by Yann Martel
Life of Pi is about a boy names Piscine Molitor Patel, who became stranded in a lifeboat with three dead animals and a tiger named Richard Parker. His family were planning on moving to Canada on a cargo ship put sadly, the ship sank, killing his parents and brother. The crew threw him off the ship to the lifeboat before being swept into the ocean themselves. On the boat Pi saw a zebra with a broken leg, an orangutan, and a hyena. The hyena killed the zebra and orangutan but then the tiger jumped out and killed the hyena. Pi learned to fish and tame Richard Parker while drifting for seven months.
I liked how quickly Pi adapted to life on a lifeboat with Richard Parker. He cared for Richard by hunting and feeding the tiger. Pi was a strict vegetarian before the ship wreck but now he eats raw fish and meerkats. This is very brave of him. Since he could’ve died, he knew he would have to eat meat to survive.
I also liked Pi’s comparison of animal world and humanity. Near the end of the book, people from the Japanese company who owned the ship came to ask Pi questions about his journey. They thought his story was unrealistic because it’s impossible for anyone to survive at sea for that long. So, Pi retold the story but replacing the animals with people. Pi outsmarted their skepticism and asked which story feels more interesting and natural. They replied the one with the animals and that’s how the story made it to the press.
One thing I didn’t like about the book is the excessive detail about gory or gruesome events. It’s violent and I felt that the author was magnifying the violence with sentences like “his blood oozed out all over me and Richard Parker”, and many vivid descriptions of killing. The cannibalism told in the people-version of the story is especially disturbing.