسيا، في الأمل بالنصر، في نقطة النور تلك التي تأبى أن تنطفئ جذوتها في النفس، والقلب.
أظن أن يان، لو كان أراد أن يكتب ما يدفعنا للإيمان، بشكل بعيد عن اللاهوت، وقريب من القلب، لما استطاع أن يكتب أفضل مما كتب هاهنا.
رحلة ممتعة، وشيقة، ومؤلمة، مليئة بالأسى، والأمل، بالبؤس، والفرح، بالحزن، والسعادة، بكل متناقضات الحياة تلك، بالإيمان كذلك، كما بالشك، بالقسوة التي نجدها في القدر، والناس، والحنو الذي ينتظرنا، في الأخير، في الله
رواية تجعلك ترى الله، وتتأمل حكمته الخفية تلك، وتجعلك تزدري نفسك المغترة، بما ترى فقط، لتؤمن بما لم ترى، وما يتجلى في خفائه، أكثر من ظهوره
رواية عجيبة، عشت معها وكأني أحد أبطالها، أو بشكل ما أحد أناسها العديدين المشوشين
رواية تأخذك إلى الله

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.

As near as I can say, this should probably be 3.141592654 stars.

I was disappointed in this novel, but not really surprised at this. Rather I was somewhat prepared for it, because the ratings for it, specifically by my GR friends and reviewers (people I follow), are all over the place. While over half of these ratings are good (4s and 5s), fully 28% are bad (1s and 2s). This is the highest percent of bad ratings for a Booker award winner since 2000 among these people.

And, as indicated by my own rating, there were things I liked about the book. But before I get into any more detail, I will warn readers that there are some mild spoiler type comments in what follows. Most of these are general comments about the structure or message of the book. In one place where I say something very specific about the plot I have used the normal spoiler alert.

So … what I liked about the book was (surprise) probably most of it. I found the main storyline taking place in the boat not only an enjoyable read, but even quite believable. I would be willing (if most of the novel had been published as an actual memoir by a sea disaster survivor) to believe even the bit about the companion that he survived with. I thought the explanation given of how the relation developed between Pi and his feline companion made enough sense to believe.

But there were a number of things about the book that I really disliked.

(1) The Author’s Note which begins the book is probably something that many readers didn’t even read, since I know some don’t read prefatory material in books. I always read this stuff, and I was quite confused when I read this note. Of course I assumed it was a genuine comment by Martel, but finally realized that it is itself part of the fiction. Besides being confused by this material, I was amazed that the author seemed to be claiming that the story he was about to relate would make me believe in God. But more on that later.

(2) Skipping to the other end of the book, the last section, in which Pi is interviewed by the Japanese investigators, struck me first as a very lame attempt at humor (of a rather condescending nature, since it makes these investigators out as complete fools). The way in which Pi is represented as a superior being to these buffoons was more irritating to me than humorous. But the worst part of this section is the alternate story that Pi tells the men when they express disbelief in the story he tells them of his survival. Then, after relating this alternate story, he asks them to believe the one they “like best”. Not the one they think is more probably true, but the one they like best! And these simpletons take Pi up on his request, decide that they like his original story better (no small wonder) and conclude the investigation. Presumably readers are supposed to decide that we too will believe Pi’s story because we like it better than the grisly alternative? (But again, more on this later.)

