Book Review: Life of Pi by Yann Martel - A Riveting Tale of a Boy and a Tiger at Sea

Cavanşir Gadimov

7 Apr, 2019

A few years ago I watched the movie Life of Pi, and since I wanted to read its book by Canadian author Yann Martel.

I like books and movies about people who are stranded and try to survive alone. I like this genre since I read the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. I read it when I was a kid and even right now after many years still can remember all those details how he survived, how he made clay pots, planted seed, grew crops and more.

Book Review: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

That’s why even though I have watched the movie I still read the book Life of Pi. The book is about many things. But first of all, it tells the story of a 16 years old boy who is an only survivor of a cargo ship which sank in the Pacific. He managed to survive 227 days in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.

The protagonist starts to tell his story from the beginning. From his childhood. After surviving, he studied two things; zoology and theology. So the first pages of the book give us much knowledge about animals and religions.

The protagonist who full name Piscine Molitor Patel and shortly he wants to call himself Pi Patel, grew up seeing animals. Because his father runs a zoo. And from childhood, he had an interest in religions. Born as Hindu he also became a Christian and a Muslim.

This is how Pi Patel (or the author) sees religions:

“…Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims.”

“Despite attending a nominally Christian school, I had not yet been inside a church—and I wasn't about to dare the deed now. I knew very little about the religion. It had a reputation for few gods and great violence. But good schools.”

“Islam had a reputation worse than Christianity's—fewer gods, greater violence, and I had never heard anyone say good things about Muslim schools”

“I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love it. It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion.”

Pi Patel's Story

“My story started on a calendar day—July 2nd, 1977—and ended on a calendar day—February 14th, 1978,” says Pi and start telling what happened to him after the ship sank and how he survived for almost 7 months alone in the vast ocean.

But as you can guess it is not an easy thing. Many suffering and more. He even didn’t count days. His main problem wasn’t just to survive hunger and thirst. But also he has to survive from not being eaten by hyena and tiger. Because after the ship sank he found himself in a lifeboat with a zebra, orangutan, hyena, and tiger.

So which day from those 227 days was worst? Pi Patel explains it like this:

“Clouds that gathered where ships were supposed to appear, and the passing of the day, slowly did the job of unbending my smile. It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion. Still, that second night at sea stands in my memory as one of exceptional suffering, different from the frozen anxiety of the first night in being a more conventional sort of suffering, the broken-down kind consisting of weeping and sadness and spiritual pain, and different from later ones in that I still had the strength to appreciate fully what I felt. And that dreadful night was preceded by a dreadful evening.”

If a person will be stranded on land or on an island at least he has some land to go around, explore and will have something to do. Like Robinson Crusoe could hunt, plant and even make himself a house. But what a person can do if he is stranded in a lifeboat and most of the lifeboat is the territory of a tiger. Because tigers are territorial animals.

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"The worst pair of opposites is boredom and terror."

Pi Patel has to make freshwater and catch fish not just for himself. But also feet the tiger so it won’t eat him. But that is not the hardest and worst things he encountered.

“The worst pair of opposites is boredom and terror. Sometimes your life is a pendulum swing from one to the other. The sea is without a wrinkle. There is not a whisper of wind. The hours last forever. You are so bored you sink into a state of apathy close to a coma. Then the sea becomes rough and your emotions are whipped into a frenzy. Yet even these two opposites do not remain distinct. In your boredom there are elements of terror: you break down into tears; you are filled with dread; you scream; you deliberately hurt yourself. And in the grip of terror—the worst storm—you yet feel boredom, a deep weariness with it all.”

Yann Martel’s novel is about many things. It is about survival, it is about zoology, it is about theology and most of all it is about storytelling. There is more than one story told in the book. First, a fictional writer who is part of the novel, under chapter “Author's Note” tell us how in search of a story he went to India and found Patel’s story. Second Pi Patel tells us his survival story. But people who came to investigate how the ship sank didn’t like his story. Because it doesn’t sound real, he had to tell them another story that they can write in their report. So which story is true and realistic? The reader must decide himself.

Pi Patel, who is telling his story to the writer ask him which story did he like. My answer is the first story that is full of amazing and unbelievable things.