Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Life of Pi
Title: Life of Pi
Author: Yann Martel
Genre: Fiction
Readable : At your own risk
Life of Pi. Winner of Man Booker Prize.When i picked up this book to read I was fully prepard for an amazing experience. After all, the book was an award winning one. Had received rave reviews from all and sundry.I was to be disappointed.
The book had a promising beggining. It starts with a recount of the life of Piscine Molliter Patel ( known as Pi). His childhood,his experiences with religion, his relationship with his parents,teacher and priests is beautifully expressed by Yann Martel.I was riveted right upto the point of his being stranded on a lifeboat with a menagerie that was made up of a zebra, an orangutan,a hyena and a tiger. The book then takes a rather bloodthirsty and cannibalistic turn.A friend of mine told me the book is fantastic if you skip the gross pages. I do not deny the fact. The book does a make a very good read if you were to skip the gross pages. The problem lies in the fact that probably 250 pages out of 300 is filled with nothing but repellant descriptions of drinking blood,tearing out of intestines, beat this... eating faeces ( that it is that of a tiger, is no redeeming aspect!!!).I might be a prejudiced reader. But I cannot believe that even a confirmed meat-eater could digest ( excuse the pun ) the contents of this book.
On the whole i found Life of Pi unpalatable.
Author: Yann Martel
Genre: Fiction
Readable : At your own risk
Life of Pi. Winner of Man Booker Prize.When i picked up this book to read I was fully prepard for an amazing experience. After all, the book was an award winning one. Had received rave reviews from all and sundry.I was to be disappointed.
The book had a promising beggining. It starts with a recount of the life of Piscine Molliter Patel ( known as Pi). His childhood,his experiences with religion, his relationship with his parents,teacher and priests is beautifully expressed by Yann Martel.I was riveted right upto the point of his being stranded on a lifeboat with a menagerie that was made up of a zebra, an orangutan,a hyena and a tiger. The book then takes a rather bloodthirsty and cannibalistic turn.A friend of mine told me the book is fantastic if you skip the gross pages. I do not deny the fact. The book does a make a very good read if you were to skip the gross pages. The problem lies in the fact that probably 250 pages out of 300 is filled with nothing but repellant descriptions of drinking blood,tearing out of intestines, beat this... eating faeces ( that it is that of a tiger, is no redeeming aspect!!!).I might be a prejudiced reader. But I cannot believe that even a confirmed meat-eater could digest ( excuse the pun ) the contents of this book.
On the whole i found Life of Pi unpalatable.
