Thursday, September 23, 2010

Life of Pi

Life of PiLife of Pi by Yann Martel

AR Reading Level: 5.7 
On the library stacks: Adult fiction
Awards: Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature; Booker Prize/Honor Book; Book Sense Book of the Year Award/Honorees; Governor General's Literary Award

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that I have been meaning to read for years. So when my in-person book club voted to read it this month, I was happy to have an excuse to get to it.

Pi Patel is a young Indian boy whose father is a zookeeper. Pi develops an interest in religion at a young age, surprising his agnostic parents. Pi's parents decide to immigrate to Canada and their Japanese cargo ship sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. But Pi survives, along with a tiger, hyena, orangutan, and zebra. His faith carries him through a terrible ordeal at sea until he is rescued.

I did really enjoy the beginning of the novel, but as it went on it moved slower and I became less interested. I understood the message the author was trying to portray with his story, but I guess I didn't find it as life-changing as the cover advertised it would be. I will say it was well-written, clever and unique (although I did see the end coming), but I was left somewhat underwhelmed. Still, I think it will make for a good discussion this evening.

Also reviewed by: Piling on the BooksJules' Book Review ~ Bending Bookshelf ~ my cozy book nook ~ Lost in Books ~ At Home With Books ~ Book Clutter ~ Your link here?

Book 86 of 100 for the 100+ Reading Challenge, Book 39 of 50 for the RYOB Challenge, Book 8 of 8 for the Orbis Terrarum Challenge (Spain), Book 49 of 50 for the New Author Challenge 

Source: BookMooch

4 comments:

Stephanie said...

I loved this book, but I do agree with you it got a little slower as the book went on.

bermudaonion said...

This one didn't blow me away either.

Veens said...

Yes, this is one of those books that I want to read, but have not :(

Kim said...

You saw the end coming? You must be psychic! :) I really liked this book and we had a great discussion about it at book club. It's the kind of book that you want to talk to someone about when you're done.