Name: Guy Moorhouse's review of Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Item: Life of Pi
Rating: 4
Author: Guy Moorhouse

Yann Martel

Back in its original, iconic livery, the dazzling, thought-provoking novel that won the Man Booker Prize and became an international phenomenon.

A Novel

Life of Pi

A child is the sole survivor of a shipwreck, along with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a tiger.

It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.

Green is a lovely colour. It is my favourite colour.

The hunting of whales is a heinous crime.

But God’s hat was always unravelling. God’s pants were falling apart. God’s cat was a constant danger. God’s ark was a jail. God’s wide acres were slowly killing me. God’s ear didn’t seem to be listening.

Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love—but sometimes it was so hard to love.

It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing.

I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life.

These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defence, not God’s, that the self-righteous should rush.

“Piscine, can this be true?” asked the imam earnestly. “Hindus and Christians are idolaters. They have many gods.”

“And Muslims have many wives,” responded the pandit.

Lord, avert their eyes from me, I whispered in my soul. All eyes fell upon me.

She herself was a big reader. She was pleased to see me with my nose buried in a book, any book, so long as it wasn’t naughty.

I ask you, is it the fig tree’s fault that it’s not the season for figs? What kind of a thing is that to do to an innocent fig tree, wither it instantly?

All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways.

Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.

Just beyond the ticket booth Father had had painted on a wall in bright red letters the question: DO YOU KNOW WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a small curtain. There were so many eager, curious hands that pulled at the curtain that we had to replace it regularly. Behind it was a mirror.

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

It was my first clue that atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them—and then they leap.

Repetition is important in the training not only of animals but also of humans.

It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.

Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both.

“And then he nearly drowned you,” claimed Mother.

I have nothing to say of my working life, only that a tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he’s not careful.

The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity—it’s envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can.

If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.

Guy Moorhouse

Echt crazyyy heeft indruk op me gemaakt hoor 🙏🙏

loisesya

G.A.

One boy, one boat, one tiger . . .After the tragic 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, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan - and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.

Carmen Garcia

i can't lie i'm a little disappointed and feel like an outsider when i say that i enjoyed this book, but didn't see what the hype was all about. the story was incredibly memorable and id never read anything like it from the triple religions to the zoology baked into pi's relationship with richard parker. it was a joy to read and every night before bed i looked forward to the time when i would learn more about his world and story. there were also some incredible lines with lessons like how everything we say is a story to some extent because of humanistic biases. the world can be incredibly fantastical, and we sometimes have difficulty when non-fiction blurs with fiction. i also loved that he had the duality i feel as a third-gen immigrant with both his indian and canadian sides and i felt a lot of pride when he discussed MY city with such vibrancy. yay toronto i love you! 

note: my friend justin wrote a 4000 word essay about the deeper meanings of this book, so these are my thoughts before reading that, but will follow up in a comment!

Ashna Nirula

i can't lie i'm a little disappointed and feel like an outsider when i say that i enjoyed this book, but didn't see what the hype was all about. the story was incredibly memorable and id never read anything like it from the triple religions to the zoology baked into pi's relationship with richard parker. it was a joy to read and every night before bed i looked forward to the time when i would learn more about his world and story. there were also some incredible lines with lessons like how everything we say is a story to some extent because of humanistic biases. the world can be incredibly fantastical, and we sometimes have difficulty when non-fiction blurs with fiction. i also loved that he had the duality i feel as a third-gen immigrant with both his indian and canadian sides and i felt a lot of pride when he discussed MY city with such vibrancy. yay toronto i love you! 

note: my friend justin wrote a 4000 word essay about the deeper meanings of this book, so these are my thoughts before reading that, but will follow up in a comment!

Patrick Book

Yikes on that ending bro. In so many ways.

This was way better than I thought. It's written in such a good way and one learns so so so much. Under no circumstances should you watch the movie first, you'll regret not having read the book first - because of the big plot twist at the end.

sharkie

Beautifully written, better when you read it in a short period of time. 

