Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Have you read this book???? Have you?? You really must if you haven't! Life of Pi by Yann Martel is amazing! I've shared this book with a number of people - all have loved it (well, all but one). My husband's sister (another book junkie) gave us this book. Well, technically she gave it to my husband as a gift, not know that he would probably never read it as it has nothing to do with current events or isn't a newspaper! But it kept calling to me, and the call worked. I began to read it a couple of days after we got it and couldn't put it down. Almost everything else stopped until I was done. Fortunatly I was done in just a couple of days. Please, go read this book, especially before you read further in this post!! WARNING: Spoilers ahead!! And you don't want to spoil this book, believe me!

Okay, warnings are out there. Now on with it.

Life of Pi is the story of a young boy (about 16) from Pondicherry, India. His family owns a zoo there, which he loves. Due to difficult times, his father decides to move the zoo and the family to Canada. While at sea - people and animals and their home on a large freighter - the ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone on a life raft, in the middle of the Pacific ocean, with a Bengal tiger. Yeah, really. Or really??

The book is divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to Pi's life in India. Not a typical life for any teen given he lives at a zoo and his full name is the French word for pool - piscene. (Well, maybe somewhat normal. Exasperating older brother, all the nuances of family life, the hassles of trying to fit in with school mates, you know.) The zoo is somewhat of a refuge for Pi, but he finds greater refuge in religious exploration. Pretty amazing for an early-teen to go investigating the three major religions found in his area - Hindu, Christianity and Islam. I don't know of many people that age who are thus inclined - I know I wasn't! But investigate he does - and he finds something truly wonderful within each religion - something that he really connects with. And then he blends these prime essences together into his daily spiritual practice. Now, be aware, the three men with whom he studies from each of these groups are totally unaware of Pi's interest in the other two religions! This sets Pi and the three spiritual leaders up for a VERY interesting encounter at the zoo one day. An encounter that is perhaps, sadly, reflective of reality of ingrained, traditional religious opinion - that every aspect of what they do is right and nothing that the others do has merit. Oh, well!

Part 1 ends with Pi and his family on their way Canada - zoo and home packed up. Soon into part two, in the early morning hours the ship is foundering. Pi is able to make it to a life boat along with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and that Bengal tiger. Eventually it is only Pi and the tiger. With the help of what he has learned from the zookeepers at his father's zoo, Pi is able to come up with solutions that protect himself from the tiger. It is a long, arduous drift across the sea from there. You feel Pi's struggles, his ups and downs, rejoice with his little victories.

I found myself frustrated through some of this section of the book though, mostly because, after all that set up in part one where Pi is learning about God and how to relate to him, Pi never prays (accept for a couple of calls out to Allah or Vishnu). Religion seems cast aside. What was all that point from the first part? To me, the answer to this question is revealed in the third part of this book. Pi has come to shore somewhere in Mexico. He is found by natives and eventually makes it a hospital. When he is recovered enough to tell his story, agents from the shipping company come to visit him in an effort to learn about what happened to their freighter. Pi tells them his story - tiger and all. And, not surprisingly, they don't believe him in the least. After many questions and prying to get more out of him, Pi fianally tells them a different story. He wasn't the only human survivor from the shipwreck. Three others join him in that lifeboat - his mother, the ship's cook and another who I can't remember (and the book's still on loan!). The cook was ruthless and soon kills the other two and would kill Pi. But Pi is able to outwit him enough to stay alive. The cook eventually is killed by Pi, and Pi is alone, drifting towards Central America in a life boat.

So how does this second story answer my question about Pi's religious convictions? Here's what I am thinking - essentially both stories are true (and this is the question those with whom I've shared the book have asked - which story is the real story?). Perhaps, on the surface the latter/part 3 story is the real one, but in a spiritual context, the second one is equally true. Pi was able to see each individual in that boat as an animal quality in a sense. This view of the situation helped to protect him from what could be an extremely psychologically traumatic and potentially damaging experience. In essence, he saw the tiger as the killer of the hyena, not hiimself as the killer of the cook. So his religious learning helped him discern the difference in the real nature of the individuals around him, separate from the animal natures that wanted to surface in response to the dire situation.

It also dawned on me recently that perhaps this seeming lack of God is kind of like the book of Esther in the Bible. I don't know if you are familiar with this book, but in it, God is not mentioned at all - not once, nada, zilch. His name is never said, evoked, referred to, nothing. But, really, that doesn't mean he was left out of the book. (I wrote a paper on this in college - Old Testament course - so, bare with me!) God really was present in the good and moral acts that Esther and others do in this book. Their love and trust of God enabled her to take the steps she needed to do to save her people. And that, I think, is the case for our friend Pi adrift on the ocean. God is there with him (well, I believe that God is there with everyone all the time anyway, but that aside...) protecting him, giving him the wisdom he needed to survive, sustaining him. His view and love of God sustain him on that ocean. What he learned through his prayers, etc. in part one lifts his thought above the awful picture before him. This saved him. A good lesson for us all - whether we are adrift on the ocean or just feel like we are!

So, I would love to hear what you thought about this book! Please let me know! Perhaps you have further insights on it or another perspective. Would love to hear it.