"Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

On my TBR list? No

One of the 1001 Books


My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Although I marked this book as "read" on Goodreads, I will admit that I skimmed a big chunk of it. Yann Martel does have a way with words and the musings on religion were especially lyrical, but I wasn't really interested in the basic premise of the book. The main twist (which I shall not divulge) came way too late; I was on the verge of chucking the book altogether when I came across it. The flashback nature of the storytelling gave me the happy ending before I even knew the twist so I didn't care about it when it came along.

The most enjoyable parts of this novel were the main character Pi's thoughts on religion and God. I identified with Pi's youthful sampling of several different religions, even though I didn't take it quite as far as he did when I was a teenager. There is a quote toward the beginning of the book that has stuck with me despite what I feel about the novel as a whole:

"We are all born like Catholics, aren't we -- in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God?"

All in all, I thought that there was much more "musing" than "doing" in this book. I suppose that is partly what separates a literary novel from a mass market one. So if you are the type of reader that prefers the run-and-gun approach of novels that throw you into the action by page two, then this isn't the book for you.



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