Annalisa's Reviews > Life of Pi
Life of Pi
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Annalisa's review
bookshelves: book-club, literary, religion-philosophy, classics, magical-realism, unreliable-narrator, setting, favorites
Oct 13, 2007
bookshelves: book-club, literary, religion-philosophy, classics, magical-realism, unreliable-narrator, setting, favorites
I read this book two years ago, but when we discussed it this month for book club, I remembered how much I liked it. A good discussion always ups my appreciation of a novel as does an ending that makes me requestion my givens in the story. I find myself reading contradictory interpretations and agreeing with both sides. That's the beauty of symbolism: as long as you back up your cause, it's plausible.
Initially it took me several weeks to get into the book. The beginning reads more like a textbook with inserted clips of the main character's future self. While the knowledge I gained about zoology and theology was interesting, it wasn't intriguing enough to keep me awake for more than a few pages at a time and often I found the tidbits a confusing distraction. But with distance I enjoyed the backdrop information it offered. If you're struggling through the initial background, jump ahead to the second section. Yeah it's important, but it's not vital. And maybe once you've read the story you'll want to come back and appreciate his analysis.
I highly enjoyed this strange journey at sea and found it almost believable--until the castaways encounter the island at which point I wondered how much of his sanity wavered. Being shipwreck is one of a plethora of phobias I have. Throw on top my even stronger fear of tigers and this was a story straight out of a nightmare, one that kept me intrigued for a resolution. How could a boy keep the upper hand shipwrecked with a tiger? I had a picture in my head of Pi clinging to the side of the boat to avoid both the salty water infested with sharks and a foodless boat housing a hungry carnivore.
I found myself stuck in the unusual place where as a reader I find a story plausible with full knowledge that had this story been presented in real life I would have doubted its authenticity. I wanted to believe the story and all its fantasy. The end initially annoyed me, but if you look at the rich metaphors in the story, it becomes delectable for a story analyst like me. There is nothing I enjoy more than tearing apart a story and pulling out the intentions and symbols buried inside. Instead of just a fantastical story, you find a fable with a moral.
Spoilers here.
(view spoiler)
Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
"Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can."
"It was my luck to have a few good teachers in my youth, men and women who came into my dark head and lit a match."
"Doubt is useful for a while...But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."
"All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways."
"Memory is an ocean and he bobs on the surface."
"First wonder goes deepest; wonder after that fits in the impression made by the first."
"The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart."
Initially it took me several weeks to get into the book. The beginning reads more like a textbook with inserted clips of the main character's future self. While the knowledge I gained about zoology and theology was interesting, it wasn't intriguing enough to keep me awake for more than a few pages at a time and often I found the tidbits a confusing distraction. But with distance I enjoyed the backdrop information it offered. If you're struggling through the initial background, jump ahead to the second section. Yeah it's important, but it's not vital. And maybe once you've read the story you'll want to come back and appreciate his analysis.
I highly enjoyed this strange journey at sea and found it almost believable--until the castaways encounter the island at which point I wondered how much of his sanity wavered. Being shipwreck is one of a plethora of phobias I have. Throw on top my even stronger fear of tigers and this was a story straight out of a nightmare, one that kept me intrigued for a resolution. How could a boy keep the upper hand shipwrecked with a tiger? I had a picture in my head of Pi clinging to the side of the boat to avoid both the salty water infested with sharks and a foodless boat housing a hungry carnivore.
I found myself stuck in the unusual place where as a reader I find a story plausible with full knowledge that had this story been presented in real life I would have doubted its authenticity. I wanted to believe the story and all its fantasy. The end initially annoyed me, but if you look at the rich metaphors in the story, it becomes delectable for a story analyst like me. There is nothing I enjoy more than tearing apart a story and pulling out the intentions and symbols buried inside. Instead of just a fantastical story, you find a fable with a moral.
Spoilers here.
(view spoiler)
Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
"Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can."
"It was my luck to have a few good teachers in my youth, men and women who came into my dark head and lit a match."
"Doubt is useful for a while...But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."
"All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways."
"Memory is an ocean and he bobs on the surface."
"First wonder goes deepest; wonder after that fits in the impression made by the first."
"The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart."
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
March 1, 2007
–
Finished Reading
October 13, 2007
– Shelved
August 17, 2008
– Shelved as:
book-club
July 18, 2009
– Shelved as:
literary
April 30, 2010
– Shelved as:
religion-philosophy
April 30, 2010
– Shelved as:
classics
December 3, 2015
– Shelved as:
magical-realism
February 29, 2016
– Shelved as:
unreliable-narrator
February 20, 2019
– Shelved as:
setting
October 1, 2019
– Shelved as:
favorites
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Shannon
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rated it 5 stars
Nov 05, 2009 11:17AM
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![Annalisa](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1675051326p1/542037.jpg)
Thanks. This is a book that certainly gets better with time. I was irritated at first, like you, that he took it away, but then I got thinking about all the symbolism and then I loved it.
![Jonathonz](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_25x33-ccd24e68f4773d33a41ce08c3a34892e.png)
I'm an agnostic that believes the second story. It's understandable that he would invent the story of the animals after the horror of seeing the murders, even of his own mother, on the boat and his own cannibalism. It's more plausible to me that there would be other people on the boat with him rather than the animals that had been in their cages. It makes sense that his mother would get up to follow him after he tries to rouse them. She probably felt something was wrong when the boat started to list and got up to find her son before the cabins were flooded. She would then be nearby to join him on the lifeboat. It makes sense that a boy that had grown up in a zoo and believed in 3 religions at once would invent this story to cope with the incredible ordeal he went through.
I loved this book a lot.
![Annalisa](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1675051326p1/542037.jpg)
![Michelle](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1263844312p1/3123151.jpg)
![Jessica Simón](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1355699355p1/15244170.jpg)
I have JUST finished this ( wonderful) book and can't let it go of my head: I keep going through the story again and again asking me 'what do I believe?' so I guess that's the magic of this well written book: its story and message stays with you for a long time, maybe it will live in you forever. Just as Richard Parker will do in Pi.