(3) Several chapters near the end of the sea story seemed weak to me, for various reasons.  
- Chapter 85 (“Once there was lightning …”) seems like an obligatory couple hundred words on something that might happen at sea in a lifeboat, but plays no part in the story; rather, it simply provides a setting for Pi to blather on about how the experience of a close lightning strike swept him into paroxysms of wonder about divinity, God, etc. etc.
- Chapter 86 relates the (unlikely in the extreme) incident of almost being run over by a gigantic tanker (aimed straight at them from thousands of miles away no doubt), which of course has a crew to whom the lifeboat is entirely invisible.
- Chapter 88 (One day we came upon trash …) seems like a meaningless mention of the garbage floating in the Pacific – but it gives Pi the opportunity to pick up a corked (empty) wine bottle, put a note in it, and launch it back into the ocean and out of the story.
- Chapter 89. Now, all of a sudden, the narrative shifts abruptly, with no explanation. Up to this point it has been an interesting survival story, in which Pi is getting along pretty well, Richard Parker has been “tamed”, Pi seems to be having no problem catching both fish and rain water to keep himself and R.P. eating and drinking. All of a sudden he and R.P. are both descending rapidly towards first blindness and then death.
- Chapter 90. Here the nonsense really starts. The blind Pi’s boat amazingly bumps into another lifeboat being rowed by another blind man in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! This is a rather long chapter, filled with conversation between these two blind men, which I’m afraid went right over my head. The only thing I see it adding to the story is that Pi eventually gets some extra water from this man’s boat, and R.P. gets an extra several meals.
- Chapter 92 (“I made an exceptional botanical discovery …”) must be terribly significant, since it goes on for almost 30 pages, and indeed basically concludes the sea portion of the story. This chapter is completely unbelievable, could almost make someone think we are engaged with magical realism. Except it doesn’t feel like that sort of writing. These strange occurrence aren’t “magical”, they are simply weird, near-but-not-entirely-impossible - or perhaps “divine”. Perhaps the last two chapters mentioned are meant to introduce a “miraculous” element into the plot, so that the claim that the story will prompt belief in God can be “demonstrated”. Anyway, once Pi and R.P. have left this living island, we find them completely resuscitated, sight and health (but not spirit, oddly) restored, and in less than 100 words (Chapter 93) the boat is washing through the surf towards a beach in Mexico.

So, in conclusion I’ll make the following observations:
1. Much of the story was an enjoyable read for me; but much was irritating, as I’ve explained above. One thing I can be thankful for is that, although I could have spent the time reading any number of books I would have enjoyed more, reading Life of Pi at least saved me from spending money on the movie.

2. I have to believe that many of the things I found irritating were actually felt to be strong points by the Booker voters. To me, these unusual/irritating aspects of the novel often felt gimmicky. This extends even to the first person narrative, which I think was likely a point in favor of the book’s winning, but which I’m not sure I enjoyed as much as most people apparently did.

3. I’m pretty sure that many people who enjoyed the book were helped on that path by their view that the story, somehow or other, made them feel good about their religious outlook. Now this aspect of the book would certainly not appeal to me, but my perception that the book contained those ideas didn’t keep me from reading it. I have no problem with reading fiction about people who have different religious views than mine, and Pi certainly seems to qualify on that count.

4. Finally, and commenting further on the last point, I began to wonder, as I was putting this review together, whether Pi’s views of God are actually meant to be admired. Might it not be the fact that the author is, however gently and tactfully, perhaps holding them up to ridicule? I certainly have no idea about the author’s religious beliefs, but for all I know he might not be religious at all. Consider: First, in the Author’s Note we find the assertion (by the fictitious Indian man who tells the tale to the author) that the story will make the author (and us readers by extension) believe in God. Does that mean that the author doesn’t believe in God? And of course, the author of this fiction must know very well that a fiction could not possibly have that effect on a rational person. Second, in the final short chapter before the sea-story ends on the Mexican beach, “Pi” writes

The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar. It was natural that, bereft and desperate as I was, in the throes of unremitting suffering, I should turn to God.

Right, that’s pretty much what Marx said about religion being an opiate. So, is Pi revealing (presumably unintentionally) his real reasons for believing in God? Third, in the final segment with the Japanese investigators, Pi is able to get them to “believe” his original story “with the animals” by simply asking them

So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can’t prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with the animals or the story without animals?
Mr. Okamoto: That’s an interesting question …
Mr. Chiba: The story with animals.
Mr. Okamoto: Yes. The story with animals is the better story.
Pi: Thank you. And so it goes with God.

Thus, the story with God is the better story … we like it more … it makes us feel better … … … QED

It's not that it was bad, it's just that I wish the tiger had eaten him so the story wouldn't exist.

I read half of it, and felt really impatient the whole time, skipping whole pages, and then I realized that I didn't have to keep going, which is as spiritual a moment as I could hope to get from this book.

There is a compelling story in here, but unfortunately it's burdened by excessive explanation, confused religious allegory and mediocre writing.

The Author's Note promises that the story will make you believe in God. The problem was not that I didn't find the message persuasive, it was that the message was so confused it wasn't clear what it actually was, or in what way it was supposed to point towards a confirmation of God. I get the impression that the aim was less about persuasion, than it was about reinforcing notions of the importance of faith that are already held by believers.

From a literary standpoint, there is not much to redeem it. The book is poorly structured, the prose is often tacky and the story is longer than it deserves to be. The reader is constantly assumed to be unintelligent - every metaphor is explained, every connection pointed out, and any potential matter for contemplation is quickly snatched away by exposition.