Kato Ghijsebrechts

julia

I thought this book was pretty good. I liked the vivid descriptions of Pi's experience. Pi's story was really unique and it was amazing to me, even though it never really happened.

zainab

im so glad i read this when its not in its peak hype era because reading the reviews is annoying…you dont like it because its popular…okay….

life of pi is so spiritually philosophical i enjoyed every detail of the journey and it felt like i was there with pi. i think he has such a wonderful and extraordinary out look on life and honestly the story pace was just riveting despite being slow. i never expected to like this book so much!

milly

I think the word “tarpaulin” is engraved in my mind

taryn

Briar's Reviews

I have been yearning to read this book for a long time. Everyone I spoke to was obsessed with this book to the n-th degree, so I figured I might feel the same way once I read it. 

I was highly mistaken.

I found this book to be slow moving and boring, even though it is well written. This book was just not for me (which happens, by the way. Not every reader has to like every book ever written). That being said, I still wanted to give it a quality review. For me, the stars are low - but keep in mind this book is still excellent and the idea was intriguing.

To keep the plot short: A boy is trapped on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger after his family was trying to move their zoo animals across the sea. Tragedy strikes, and now Pi (our lead) is stuck with Richard Parker (our cat). 

I found that this story went in many different directions. At first, this story seemed to be all about animals and how Pi's father ran a zoo. I thought there might be more information in regards to him opening a zoo in the future, or having some great story arc involving it. Unfortunately, this didn't go very far. It seemed to just be an introduction into the character rather than making it an integral part of the story (except for the animals on the lifeboat, of course). Then religion is thrown into the mix!! Pi enjoys practicing three different religions and this causes strife with his family, and then the plot point is essentially gone. There could have been lots of room for improvement in this discussion further along in the book, but all we get is that Pi is "praying" a lot. To me, having all of these opportunities to follow through with these plot lines was a bit of a waste. Why just have these points as an intro to the character? Why not use them to your advantage?

I also found this book to be SO FREAKING SLOW AND BORING. It's inspirational, but when it's close to two hundred pages of "stuck on a boat, send help, I am praying, there's a tiger, i need to drink water" over and over, it gets a little tiring. 

When I look at other reviews and theories about this book, I understand the theme is about religion. You can pick your story to follow God - just like picking apart this book. There's multiple stories to follow, and you can pick the one you like. I don't know how I feel about this theme and the way it is presented, but it worked.

This book also has some gore in it, so if you don't want to read about an animal being ripped apart in description then this book might not be for you!!

Pros:
1. The chapters are short - I like when books don't make long chapters. Having a chapter that lasts one hundred pages tires me out. Having the opportunity to stop where I want to with a small chapter is a nice quality about this book.

2. The cover - The cover is absolutely gorgeous. It's simple, it's colourful and it gets to the point. I appreciate a well thought out cover.

3. Beautiful language - Yann Martel can present a scene well with his words. There are some moments in this book where I got lost in his choice of words.

Cons:

1. Slow and Steady doesn't always win the race.

2. Religion. This seems like a bad place to put it, but I know many people who would lose their minds having religion be a theme in the book (some would have it as an AMAZING PRO). That being said, I'm putting it in cons because of the strife it may cause some readers. There's also times I think that religion was mentioned to much, like the author was trying to hit us over the head with it. Just because you leave religion out for one page doesn't mean we'll forget about it! 

3. The story drags with the same thoughts and concepts.

Overall, this book was not my cup of tea. It is beautifully written and was a unique take on religion I hadn't seen before. I had high hopes and expectations for this book, but it didn't bode well for me. I blame a lot of the really great reviews and everyone saying it was the best book ever to make me have such high expectations, but putting the blame on them really won't get me anywhere, will it?

Two out of five stars.

Jenny Vuu

** spoiler alert **
           Hard to get into at first but soon the story became really intriguing. The sense of adventure, survival and the relationship between Pi and Richard Parker was what really made it interesting for me. But how could Richard Parker just leave like that and to be never heard about again!

Michael Springer

This book is a terrific adventure. Very hard to put down. And, it's just as vivid in my mind now as it was a year ago when I read it.

a novel

Colleen

I'm not really sure what to say about this book. I don't think I can do a decent in-depth analysis right now, so I will keep this brief.

The Life of Pi is very different from the standard fair. It definitely isn't a book for everyone, but I would still recommend that people give it a try. 

