Life of Pi by Yann Martel is one of those novels that is timeless and full of twist and turns that keeps the reader guessing for the entire 336 pages of this amazing novel.
The book's plot is based on the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi the son of a common zoo keeper, a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan—and a 450-pound royal bengal tiger.
Although, the book started out slow for the first hundred or so pages it picks up and ends up being a delightful story of an allegory which is the symbolic expression of a deeper meaning through a tale acted out by humans, animals, and in this case, even plant life.
Yann Martel has crafted a magnificently unlikely tale involving zoology and botany, religious experience, and ocean survival skills to explore the meaning of stories in our lives, whether they are inspired by religion to explain the purpose of life or generated by our own psyches as a way to understand and interpret the world around us.
During the novel Yann Martel also guides the reader through several religious ceremonies and themes like Garden of Eden, Daniel and the lion's den, the trials of Job, and even Jonah and the whale. Which helps the reader understand Pi's crazy journey!
Enjoy this wild ride of a novel! Can't wait to see the movie when it arrives on DVD!
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