Life of Pi
9 journalers for this copy...
Okay...I had a hard time with this book. I had never been sure that I wanted to read it but it was the only thing that I hadn't read at an airport bookstore and I was desperate. For me, I think it was the story...I cry at any book or movie where bad things happen to animals...I spent the whole book in fear for the animals. However, the book is well written and the story isn't cookie cutter.
From the Publisher
Life of Pi is a masterful and utterly original novel that is at once the story of a young castaway who faces immeasurable hardships on the high seas, and a meditation on religion, faith, art and life that is as witty as it is profound. Using the threads of all of our best stories, Yann Martel has woven a glorious spiritual adventure that makes us question what it means to be alive, and to believe.
Growing up in Pondicherry, India, Piscine Molitor Patel -- known as Pi -- has a rich life. Bookish by nature, young Pi acquires a broad knowledge of not only the great religious texts but of all literature, and has a great curiosity about how the world works. His family runs the local zoo, and he spends many of his days among goats, hippos, swans, and bears, developing his own theories about the nature of animals and how human nature conforms to it. Pi’s family life is quite happy, even though his brother picks on him and his parents aren’t quite sure how to accept his decision to simultaneously embrace and practise three religions -- Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam.
But despite the lush and nurturing variety of Pi’s world, there are broad political changes afoot in India, and when Pi is sixteen his parents decide that the family needs to escape to a better life. Choosing to move to Canada, they close the zoo, pack their belongings, and board a Japanese cargo ship called the Tsimtsum. Travelling with them are many of their animals, bound for zoos in North America. However, they have only just begun their journey when the ship sinks, taking the dreams of the Patel family down with it. Only Pi survives, cast adrift in a lifeboat with the unlikeliest oftravelling companions: a zebra, an orang-utan, a hyena, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
Thus begins Pi Patel’s epic, 227-day voyage across the Pacific, and the powerful story of faith and survival at the heart of Life of Pi. Worn and scared, oscillating between hope and despair, Pi is witness to the playing out of the food chain, quite aware of his new position within it. When only the tiger is left of the seafaring menagerie, Pi realizes that his survival depends on his ability to assert his own will, and sets upon a grand and ordered scheme to keep from being Richard Parker’s next meal.
As the days pass, Pi fights both boredom and terror by throwing himself into the practical details of surviving on the open sea -- catching fish, collecting rain water, protecting himself from the sun -- all the while ensuring that the tiger is also kept alive, and knows that Pi is the key to his survival. The castaways face gruelling pain in their brushes with starvation, illness, and the storms that lash the small boat, but there is also the solace of beauty: the rainbow hues of a dorado’s death-throes, the peaceful eye of a looming whale, the shimmering blues of the ocean’s swells. Hope is fleeting, however, and despite adapting his religious practices to his daily routine, Pi feels the constant, pressing weight of despair. It is during the most hopeless and gruelling days of his voyage that Pi whittles to the core of his beliefs, casts off his own assumptions, and faces his underlying terrors head-on.
As Yann Martel has said in one interview, “The theme of this novel can be summarized in three lines. Life is a story. You can choose your story. And a story with an imaginative overlay is the better story.” And for Martel, the greatest imaginative overlay is religion. “God is a shorthand for anything that is beyond the material -- any greater pattern of meaning.” In Life of Pi, the question of stories, and of what stories to believe, is front and centre from the beginning, when the author tells us how he was led to Pi Patel and to this novel: in an Indian coffee house, a gentleman told him, “I have a story that will make you believe in God.” And as this novel comes to its brilliant conclusion, Pi shows us that the story with the imaginative overlay is also the story that contains the most truth.
From the Publisher
Life of Pi is a masterful and utterly original novel that is at once the story of a young castaway who faces immeasurable hardships on the high seas, and a meditation on religion, faith, art and life that is as witty as it is profound. Using the threads of all of our best stories, Yann Martel has woven a glorious spiritual adventure that makes us question what it means to be alive, and to believe.
Growing up in Pondicherry, India, Piscine Molitor Patel -- known as Pi -- has a rich life. Bookish by nature, young Pi acquires a broad knowledge of not only the great religious texts but of all literature, and has a great curiosity about how the world works. His family runs the local zoo, and he spends many of his days among goats, hippos, swans, and bears, developing his own theories about the nature of animals and how human nature conforms to it. Pi’s family life is quite happy, even though his brother picks on him and his parents aren’t quite sure how to accept his decision to simultaneously embrace and practise three religions -- Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam.
But despite the lush and nurturing variety of Pi’s world, there are broad political changes afoot in India, and when Pi is sixteen his parents decide that the family needs to escape to a better life. Choosing to move to Canada, they close the zoo, pack their belongings, and board a Japanese cargo ship called the Tsimtsum. Travelling with them are many of their animals, bound for zoos in North America. However, they have only just begun their journey when the ship sinks, taking the dreams of the Patel family down with it. Only Pi survives, cast adrift in a lifeboat with the unlikeliest oftravelling companions: a zebra, an orang-utan, a hyena, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
Thus begins Pi Patel’s epic, 227-day voyage across the Pacific, and the powerful story of faith and survival at the heart of Life of Pi. Worn and scared, oscillating between hope and despair, Pi is witness to the playing out of the food chain, quite aware of his new position within it. When only the tiger is left of the seafaring menagerie, Pi realizes that his survival depends on his ability to assert his own will, and sets upon a grand and ordered scheme to keep from being Richard Parker’s next meal.
