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Life of Pi


BOOK REVIEW

"Every page offers you something of tension, humanity,surprise, or even ecstasy"

4.5/5

If you are interested in philosophy or psychology or disaster management, Life of Pi is a must read for you. After all who won't be interested in reading the account of a teenager trapped in a life-boat with a Royal Bengal Tiger, well to be more accurate, a Royal Bengal Tiger, a zebra, an orangutan and a spotted hyena and survived the Pacific for 227 days before finding land.

Story of Pi Patel starts on a light note with laden with comic description of how he was named and how he followed 3 different religions but at the same time several important philosophies are presented by the author, veiled in humor.  Author, Yann Martel, has discussed the subtleties of human psychology by comparing it with animal behaviour. Through the midway book become more pessimistic and has been reviewed as over-descriptive and dull by many but I found those description quite convincing and interesting as he describes the tumultuous events generating a series of emotion. It very aptly describes the battle of with despair. How a man who has accepted his death struggles to survive.

However my special liking for the novel can attributed to resemblance in our writing style where an account of an event is used to profess a philosophy. Martel has relied on reader's mind rather than his vocabulary and thus instead of being expressive he has used a simple vocabulary that can trigger imagination which makes Life of Pi an easy and interesting read.

"All's well, that ends well." The proverb has been wonderfully employed in the novel as it offers three different climaxes for three different sets of people. One for a theist , other for an atheist and agnostics are left to be with their perennial doubts.  The final philosophy of the book is worth mentioning there are certain things that you can't find out. Moreover, whether they are true or false have no implications on how things are in your life. For example : Some one tells you an experience that is outlandish, you have three options trust him, deny him or stay forever in doubt. No your choice can't make difference to the truth but if you trust him you life is more interesting as you have met a person with such an interesting experience. Same is with god, you belief makes no difference but it allows you to speculate more possibilities and mysteries to you life.

Altogether, Life of Pi is an amazing read but it demands some imagination and introspection on reader's part.  



  

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