This was an exhilarating, colourful and highly intelligent read; it reminded me a great deal of Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight’s Children ‘, though of the two books I found this one by far the more readable.

There are so many different themes examined and the author’s magic touch ensures they are all shown in a completely new light. I particularly liked the discussion of the ins and outs of thesaurus compilation! Sounds boring but wasn’t. If there’s a bum note it’s my complete failure to comprehend the book’s central peculiarity – the narrator’s ability to change sex at will, and we’re not talking about a bit of cross dressing here, it’s the whole shooting match. Overnight. I was trying to work out why some novels flout the laws of physics freely and I totally believe them (‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ come to mind) but others don't convince me. I think my problem with this one was that nobody expressed any surprise at the phenomenon, and that there was clearly something deep and meaningful going on that I had failed to comprehend! It did enable the author to examine sexual relationships across the fullest possible spectrum, and in a book that occasionally nudges at the boundaries of taste, I guess that’s an important consideration.

Unlike Life of Pi where it was very engaging and lots of stuff happened, in this book it wasn't engaging and nothing happened. Still well written, but if I wasn't stick in a car for 8 hours I wouldn't have read it.

Maybe 5 stars. 2nd time reading this, first was maybe 10 years ago now. I adore this book. As someone who feels essentially androgynous, I love this exploration of gender and sexuality, and though it may be absurd, have always related to the narrator. I think Martel does a remarkable job portraying the spectrum, not the binary, or gender and sexuality, and his exposition of the both male and female sexuality and psyche both feel natural and authentic.
In this day and age, with all the stuff exploding around gender, I'm surprised I don't hear more about this book, but i'm hardly in the circles to know that.
Highly, highly recommended for anyone exploring gender issues, but not only that, just to anyone who wants to read a brilliant novel and learn something - about your Self - on the way.

I was surprised by this book in a number of ways. I went into it expecting a different story, something more akin to “Big”, with a magical-realism spin, but that is not this book at all, but that also doesn’t bother me. I thought the book was very poetic, witty, and sensitive. It read almost like a soft memoir. The book is quite gentle and floaty in its tone and pace, until the bitter end, which was heartbreaking. The ending allowed me to better understand why the book is so explicit, and I can appreciate the way Martel structures the story. I am still unsure of what the takeaway or message for this story was meant to be. If it has one, it was likely lost on me, though maybe I was never supposed to read into it with any sort of angle anyways. I give it 3.5 stars out of 5, because it moved a bit slower than I would have preferred, and it’s general lack of momentum made it often hard to pick up. However, the writing, the subtle details and clever depiction and the depth of the writing is special, and the ending satisfying in a sad way. I am proud to sit this book next to Life of Pi on my shelf.

I’m…not sure what to make of this.

The best way I can describe this book from a plot perspective is that it is a bildungsroman: “a genre of the novel which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood where change is thus extremely important”. We have the unnamed protaganist who grows from a child to a thirty-year old, changed by travelling, writing, and -- perhaps most importantly -- the discovery of sex and relationships. The pacing varies very much, and the ending doesn’t feel like a real end. Also, I must warn that there are triggering images in this book.

I read this book over only two days, and the prose flowed well in my often tired-out brain. We hear the protaganist’s very intimate thoughts and feelings, but I felt like I was just along for the ride as an invisible spectator, and had no real idea what is happening at all. A lot of the writing is quite strangely beautiful, about love and cruelty and many different facets of life, but I can find no cohesiveness. I feel like there may be a lot of symbology in this book, but it’s one of those books where you aren’t sure if the symbols are really there, or if you’re just making it up because you think there must be. The one part of the writing I did like was the experiment with two columns, in different languages showing two aspects of self or of a relationship. I really didn’t like the ending.

Overall, just a very strange story. If you enjoy bildungsromans, maybe specifically those about sexual growth, then you may find this an intriguing read; for everyone else, it’ll just be confusing.

SELF was a puzzling book and one that find myself still thinking back to a few days after finishing it. It's one that I immediately wished to discuss, trying to parse the whys and wherefores of the plot devices employed by Martel. Although this is a very different book than his popular LIFE OF PI, the self-reflection and fantastical life adventures are present in both books. Well worth a read and if you are interested in human nature, the human condition, gender and sexuality, this novel will appeal to you.

SOOOO glad I read 'Life of Pi' before THIs!!

There we're some aspects of the book that I enjoyed. It seemed to spark many memories of my own, not in the exact way in which Yann describes, but it made me think a lot about my childhood. Certain words and phrases sparked memories from my distant past and the relationships that went with them.

He goes into the grotesque details of what happens to our bodies in there formative hormonal years. Some people may not be able to stomach it. But a lot of it, is the odd reality we are faced with when we try to figure out just who we are. It is taboo at times to speak of, but truth lies in a lot of his stringent sentences.

Some parts in the middle are hard to get through, but still at the end of reading you are gazing blankly in front of you trying to comprehend what you just read because it is peculiarly strange.
Mostly in that the end of the book takes a gripping turn that makes you feel some real remorse.

It makes you think outside yourself. As if you are looking in at someone else's life that you might know, in a different way. While trying to make sense of your own.

A completely different read from Life of Pi.

This is probably the longest time I’ve taken to read a book. A lot of it was a bore and you think there’d be something more interesting with this idea for book that can closely relate to trasgenderism but, by the end it was shock and horror.

When I’m reading a book like, no, love to understand what it’s trying to say and I can’t for the life of me understand what Self is saying.

I pray I never see this book again. I’m so annoyed.

I am seriously at a loss about how to rate this book. I felt almost voyeuristic when reading this at times. I wanted to shake or comfort the main character frequently. There were parts that dragged and dragged. More than once, I considred setting it aside and moving to something else, but then I would remember that beautiful bit at the beginning describing love as fish in his eyes, and I would give it another shot. And would then find another beautiful snippet that would keep me going. I had to skip over a few things that were too graphic for me. But I reread several parts too, to allow the language to seep into my brain. I have not been so challenged and so rewarded by book on a very long time.

The ending --- oh, well, it broke my heart and then offered me the smallest -- and I do mean Smallest -- thread of hope before the one and only sentence of chapter 2 slammed the door closed. And I was not allowed to see into this life any more. Just when I wanted to most.

This will stay with me a long time, but it rates only a three because for more than half of the book I was disengaged. But having said that, this book is a prime example of why I always try to finish a book once started. Even though it was diificult to get through it, it was worth it in the end.

Life of Pi is one of the book that change my life. So I spontaneously bought this book when I saw it next to Life of Pi.
At first, I was a bit dissapointed because this is nowhere like Life of Pi. But then again, don't compare. Yann Martel's writing style is still chatty, entrigue many questions and beautiful. But Self is not Life of Pi, it is not about a boy who survived at the sea. It's about a boy or a girl who survived the real life.
So there, I enjoyed the book.

Hands down one of the best books I've ever read...I'm so glad that I picked this up!