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ricko said:
LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers, let him go, Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. For some reason that children’s rhyme popped into my mind as I started to read this tale of survival. It involves a 16 year old Indian boy, and a 3 year old, 450 pound Bengal Tiger marooned together on a lifeboat for 227 days in the Pacific Ocean. Wow, what a tale spun by the Man Booker Prize winner, Yann Martel. Oh, I forgot to mention that initially there was also a zebra, a rat, a hyena, and a orangutan on board. You can imagine how long they lasted with a furious tiger aboard. Did I like this novel? Yes, but I’m not sure it was worthy of the “Booker” award. It has the strength of an unusual story, but lacks the strong finish to knock the reader out. I did like Martel’s easy to understand prose, and I also enjoyed the font changes that let the reader know who was narrating the story. It’s a difficult novel to rate because of the long and sometimes tedious middle, and then the seemingly abrupt ending. Yet it was so entertaining. Do you see my dilemma? I must recommend this novel by virtue of it’s original and exhilarating story, even though some say that it was similar to Moacyr Scliar’s 'Max and the Cats'. :) 4/5 stars.
ricksreviews.blogspot.com
Click to expand...


Well then would you support this being the book of the month? some lively discussions can be had from this book ... starting with 'was it real or not'?
 
To Meadow 337 : Absolutely! There are many parts and questions that are open for discussion in this interesting novel. For openers, your question is very alluring. See my entire review on my blog.
ricksreviews.BlogSpot.com
 
lol that is the integral question of the entire story now isn't it? the one huge unanswered question. the 'story without all the bits you can't believe' or 'the story you can't believe'.

did he lie when he told the story with the animals to hide the awful truth of surviving at sea?

did he lie when he told the Japanese the 'story without all the bits they can't believe' so that they could resolve their case and presumably pay him out through the insurance for his families loss?

or are neither of stories real because he was in a constant state of hallucination?
 
In chapter 100, Mr. Okamoto's letter to the author supports the tiger story for debatable reasons: "Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger."
ricksreviews.BlogSpot.com
 
well one could argue that they also preferred the version "with the tiger".

And it is ambiguous isn't? The phrasing. They are not saying that he definitively was in the company of tiger, just no-one had survived for so long with a tiger.
 
After all, he says "can claim" and not "have actually" ... I preferred the tiger version but thought it was not the real one. I thought it was what Pi cooked up in his mind to make reality more bearable. Just as it is with God, according to one of the last sentences. He may not really exist but believing in something can help get through difficult situations.
 
well is that what he meant? this is after all a man who refused to choose a religion, because he loved God. He could be saying that we prefer the unbelievable, over the believable, because we prefer God with a little mystery. We prefer God to be unobtainable and reject Him when He is too much with us.
 
I also think it interesting on how Yann Martel reached back into the history of shipwrecks and cannibalism to come up with the tiger’s name of Richard Parker. Since Meadow 337 brought up the alternate ending, I wonder if Pi consider himself Richard Parker? And if this ending was the real one, I wonder why Pi didn’t mention what happened to his dad and Ravi, surely his mother would have known.
ricksreviews.blogspot.com
 
Good point about what happened to his father. Admittedly I have only watched the movie, but what happens if he was alone but the tiger was a representation of his unbelief/doubt? Maybe the whole battle with the tiger, was his battle with his unbelief? And the other animals were representations of other ideas that all got devoured.
 
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