A review by lorees_reading_nook
Life of Pi by Yann Martel

adventurous hopeful slow-paced

3.0

I spent ages reading this book which, at 319 pages, is really not that long. There were many days when I felt like giving up but I kept thinking that sooner or later some great truth would be revealed and, like Archimedes, I would have a mind-blowing 'Eureka' moment. Sadly, this never happened. Plenty of people have loved and written rave reviews about this book and seem to have discovered some hidden meaning. It has won the Booker prize and was made into a movie but I couldn't connect with it on any level. Even after I slogged through it I remain confused. Was Pi delirious? Was Richard Parker just a figment of his imagination? Was the real story the one he told right at the end to the Japanese investigators? And, did we really need to be told, in graphic detail, how he butchered fish and turtles in order to survive?

I cannot deny that this novel has a great sense of place. There were moments when I felt like I was on that raft with Pi. I could feel the hot sun beating down on me and could taste the salt on my cracked lips. But, with every sentence, I was praying that Pi would be reached so that he, and his reader, would be put out of their misery. I felt the whole narrative dragged on for way too long. Perhaps I needed to delve deeper into the novel, maybe from some spiritual or symbolic aspect. I don't know. I just know I was way over my head with this one and ended up missing the point.
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