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.
# posted by Deepti Ravi @ 3:33 PM 
Comments:
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I am also reading the same book right now(about to finish it), and I must say it's a big disappointment!
I found even the first half extremely boring and confusing - the organization of chapters is weird. The first 100 pages is nothing but the description of zoo and religion - totally esoteric!
And for the rest of it, I share your views. I wonder which criterion won it the Booker?
A huge waste of 300 bucks!
I found even the first half extremely boring and confusing - the organization of chapters is weird. The first 100 pages is nothing but the description of zoo and religion - totally esoteric!
And for the rest of it, I share your views. I wonder which criterion won it the Booker?
A huge waste of 300 bucks!
@keshav
never read God of small things..but heard its lousy too.. so that doesn't speak much for booker winners does it?? ;)
@elaine
no intention of sounding green.. but i found absolutely no correlation between the book and god at all..but you're rite when you say that initially you do believe all what happens.. martel is convincing but not appealing.
@kaushik
seriously... the books back was fascinating!! but the read quite disappointing!! :(
never read God of small things..but heard its lousy too.. so that doesn't speak much for booker winners does it?? ;)
@elaine
no intention of sounding green.. but i found absolutely no correlation between the book and god at all..but you're rite when you say that initially you do believe all what happens.. martel is convincing but not appealing.
@kaushik
seriously... the books back was fascinating!! but the read quite disappointing!! :(
Have you had that feeling when you know your audience is not quite versed with what you have gone through and so you simple choose to ignore the details? Like when I first saw Memento at home and tried explaining how great it was to my gradnmother. I think Pi went through something like that - the cops at the end would obviously not agree to such a story.
I liked the book coz never has a book been written to explore this idea. A very relatable idea. Plus the narrative hooked me.(however fantastic it might have been!)
I liked the book coz never has a book been written to explore this idea. A very relatable idea. Plus the narrative hooked me.(however fantastic it might have been!)
Sad that you did not like it! I thought it was wonderful! Gross, yes, fantastic, yes, improbable, yes. But as a story, and the sprinkling of philosophical thoughts, and the sheer wonder of it all - was very good! :) Believe me, I did not know it had won the booker when I read it - so I had not got biased by that fact :)
how do i join this group??
if any of you want to check out, i have done one review on my blog.you can get it here
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if any of you want to check out, i have done one review on my blog.you can get it here
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