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Kim
Rating:
Review
When I first saw this book, I thought the cover looked cute, with a white boat, a tiger and a person amid the ocean, but too often lately for me, an attractive cover leads to a ho-hum story inside. Not the case with this novel. Our hero, 16-year-old Pi, lives with his parents and brother at the Pondicherry Zoo in India, where his father is founder, owner and director. When his parents decide to sell the zoo and move to Canada, the boat they sail on sinks. Pi finds himself in a lifeboat with a few of the zoo animals, most notably a Bengal tiger. Once the tiger takes care of the other animals in short order, it’s just the two of them and I’d like to say that “hilarity ensues”, but that’s just not the case. I was horrified at the island they happen upon, too, since initially it appeared to be a utopia for both boy and tiger. This book is on my Top Ten Best Books Ever list because I could not put it down and I didn’t want it to end.
Best Line (a tie between):
“The paths to liberation are numerous, but the bank along the way is always the same, the Bank of Karma, where the liberation account of each of us is credited or debited depending on our actions.”
and
“You’re the next goat!”
Actually, there were a lot of great lines and I had a hard time narrowing it down to two, much less one.
Suzanne
Rating:
Review
This book was like a breath of fresh air. Pi, the teenaged protagonist, has grown up in the environs of his parents’ zoo in India. His knowledge of animals’ lives and behavior put to rest my own romanticized thoughts on animals and made me realize how little I really understand about them. Never failing to surprise, Pi is a practicing Christian, Hindu, and Muslim. He doesn’t feel the need to choose one religion and call the others “wrong”, and his devotion is refreshingly free of righteousness. When his family moves to Canada with some of the zoo animals, their boat sinks and his tale of survival begins. Pi is left afloat in the Pacific with only a zebra, an oragutan, a hyena, and a Bengal Tiger whose name never failed to crack me up. Life becomes a brutal mental and physical challenge, and Pi’s knowledge and beliefs are put to the ultimate test. Martel manages to be humorous, too! I couldn’t put it down.
Best Line:
“Well, a whole lot of good it did God to be with you – you tried to kill him!”
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