Life of Pi

The book I recently finished reading is called, “Life ofPi”. Life of Pi is written by Yann Martel. Life of Pi is a book that was later turned into a major motion picture. Yann has made some other books like, “Self” and “Beatrice and Virgil”. Life of Pi was written in 2001 and is a very interesting book. This book takes a little while until it gets good but when it gets to the good part, it is a really fun read. I haven’t read any of Martel’s other books so I don’t know how they compare to this book. The major theme of this wonderful book is to never lose hope or give up. This is probably the theme because throughout the whole part of the book that Pi is stuck on the boat with the 450-pound Royal Bengal Tiger, he tries his hardest to not lose hope and in the end, it pays off because he finally finds land. The reason why I picked this theme is because I think it occurs throughout basically the whole book. Most of the book is Pi on the lifeboat struggling to stay alive. Pi overcame the challenge of surviving because he never gave up and it was able to pay off. This book is about a young man named Pi that moves from India. His parents owned a zoo back in India and they were on a boat that was transporting all of them. During the voyage, there was a powerful storm that made the boat sink and all of the animals went overboard. Pi was lucky enough to be able to get on a lifeboat safely, but did not make it to the lifeboat alone.

In the beginning of the book, Pi goes on a voyage with his family and all of the animals that were at his parent’s zoo. Before the boat capsizes from the storm, Pi gets into a lifeboat with a few other animals. The animals that made it onto the lifeboat with Pi were a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan, and the tiger named Richard Parker. Throughout the boat ride on the lifeboat, the hyena takes advantage of the wounded zebra and kills it, later the hyena also kills the orangutan and then finally the tiger kills the hyena. Pi and the tiger go on a wild adventure and spent many days together on the lifeboat. Their adventure ends when they finally find land and Pi is saved.

One quote that stuck out to me is, “My feelings can perhaps be imagined, but they can hardly be described” (Martel 142). This quote interested me because I like how it is written and what it means. A lot of people have trouble explaining their feelings, especially if somebody has a really hard life. I just really like this quote because it is true to a lot of people. The second quote that stuck out to me is, “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” (Martel 319). I found this quote interesting because it is the final line in the book and it is just as interesting.  Pi is proud to have survived being lost at sea with a tiger in the same little boat as he was, and made it out alive.

I really liked this book when it got going. This book was boring in the beginning because it was slow but when it started getting interesting when he got on the boat, I didn’t want to stop reading because I always wanted to know what would happen next on the lifeboat. I also like how this book is written. I like how it is written because it is just in interesting read and it isn’t an extremely easy book to read but it isn’t too hard either. It is slow in the beginning because it is just mainly talking and no action. I would definitely recommend this book to whoever doesn’t mind reading through a slow and boring beginning to get to the really interesting part. Others should read this book because it is a fun read and just overall an interesting book.  

Book Review by Michael L.