by Alexander Lourenco

Created on: August 01, 2008

"Life of Pi" is a book that captures the imagination in a way that very few books have done to me. One character claims at one point that the book will make you believe in God, but this is too shallow to cover it all; the book is instead a deep, fantastic exploration and discussion of human emotion and spirituality disguised as a wonderful story about a young boy surviving on the ocean with a Bengal tiger.

The book opens with the narrator describing how he was all set to write a book about Portugal, when he discovers that the book simply does not work. He tosses the idea out and meets a man who tells him that he has a story that will make him believe in God; the author is led to Pi Patel, and Pi relates his story to the author in a three part narrative that never fails to hold the audience's attention.

The first part of the narrative details Pi's early life and his fascination with the zoo where his father works. Pi likes to look at the animals and the zoo offers an interesting perspective in terms of viewing the animals and their relation to the world; over the course of his father's employment and his own growing and exploring, Pi eventually chooses to be Christian, Muslim, and Hindu all at once. This puzzles and upsets the holy men of each religion, but Pi stands firm and claims he just wants to love God. This section ends with the zoo being sold and Pi's family migrating to Canada on a boat. On the way there, an unknown accident occurs which sinks the ship and leaves Pi alone on a life raft with an orangutan, a tiger, a zebra, and a hyena. The hyena kills the orangutan and the zebra before being killed by the tiger, and Pi and the tiger, named Richard Parker due to a clerical error, face off on the raft.

The second part of the story details Pi's life aboard the raft and his continuing efforts to survive not only the sea but the tiger who stalks the raft with him. He eventually learns to train the tiger and they become something like friends; Pi, however, never forgets his father's lesson of the danger of all predatory animals. They float on the sea aimlessly for over two hundred days, catching fish and turtles to keep themselves alive and distilling water from solar stills. Even with Pi's best efforts, there are moments where he believes he will die due to malnutrition and dehydration; it is only by force of will and a little luck that he and the tiger survive.

They eventually find an island that seems to be a floating oasis; the island is made of nutritious algae, plays host to thousands of meerkats, and is full of freshwater ponds. Pi thinks that his trials are finally over, but he discovers that the island is carnivorous and uses acid to dissolve and digest organic matter upon it. Horrified, he and Richard Parker flee the island; they are afloat for a few more days before they hit land in Mexico, whereupon Richard Parker runs into the jungle and is never seen again. The Mexican authorities take care of Pi and he makes his way to Canada, where two Japanese agents question him about the sinking of the ship. He tells them the entire story, but they do not believe him; the book ends as he tells them instead a very mundane, realistic story which they immediately accept as the truth.

"Life of Pi" is a fantastic book that explores many deep human conflicts and emotions; it is an engaging and compelling read that will lead you to pick it up again and again.

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