Long Lost Reviews is a monthly meme created by Ally over at Ally’s Appraisals which is posted on the second Thursday of every month. The aim is to start tackling your review backlog. Whether it’s an in-depth analysis of how it affected your life, one sentence stating that you only remember the ending, or that you have no recollection of reading the book at all.
Published: 11 September 2001
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Pages: 460
Format: Paperback
Genre: Literary Fiction
★ ★ ★ – 3 Stars
One boy, one boat, one tiger . . .
After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan – and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.
There are books that are so big and complicated it becomes hard to review them and this might be one. It isn’t that nothing happens, there is a plot of sorts, but the story is also about a lot of ideas which can start a whole essay of meaning rather than a simple book review. It’s a well known story of a tiger and the boy in the boat but trying to remember other things that happen (and not only think of the movie) was hard.
I liked the creativity; it is a slow story but interesting. You really have to commit to the story but once you’re in it starts to flow. There are tiny details that are important and play a major role and the tiny consequences and actions having greater importance and impact are clear.
Being slow and thoughtful means it can be full of big topics to read about and get your head around. I can see how it is a modern classic. It’s very philosophical and introspective about life, the universe, and everything so we can’t fault Martel for that. The movie was pretty, it was also slow but you get the benefit of it being visually pleasing.
One thing I liked was that it makes you question what is real and what is not, and whether that is important. I enjoyed the ending which shut down the magic of the story and makes the other characters, and the reader, realise that ok, maybe there wasn’t a magical adventure, but which version would you rather have? I was there, I saw it, did it, lived it. This is my story and what do you want to hear vs what might have actually happened. It also might not be a lie, but what people want to believe and expect to understand throws it all in doubt.
I might reread this one day, to see if I gain more from it. But at three stars it wasn’t like I didn’t enjoy it, but it’s hard to find specifics to talk about.
You can purchase Life of Pi via the following
Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson
Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible
