(Will be on the February version of the book review Podcast 'Reading in Bed' in a audio, slightly different version)
Blurb:
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. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.
Strengths:
I haven’t seen the film before you ask, I got this book as there is a quote on the front of the book which states ‘Martel writes like a more compassionate Paul Auster’ and I can see why the comparisons with Auster is here in particular with his wonderful short novel Timuktu.
This book is a strange book, one of the strangest I’ve read in a long time as it builds up a very, very slow pace indeed which is kinda surprising with 100 odd chapters spread out close to a 400 page book with some of the earlier chapters not even being a page.
I also liked the fact that you didn’t seen Pi on the boat with the tiger and the other animals to a lot later than what I was expecting (will be interesting to see at some point how this happens in the film).
Pi as a main character who thinks about things in a somewhat interesting point of view shall we say, which according to a fellow Good Reads reader said “Is it a "story that will make you believe in God," as Pi claims? I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I would recommend it to people who enjoy thinking about the nature of reality and the role of faith in our lives. “
The journey of this book is deeper than that I think as it feels like the writer is testing the writer almost throughout to see if they can go through the full of the book as it starts off a text book of philosophy which I really wasn’t expecting and it took ages to get into this book as it was definitely a bit too preachey for my liking with segments on zoology and theology which isn’t for everybody.
The second segment which I know a few people skipped to was more interesting and then of course the boat journey when they reach a island.
How does he control a wild tiger in his boat during this? It’s completely un-believeable of course but I think that is part of the charm of the book on-top of all of the essays at the start of the book… Its a classic because its told not in a A to Z form but rather to A to AA and eventually Z to ZZ. It requires patience and a lot off it.
Weaknesses
The two scenarios at the end of the book is very off-putting almost like the writer is trying to encourage you to stick with which one you want. It works in Paul Auster’s powerful 4-3-2-1 as you end up with 4 different lives with 4 different endings which felt better worked, but it was at least interesting if not anything else.
(Spoiler – the endings being in Pi’s viewpoints, either we are to believe the tiger adventure happened or it was the alternate version: cannibalism and watching his family die in the boat.)
Regarding the patience as I said before, because of the pacing of the book this is a book that is not for everybody and I have to admit, it took me three attempts as although I loved it, the structure made it hard to follow unless you are in that right frame of mind. It’s not an easy to read book that’s for sure.
Conclusion:
It’s not a book for everybody certainly. I enjoyed it, but its a book which took a few months to read I have to admit.
8/10
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