Life of Pi: a book about a boy named Piscine Molitor Patel and his life, including the important events of losing his family through a shipwreck and surviving through persistency on a boat with a Bengal tiger. It is a powerful book of struggle, survival, and finding the truth in oneself; it is an excellent read for all.
The survival on the boat itself is strong and exciting enough to draw attention and make a good book, so the long part one is intriguing, but a further examination shows us why the author, Yann Martel, chose to include the whole youth of Pi. His name’s backstory, his religious beliefs, his interest in animals, it all fits well together to make up the person who Pi is. On the boat, Pi needs his religious beliefs and his knowledge of animals to survive, and his name’s backstory only further increases the irony of the situation, as he is trapped on a boat, surrounded by water, and he is named after a swimming pool. Moreover, his ability to balance out all three religions is very impressive and deep, adding to his cleverness, hinting that he really was able to think of the smart tricks to tame the tiger, as well as his thoughtfulness as to go through every conceivable plan in his mind possible before actually acting. Pi even managed to weave a story similar to his real story, but horrible in such a way that the reporters could only choose his real story because they liked it more. It is because of Pi Patel’s ingenuity that he is likable; he is similar to a hero, perhaps say, Odysseus, except he actually learns on his journey, which only extends upon his already-vulnerability to the tiger, and contributes to the fact that he is only human, he is not perfect. His vulnerability makes him more closely related to us, as we face similar obstacles in life as he does—only symbolically instead of real tigers and boats. It is as a result of the way he persists through and never gives up that provides us with a solid, likable character.
However, Life of Pi is not a book without flaws. Its ending is very ambiguous, and the readers are left mourning over Pi’s poor parents. Furthermore, Pi has displayed a sense of untrustworthiness to his personality, throughout his talking to Richard Parker, and throughout his weaving of the horrid, cruel story, it seems likely that Pi could have made up his original story in the first place, and his horrid story is true, only to be replaced by his animal story so it doesn’t sound so terrible. Nevertheless, even with lots of mysterious unanswered questions, Life of Pi still stands strong with a good character and a solid plot. I give the book a 9 out of 10.