Life Of Pi - Yann Martel

See Mindy's Review here.

Summary: When sixteen-year-old Pi Patel finds himself stranded in a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with only a menacing 450-pound Bengal tiger for company, he quickly realizes that the only way he will survive is if he makes sure the tiger is more afraid of him than he is of it. Finding strength within himself, he draws upon all of his knowledge and cunning, battles for food and shelter, overcomes storms and disasters, and, in the end, makes a peace of sorts with both tiger and ocean.

With more than one million copies in print, Life of Pi has become a modern classic, combining grand story-telling with a profound exploration of ageless themes: faith and truth, fact and fiction, man versus nature, and innocence and experience. (Image from Powells.com and summary from back of the book.)

My Review: Fascinating is the word I'd use to describe Pi's journey. Sad, powerful, awe-inspiring, disgusting, unbelievable: all of these adjectives would be accurate.

I'm still confused as to whether this story is true or not. Anyone care to enlighten me? If it is true, wow. Just, wow. If it's not, what an imagination!

My favorite aspects to this book were the religious musings, specifically in the beginning of the book, and the information about wild animals. Considering I'm not much of an animal person, this book didn't strike me the way it may some--except to say that the depictions of the violence between animals made me sick. The cruelty is more than my passive nature could bare at times. I was nauseous many times while reading. For that, I wanted to put the book down. I'm not sure I would have finished unless it hadn't been assigned as a book club pick. I'm glad I did finish, but I can assure you I won't be picking it up again. I don't mind thinking or conversing about it, but I'm not going to re-read it.

I also learned that I could not survive a ship wreck. The lengths he went to for survival are definitely past my capacity. I think I would have happily allowed that tiger to bat me around until I was able to leave such a miserable existence.

Besides the first section of the book with its religious musings, my favorite part would be the last section: the interview with the Japanese Ministry of Transport. I loved the translation of the side conversations, as well as Pi's outrageous outbursts and quite absurd hording of food. Too funny!

Rating: 4 stars--thought about giving it less, but I really enjoyed specific parts and I know I'll ponder on this story for a while, therefore I felt it deserved 4 stars.

In a phrase: Somewhat grotesque, although I can only imagine accurate, tale of survival from a ship wreck in the Pacific.