I'd predict that 99 percent of the small talk in the staff elevator at my library involves the following question and its answers: "Are you reading...
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Gomma, January 31, 2013 (view all comments by Gomma)
I heard from friends that it was good. I didn't read that much at that time but this book brought me "back" to reading again.
It doesn't matter what is your faith, it's really about the human condition. What you believe and what you choose to believe.
Love the writing and the description of every feeling and situation. So colorful, so alive.
I'm happy I read the book before the movie.
The movie is beautiful. The book? It's even better.
michelle.lohn, January 30, 2013 (view all comments by michelle.lohn)
A bit difficult to get into; the beginning wanders and I didn't see the point.
Once I got past that, I was fascinated. The ending left me with interesting questions about how I perceive reality. Discussing conclusions with others who have read the book adds even more dimensions to the Life of Pi experience.
Sylvia Lindsay, January 30, 2013 (view all comments by Sylvia Lindsay)
This was a departure from my usual reading habits. It caught my interest at the very beginning and kept it throughout. Pi goes through an awful experience, and does what he must to survive. It's unsettling and emotion wracking to take this ride, but worth it.
Mark B, January 30, 2013 (view all comments by Mark B)
I read the book and then saw the movie. They were both amazing, but the book, perhaps not surprisingly, stayed with me as a powerful tool to help me grow spiritually.
Margaret Carpenter, January 2, 2013 (view all comments by Margaret Carpenter)
This book keep me interested all the way to the end. Very interesting concepts. I can hardly wait to see the movie. I've heard they stayed true to the story. We'll see if the images on film match the ones in my imagination. The journey was a wild one.
"Review"
by The New York Times Book Review,
"Life of Pi could renew your faith in the ability of novelists to invest even the most outrageous scenario with plausible life."
"Review"
by Los Angeles Times Book Review,
"A story to make you believe in the soul-sustaining power of fiction."
"Review"
by San Jose Mercury News,
"A gripping adventure story....Laced with wit, spiced with terror, it's a book by an extraordinary talent."
"Review"
by Margaret Atwood,
"A terrific book....Fresh, original, smart, devious, and crammed with absorbing lore."
"Review"
by The New Yorker,
"An impassioned defense of zoos, a death-defying trans-Pacific sea adventure a la Kon-Tiki, and a hilarious shaggy-dog story....This audacious novel manages to be all of these."
"Review"
by Chicago Tribune,
"Readers familiar with Margaret Atwood, Mavis Gallant, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje and Carol Shields should learn to make room on the map of contemporary Canadian fiction for the formidable Yann Martel."
"Review"
by San Francisco Chronicle,
"Life of Pi is a real adventure: brutal, tender, expressive, dramatic, and disarmingly funny....It's difficult to stop reading when the pages run out."
"Synopsis"
by Firebrand,
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK of 2002
Pi Patel, a God-loving boy and the son of a zookeeper, has a fervent love of stories and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family and their zoo animals emigrate from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship. Alas, the ship sinks — and Pi finds himself in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi. Can Pi and the tiger find their way to land? Can Pi's fear, knowledge, and cunning keep him alive until they do?
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