Get ready for a wild, unimaginable journey as we plunge into Life of Pi by Yann Martel, as the SAS Book Club book for November. This has got to be one of the strangest, most riveting reads you'll ever come across.
Life of Pi is the story of an imaginative Indian boy from Pondicherry, a former French colony in southeastern India. Pi Patel is a Christian, Hindu and Muslim who has his own view of the world. His family runs a zoo in the botanical gardens in Pondicherry. Everything appears to be relatively normal-in spite of Pi's quirky personality-until India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares a state of emergency and cracks down on her political opponents. As the political noose tightens everywhere, including Pondicherry, Pi's mom and dad decide to abandon their lives in India and migrate to Canada.
Pi's father sells most of the animals to foreign zoos, and the family sails away to deliver the animals. Then, disaster strikes at sea. This is where the story really begins. Pi narrates his own horrific journey to an aspiring writer who tracks him down to write Pi's unbelievable tale.
Life of Pi is the classic survival story. Pi must survive being lost at sea, and he also has to figure out how to survive among the creatures he's left with on a lifeboat. That includes a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
The reader's task is to decipher Pi's story to determine what is real and what is made up. From the early chapters, readers realise that Pi has a vivid imagination and a superb memory for details.
Be forewarned that the beginning of Life of Pi moves a bit slowly. Stick with it. It is important to get through the beginning because it establishes much about the character of Pi and that will be significant in the course of the story. Once you hit the high seas, Life of Pi becomes a riveting read. All in all, Life of Pi runs a full gamut of emotions. There's immeasurable sadness, hair-raising tension and unexpected humour.
Life of Pi was first published in 2001 and to this day it is one of the most talked about books that I know of. There are no two people who have read Life of Pi and have the same interpretation of the novel. (The secret to understanding Life of Pi just might be hidden in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, the only novel written by American poet Edgar Allan Poe.)
In a few short weeks Life of Pi will hit the movie theatres, and that's a story for next week.
Check out these
Web sites on Life of Pi:
1. Movie news, book reviews and articles about Life of Pi: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454876/
2. Official trailer for Life of Pi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Hjrs6WQ8M
3. Oscar buzz on Life of Pi: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/oscars-could-ang-lees-life-of-pi-go-all-the-way-20121002
4. A story about Ang Lee from The Observer: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2003/jul/06/artsfeatures1