The plot however, for the most part, is engaging. It's basically a story of survival against the odds, and so has all the tension and anticipation you'd expect. The narrator does possess some humour and charm, however the story seems to get lost after a while, and takes a pointless detour or two towards the end. But overall it's entertaining enough to keep you reading.

The ending is clever and surprising, and it casts the preceding story in a new light. But in some ways it also seems to undermine what has been developed. There is an implied lesson here about the truth being what you want it to be, which I don't agree with: the truth is what it is regardless of your attitude towards it. You can choose to deny reality and make up a less troubling version for yourself, but that's not a good choice in my opinion. Maybe that's why I didn't find the book's message all that convincing.

This is definitely one of the most imaginative books I have ever read.

Spiritual by nature and fable like in its reading, this is a work with great depth. The ending adds an even more thought provoking element and leaves the reader with a lot to consider.

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.

A surface level read of this book will result in a slow drawn out tale about a boy, his family and survival against the odds with a tiger. A deeper read will have you thinking about the role faith plays in providing a moral compass for humanity, the survival instincts of animals and whether we as humans can transcend our base nature when faced with imminent death. Despite being deeply religious, Pi accepts that rescue is less likely so principals and morality are washed away. For some people the abandoning of fundamental beliefs would feel like accepting the gentle turning of the tide, and for others a violent maelstrom at sea. This wonderful novel weaves in magical realism to provide a surreal experience for us as we observe Pi's internal conflict. I have just had surgery on my back so listened to much of this whilst on some fairly serious medication which made the experience quite harrowing in parts. There are some awful animal deaths in this book. Like utterly traumatising. Anyway, if you like books that explore human nature then I think you would probably enjoy this novel. As Pi's father observes, the most dangerous animal in the zoo is man. I think the ending is incredibly poignant as this novel is also about stories and the versions we accept as truth. Thoroughly recommend!

CW: Horrific animal deaths described on page.

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.

Excellent story. Pi is a great character. Growing up
in India at a zoo his father managers. Pi decided to worship Hinduism, Islam and Christianity to the perplexity of his parents. Set during the 1970s where India was ruled by Mrs Gandhi during the emergency. His father sells the zoo and they emigrate to Canada on a rust bucket.

The story follows the sinking of the ship and Pi with a Bengal tiger, hyena, Orangutan and zebra are all on a lifeboat. The next 227 days are how he survived through taming the tiger, surviving the elements and getting food and water. This allegorical fantasy is spell binding and at the end you question reality and truth. Which of the two stories are true that he tells to the representatives of the ship trying to find out how the ship sank. One is with the animals and the other brutal and about the inhumanity of desperate people. I know which one I want believe.

I have no doubt in saying that Life of Pi is the novel that until now has moved my soul more deeply. So deep that it was one of the reasons why I decided to start writing my first novel, Luces en el mar. Life of Pi is one of my favorite books, not only by the fresh, warm and almost innocent way Yann Martel tells the fantastic journey of Pi but above all by the poetry that resonates in each of its words and pages. Life of Pi is a poem, a painting with vivid colors, a symphony able to ruffle the hair of the forearm, a photograph that captures a deep emotion, it's a masterpiece. It's a novel with a humble narrative, but that contains reflections so large and deep as the sea that the character is forced to cross aboard a boat with the dangerous company of a tiger. I recommend everyone to read this wonderful story, with a so overwhelming and surprising ending that will leave you quite sure a trace in your heart for the rest of your life.

Spanish version:
No tengo ninguna duda en decir que "La vida de Pi" es la novela que hasta ahora más me ha removido el interior, tanto que es uno de los motivos por el que yo mismo me pusiera a escribir mi primera novela, Luces en el mar. La Vida de Pi uno de mis libros favoritos, no solo por la manera fresca, casi inocente en que Yann Martel nos cuenta el fantástico viaje de Pi, sino sobre todo, por la poética que resuena en cada una de sus páginas. "La vida de Pi" es un poema, una cuadro con vívidos colores, una sinfonía que te eriza el vello, una fotografía que captura las emociones, es una obra de arte en mayúsculas. Esta es una novela de apariencia poco presuntuosa, de narrativa sencilla pero con un contenido y unas reflexiones tan grandes y profundas como el mar que el personaje se verá obligado a cruzar a bordo de una barca y junto a la peligrosa compañía de un tigre. Recomiendo a todo el mundo que lea esta maravillosa historia, de final tan sobrecogedor y sorprendente que de bien seguro te dejará huella de por vida en tu corazón.