The beginning is a little slow. It talks a lot about theology, animals, and Indian culture. If you aren't interested in any of those things, you probably will lose interest. I'll admit, I had to look some things up particularly the references to Mrs. Ghandi. I found that I did not know nearly as much I as supposed I knew about the political situation in India at the time.

I admit, I did get a little impatient for the meat of the story. The first quarter of the book was setup information. Sure, most of it was interesting, but I was eager to get to the tiger in the boat part. Once I did get to that part, the story went quickly. There were enough twists and turns to keep things interesting despite copious amounts of foreshadowing and what were practically spoilers. You are told early on how the story ends, yet the journey remains a mystery and the ending still majorly threw me for a loop. And then I was left looking back at everything wondering what to think. Two days later I'm still not sure what to think. I don't want to give any spoilers, but there was definitely some powerful symbolism there. And not nearly as much about religion as the beginning of the book would indicate. In a few years, I will probably reread this. I think it will be a completely different experience going through it knowing. It sheds a completely different light. But I know which version of events I prefer!

Give it a chance! It's an entertaining book with a lot going on beneath the surface.

This review fulfills the "Book That Became a Movie" category of the Popsugar reading challenge. http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-...

Holy crap this book is a roller coaster of emotions I spent all day reading and can’t get enough I loved it. It was completely different and amazing complex and thoughtful 

Hannah Alexander 

Rohan Uddin

Beautiful, revealing, raw. A pure feeling of ecstasy after reading the book.

Jamieson

This book left me thinking a long time after I read it. Like, I literally was walking around contemplating this book and the end and what it meant for weeks after I finished it, yikes. 

I absolutely came to love and care for Pi, and his story. When the book ended I spent a long time thinking about it, and Pi and Richard Parker. This story and these characters will stay with you long after you finish this book. An absolutely captivating book with vivid imagery, a rich plot and a story that keeps you turning the pages until the end.

Stefanie Viens

I had to read this book in high school and I think I was probably the only person in my class who actually enjoyed it. This may be because the book starts off slowly, and in those first few pages the reader sometimes find himself wondering how any of the stories about Pi's name or the family zoo could amount to anything meaningful.

Once finished, however, the novel feels like a complete ode to the good and bad sides of humanity. The ending pages bring a whole new perspective to the story, and force you to review the novel in your head with this new perspective in mind, altering the meaning of everything you thought you'd figured out. 

The emotional pull of the plot was almost too great to resist; the more Pi clings to life on his boat, the more the the reader becomes invested in him.

Michael Burkhardt

Absolutely could not put down. Read while in China. Ending was unexpected and disturbing, making the whole that much more powerful

Ivy X

absolutely amazing book about religion, human purpose and human nature, and symbolism in nature. 
this book has left me in a book depression and I am now sitting here thinking about all that this book was, all that it has come to mean to me, and all that I have learned from it 
Honestly an amazing book for my mind and soul.

Izza

I should give this book another read.. I only hated it because they made us read it in HS and I waited til the night before to read the entire thing and yeah... I'll read it again!

One boy, one boat, one tiger . . .After the tragic 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, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.

Alice Myles

I originally started to read this book on my mum's kindle years ago but never got round to progressing past the first few chapters. So when I was going solo on a day trip to London,I needed something light to read on the plane and I decided that it was the perfect time to pick it up again. 

A light read is really what this is, it doesn't stretch you very much and not a lot actually happens yet it's written in such a way that it keeps you engaged and wanting to read on. 

The ending however, everyone always tells of the ending right? well the ending is annoyingly open ended forcing you to question everything you just read. 

I ended up bringing it to America with me as well just so I could finish it which I inevitably did. And when I finished, I guess you could say that I was satisfied, I wasn't left hungering for more or wishing it had ended pages ago so I guess that's just the sign of a good book.

Esslam Ben Ramadan

I feel it’s easy to try and understand this book at surface level and just take it for what it is. However my interpretation is of a human who has experienced something extremely difficult and in conclusion of this story he wanted to gift us with his means of survival rather than the main focus being for us to believing this outlandish story of his survival. I guess my conclusions is we have to ask ourselves why is one story easier for us to believe than the other and how much the power of interpretation can help in situations of extreme difficulty.

Guy Moorhouse &
Life of Pi by Yann Martel

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