As the days pass, Pi fights both boredom and terror by throwing himself into the practical details of surviving on the open sea -- catching fish, collecting rain water, protecting himself from the sun -- all the while ensuring that the tiger is also kept alive, and knows that Pi is the key to his survival. The castaways face gruelling pain in their brushes with starvation, illness, and the storms that lash the small boat, but there is also the solace of beauty: the rainbow hues of a dorado’s death-throes, the peaceful eye of a looming whale, the shimmering blues of the ocean’s swells. Hope is fleeting, however, and despite adapting his religious practices to his daily routine, Pi feels the constant, pressing weight of despair. It is during the most hopeless and gruelling days of his voyage that Pi whittles to the core of his beliefs, casts off his own assumptions, and faces his underlying terrors head-on.
As Yann Martel has said in one interview, “The theme of this novel can be summarized in three lines. Life is a story. You can choose your story. And a story with an imaginative overlay is the better story.” And for Martel, the greatest imaginative overlay is religion. “God is a shorthand for anything that is beyond the material -- any greater pattern of meaning.” In Life of Pi, the question of stories, and of what stories to believe, is front and centre from the beginning, when the author tells us how he was led to Pi Patel and to this novel: in an Indian coffee house, a gentleman told him, “I have a story that will make you believe in God.” And as this novel comes to its brilliant conclusion, Pi shows us that the story with the imaginative overlay is also the story that contains the most truth.
Trading to Bookcrosser beckerbuns
Received in the mail as a trade! Thank you so much!
I finally finished this book! It's been slow-going because of so much going on in my life.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the book. Around the middle it became incredibly compelling and I couldn't put it down. I am glad I stuck with it!
I'm sending the book out in a bookray as soon as I get the first address.
Thanks, noumena12, for sharing this book with me. :)
Anyway, I really enjoyed the book. Around the middle it became incredibly compelling and I couldn't put it down. I am glad I stuck with it!
I'm sending the book out in a bookray as soon as I get the first address.
Thanks, noumena12, for sharing this book with me. :)
NEW BOOKRAYLife of Pi by Yann Martel
Here are the participants:
chambejd MA (US only)
kitiarablue NJ (US only)
lyraness CA (US only)
one4worldpeace WA (intl ok)
barb5245 KS (intl ok) <--book is here 9-6-05
synergy TX (US only)
urushiol AR (intl ok)
luintaurien UK (intl ok)
redjanet UK (intl ok)
Helly77UK (intl ok)
ozjoe Australia (intl ok)
PM me if you'd like to be included! Please include your shipping preference.
Shipped out today to chambejd. Enjoy!
I received this in the mail and am looking forward to reading it! I will start it tonight. Thanks for sharing this book with me!
I'm sorry that I took forever to read this book!
I found the story extrememly difficult to get into. Part 1 was very blah for me, however Part 2 picked up the pace nicely and I found myself loving the book and Pi more as the story continued. By the end of the book, I was very satisfied and found myself wanting to reread Part 1 to pay more attention to what I causally read before. I especially loved Pi's talkings to himself, God and Richard Parker...what a great character!
Thanks for sharing this book with me! It will be mailed on 6/2/05.
I found the story extrememly difficult to get into. Part 1 was very blah for me, however Part 2 picked up the pace nicely and I found myself loving the book and Pi more as the story continued. By the end of the book, I was very satisfied and found myself wanting to reread Part 1 to pay more attention to what I causally read before. I especially loved Pi's talkings to himself, God and Richard Parker...what a great character!
Thanks for sharing this book with me! It will be mailed on 6/2/05.
Arrived today! I'm finishing up the last few chapters in another book, so I should be starting this one in a day or so!
Although this was not something I usually like to read, I couldn't put it down! This book hooked me from beginning to end. When I had to work or do something that kept me from reading, I just couldn't wait to get back into it! I didn't have any trouble with the beginning, I found all the tidbits about the zoos and animal behavior and religion to be very interesting. And I would have to agree with the New York Times review, the story is so unbelievable, you just have to believe you could see it happen... I would definitely recommend this book! Thanks for sharing Beckerbuns!!!
Released 18 yrs ago (7/26/2005 UTC) at
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
Sent to lyraness this morning... Happy reading!
Sent to lyraness this morning... Happy reading!
I found this in the mail today, I'll read it and pass it on as soon as I can.
I truly loved the beginning of this book. I found it completely fanscinating. The plotline was implausible, but for me that's not necessarily a bad thing. However, towards the end of the book, the plot turned from highly unrealistic to downright bizarre. I still enjoyed it, but it was not what I expected.
I'll be sending it along as soon as I get the info.
I'll be sending it along as soon as I get the info.
Got this in the mail today. Thank you!
Apologies for taking so long to read this book, I had something of a difficult time getting into it. Part 2 was far more interesting to me than Part 1.
Will send it on when I get the address.
Will send it on when I get the address.
mailed to synergy earlier today.
This book came in the mail yesterday. I'll read it as soon as I get a chance. Thanks for the chance!
I've finished this book and was just now attempting to go to the bookshelf of the next person, urushiol, but am getting the "not in our database" error message. Is the name spelled correctly?
I'll keep trying to load their page in case it's BC being weirdo again.
I'll keep trying to load their page in case it's BC being weirdo again.
Things finally got sorted out with (now named) Madame Urushiol. I mailed out the book to her Wed. Nov. 30. In the future I'll jot down my thoughts on the book. Thanks for getting me the chance to read it!
Arrived in the mail today!
Got it Saturday. Thank you. Will read and pass on ASAP.
Very interesting story. really enjoyed it. Thnaks for the chance to read it.
redjanet asked to be skipped PMing the next person
Helly77 asked to be skipped. PMing the next person.
Sending out when I get the address