Life of Pi was a fairly engaging story in terms of plot and character, but what made it such a memorable book, for me at least, was its thematic concerns. Is it a "story that will make you believe in God," as Pi claims? I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I would recommend it to people who enjoy thinking about the nature of reality and the role of faith in our lives.

To me, the entire thrust of the book is the idea that reality is a story, and therefore we can choose our own story (as the author himself puts it). So if life is a story, we have two basic choices: we can limit ourselves only to what we can know for sure - that is, to "dry, yeastless factuality" - or we can choose "the better story." I suppose in Pi's world the "better story" includes God, but he doesn't say this is the only meaningful possibility. In fact, Pi calls atheists his "brothers and sisters of a different faith," because, like Pi, atheists "go as far as the legs of reason will carry them - and then they leap."

Pi's point, in my opinion, is that human experience always involves interpretation, that our knowledge is necessarily limited, that both religious belief and atheism require a leap of faith of one kind or another - after all, there's so little we can know for sure. For Pi, then, we shouldn't limit ourselves only to beliefs that can be proven empirically. Instead, we should make choices that bring meaning and richness to our lives; we should exercise faith and strive for ideals (whatever the object of our faith and whatever those ideals might be). Or, as Pi says in taking a shot at agnosticism: "To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."

In the end, however, I didn't necessarily read this book as an invitation to believe in God. Instead, I saw it as a mirror held up to the reader, a test to see what kind of worldview the reader holds. That is, as Pi himself says, since "it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with the animals or the story without the animals?" Or, as I took it: Is it my nature to reach for and believe the better but less likely story? Or do I tend to believe the more likely but less lovely story? What view of reality do I generally hold?

Another equally important question is this: How did I come by my view of reality? Do I view the world primarily through the lens of reason? Or do I view it through the lens of emotion? For Pi, I think it's safe to say his belief comes by way of emotion. He has, as one reviewer noted, a certain skepticism about reason (in fact, Pi calls it "fool's gold for the bright"). Pi also has what I would call a subtle but real basis for his belief in God, namely, "an intellect confounded yet a trusting sense of presence and ultimate purpose." But belief still isn't easy for him. Despite his trusting sense of purpose, Pi acknowledges that "Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer." So it's not that a life of faith is easier, in Pi's opinion, it's that for him belief is ultimately more worthwhile.

This is not to say, however, that Pi holds a thoroughly postmodern view of God or that he believes as a matter of art rather than in a sincere way. True, Pi suggests that whether you believe his story had a tiger in it is also a reflection of your ability to believe in something higher. And of course it's easy to read Pi's entire story as an attempt to put an acceptable gloss on a horrific experience. Still, there are a number of clues throughout the book that give the reader at least some reason to believe Pi's story did have a tiger in it (for instance, the floating banana and the meerkat bones).

As such, Pi's two stories could be seen as an acknowledgement that both atheism and belief in God require some faith, and therefore it's up to each of us to choose the way of life that makes us the happiest. He's not necessarily saying that the truth is what you make it, he's saying we don't have unadulterated access to the truth: our imagination, personalities, and experiences unavoidably influence the way we interact with the world. But that's not the same as saying whatever we imagine is true. I think Pi, for instance, knows which of his stories is true. It's not Pi but the reader who is left with uncertainty and who therefore has to throw her hands up and say "I don't know," or else choose one story or the other. And to me, this isn't too far off from the predicament we all find ourselves in.

And that's what makes Life of Pi such a challenge to the reader: Pi's first story is fantastic, wonderful, but hard to believe. Yet there's some evidence that it happened just the way he said it did. And Pi's second story is brutal, terrible, but much easier to accept as true. Yet it's not entirely plausible either, and it leaves no room for the meerkat bones or Pi's "trusting sense of presence and ultimate purpose." If the reader personally dismisses the tiger story out of hand, I suppose that's another way of saying the reader, by nature, tends to believe the more likely but less lovely story. In the same way, if the reader gets to the story's payoff and still believes there was a tiger in the boat, the reader is probably inclined to believe the more emotionally satisfying story. But it should be born in mind that Pi doesn't definitively state which story was true, something which only he can know for sure. All we can really be sure of, in Pi's universe, is that he was stuck on a lifeboat for a while before making it to shore. So which story do I believe? I struggled with that question for a long time. But after thinking about it for a couple of days, I'll end this review with the final lines from the book: "Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal Tiger."