- Paperback: 428 pages
- Publisher: Canongate Books; New e. edition (10 Mar 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 184195425X
- ISBN-13: 978-1841954257
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 10.4 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (405 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 307,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Life Of Pi
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Some books defy categorisation: Life of Pi, the second novel from Canadian writer Yann Martel, is a case in point: just about the only thing you can say for certain about it is that it is fiercely and admirably unique. The plot, if that’s the right word, concerns the oceanic wanderings of a lost boy, the young and eager Piscine Patel of the title (Pi). After a colourful and loving upbringing in gorgeously-hued India, the Muslim-Christian-animistic Pi sets off for a fresh start in Canada. His blissful voyage is rudely interrupted when his boat is scuppered halfway across the Pacific, and he is forced to rough it in a lifeboat with a hyena, a monkey, a whingeing zebra and a tiger called Richard. That would be bad enough, but from here on things get weirder: the animals start slaughtering each other in a veritable frenzy of allegorical bloodlust, until Richard the tiger and Pi are left alone to wander the wastes of ocean, with plenty of time to ponder their fate, the cruelty of the gods, the best way to handle storms and the various different recipes for oothappam, scrapple and coconut yam kootu. The denouement is pleasantly neat. According to the blurb, thirtysomething Yann Martel spent long years in Alaska, India, Mexico, France, Costa Rica, Turkey and Iran, before settling in Canada. All those cultures and more have been poured into this spicy, vivacious, kinetic and very entertaining fiction. --Sean Thomas
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
"A terrific book... fresh, original, smart, devious, crammed with absorbing lore." Margaret Atwood, Sunday Times "Every page offers something of tension, humanity, surprise or even ecstasy." The Times "A unique and original story, brilliantly told." Guardian "Its sheer audaciousness, complex originality, breathtaking daring, virtuoso command of the language and imagery make Life of Pi a tour de force... It will stand the test of time." Lisa Jardine (Man Booker Prize judge 2002)"
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
106 of 119 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Life of Pi stands with Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude as the most surprising and inventive book I have ever read. The description I read of the book said simply that it was the tale of a boy marooned on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific with only a zebra, orangutan, hyena and tiger for company. I was prepared for a fantasy with talking animals who help Pi throughout an adventure until they inevitably wash up on the shore. What I didn't expect it to be was a savagely brutal tale of survival teeming with blood, viscera, fear, despair and the very real teeth and claws of a 450 pound Bengal tiger. What I also didn't expect it to be was a beautiful, moving, heartfelt, loving exploration of loss, determination, belief and spirituality. That it can be both these descriptions at the same time tells you something of the power of this work of art. Life of Pi will be to some people a cracking adventure story, to some a philosophical treatise on the nature of belief and religion and to some a dizzying and confusing mix of the real, the assumed and the fantasy. To me it was quite simply astounding. The realisation of the point the narrator makes to the Japanese investigators at the end made me laugh and cry at the same time and for the first time in ages I felt a tug at my soul towards a higher power. Everyone in the world should read this book and after the last word, close it, take a deep breath and come out changed.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I bought this book for my sister's 15th birthday (at her request) and decided to read it out of curiosity. I was amazed! This book is hilarious (I laughed out loud many times), inspiring, sad, creative and stretches the boundaries of your imagination. I read the whole book in one day - could not put it down and did not want it to end! Will be reading it again to discover the deeper meanings. The character of Pi is instantly lovable and the plot totally original - this is a book that you will be urging your friends to read and then have long discussions with them about it!
114 of 131 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
At the time of writing, Life of Pi is on the shortlist for the Booker Prize, and by the time of you reading this, it has either won (hurrah) or lost (hurroo). Because of the three novels I've read from the shortlist, Life of Pi stands head and shoulders above the others for being entirely original, good-natured, sparky (unlike the sluggish, grounded others), and extremely moreish: it took me only two days to navigate its 320 pages. You can put it down but it's such enjoyable fun why would you want to?
The blurb is somewhat misleading, suggesting that Life of Pi is only about the travails of a boy trapped on a lifeboat with a tiger: in fact there are 100 pages before this main event. But the miracle is that even when restricted to one human character and a twenty-odd foot lifeboat, Martel is never boring, and never resorts to childish anthropormism with the animals either: Pi really does have to survive with a 450-pound Bengal tiger, hungry and uncartoonish and nearby.
Speaking of miracles, the narrator's pushy insistence throughout the book that it will "make you believe in God" is the only chunk of the novel I couldn't quite swallow. There's no godliness whatsoever - unless it's moving in mysteriously subtle ways or something and I'm just too much of an atheistic blockhead to see it - unless you count the instances of Pi praising God when something good happens to interrupt the terrible attrition of life on the lifeboat. And frankly who wouldn't hedge their bets a bit in such a situation? In fact, thinking of it, one particularly memorable section of the book - the island, a staggeringly inventive set piece which put me in mind of the land of the mulefa in Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass - indicates, if anything, evolution at work rather than Creation, and the narrator even makes respectful mention of Darwin.
However. This small gripe does nothing to detract from the fact that Life of Pi will have you grinning like a tiger for days. Prize-winner or not, if it doesn't become a classic in the next few years, I'll eat that carton of emergency rations. Well he won't be needing it will he?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Strange but fascinating
I loved this book and I would recommend it. A boy is telling his own intriguing story; the exciting part is being a shipwreck survivor sharing his lifeboat with a tiger. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Latenighter
an excellent read
a short entertaining story on survival, loved this book, a great story with a twist, i would definately recommend it to anyone..
Published 16 days ago by D. Panchal
Thought-provoking
A friend lent this to me, months ago, and seeing as I have just spent three days in bed with food poisoning I thought I may as well tick it off the list. Read more
Published 20 days ago by Victoria
The Life of Pie
Bought this for my 15b year old, who has not been able to put it down, and has expressed every possible emotion while reading it. Read more
Published 24 days ago by sarah nightingale
A Good Yarn
Pi Patel's journey of survival, determination and sheer courage begin on July 2nd,1977. Where the cargo ship `Tsimtsum' carrying Pi and his family to a new lease of life sinks,... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Machine
Remarkable
Sixteen year old Pi Patel is crossing the Pacific Ocean aboard a cargo ship along with his family and the wild life from his father's zoo. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Benjamin
A Disappointing Pi
A book perhaps best read whilst butt naked, wearing an orange life vest, feet in a salted spa, the aquarium channel on cable and fish soup at the ready but such immersion into the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. Dean Evans
Slow yet different.........
Intrigued by its Booker Prize status, I picked this book up and few months back and it has sat on my shelf collecting dust for a fair few weeks. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Louise Roberts
A story of three parts
The Life of Pi is a book with three parts, all quite distinct from each other.
I struggled to get into the first part. Read more
I struggled to get into the first part. Read more
Published 3 months ago by R. F. Wheelhouse
Magic realism for dummies
I'm not usually moved to write bad reviews, but some books make you wish you could have the time back you've wasted on them and if I can save one person from reading this book then... Read more
Published 3 months ago by A. Ranson
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