I purchased this book sometime last year (or the year before that) because it was on sale at The Strand and because it was on my humongous list of "I should read this at some point" books. Lately I've been trying to actually read the mountain of unread books in my bedroom, and so this was it! The reason why I didn't start reading it right away, is because after I bought it, I glanced at the description and only remember registering the words "tiger" "kid" "boat" and for some reason equated it all with anthropomorphism and was convinced that there would be a talking tiger in the mix.
I'm glad I finally decided to overlook that. Life of Pi took me places I did not expect. The novel starts with the author's foreword, which now that I'm all adult I try to read before the book (although I'm still burned by the time I read the editor's foreword to Anna Karenina - way to ruin the ending, guy!), and in it he explains how he was able to afford to write the novel, and how he came about it. Essentially, he says, this is a true story, and peppered throughout the books are italicized paragraphs that make it seem as if it's Martel writing about his experience of interviewing Pi, the main character in the novel. It's quite an effective tool.
"Pi" took it's sweet long time to tell me a very short story. It starts with a boy, and his name, and his nickname, and the significance of being named after a mathematical figure that goes on and on. And then religion comes along - or I should say, religions - and God in all His forms, and the men that follow God, and the animals these men take care of. And then Pi and his family decide to travel to Canada in a huge ship. That's where the meat of the story is - Young Pi is then shipwrecked and stuck in a boat with a Tiger. Maybe. Maybe he's stuck in a boat with himself. Maybe people are animals by another name. Deep down, the survival instinct takes over everything. Maybe.
No comments:
Post a Comment