Life of Pi by Yann Martel - A Book Review

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is one of those books whose celebrity status reached me way before the book ever did. I had seen all the accolades and reviews tossed upon it and then the movie comes out and I hear all the great words about it as well. I was somewhat reluctant to pick it up. But to my surprise Life of Pi is one of those rare novels that not only lives up to its hype; but surpasses it.
It is true, it starts rather slowly and for the first quarter of the novel is not a tale of survival on the high seas, but an exercise in a young man's search for God and Philosophy. But this is important. What Yann Martel is doing is something forgotten in today's literary world. In a rush for all things to be instant, we have forgotten the simple joy of building a character. And this is very important here. This growth of character, for we will spend the next 300 pages with this one character. This lone voice. This Pi.

...Just beyond the ticket booth Father had had painted on a wall in bright red letters the question: DO YOU KNOW WHCH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a small curtain. There were so many eager, curious hands that pulled at the curtain that we had to replace it regularly. Behind it was a mirror...

Pi Patel is a young boy growing up in his family run Zoo. In his youth he flirts with different religions. Searching in his heart for a belief that he can follow and keep his faith in. It is in no small way this introspection that will serve him well later on.
Due to changing political climates in his homeland, his parents decide that the best course is to leave their lives in Pondicherry, India and move themselves and most of their Zoo to Canada. Transporting their animals and themselves on the Japanese cargo ship Tsimtsum. One dark night the ship sinks and Pi Patel finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with a Hyena, an injured Zebra, a Rat, an Orangutan and a Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker.
What follows is their adventure of survival on the ocean, all stranded together on twenty-six foot long lifeboat.

...Life on a lifeboat isn't much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The elements couldn't be more simple, nor the stakes higher. Physically it is extraordinarily arduous, and morally it is killing. You must make adjustments if you want to survive. Much becomes expendable. You get your happiness where you can. You reach a point where you're at the bottom of hell, yet you have your arms crossed and a smile on your face, and you feel you're the luckiest person on earth. Why? Because at your feet you have a tiny dead fish...

For 227 days Pi Patel drifts on the ocean. Lost at sea with his small band of animals. As time passes they turn on one another. Killing and eating each other until only Pi and the Tiger, Richard Parker are alive.
What happens on that lifeboat for 227 days is recounted in this novel and to the investigators who want to know what transpired aboard the Tsimtsum. As Pi Patel tells his tale the men sent to investigate find his story of survival hard to believe. So Pi Patel tells them a second story. A much more horrible and tragic tale.

..."You're welcome. But before you go, I'd like to ask you something."
"Yes?"
"The Tsimtsum sank on July 2nd, 1977."
"Yes."
"And I arrived on the coast of Mexico, the sole human survivor of the Tsimtsum, on February 14th, 1978."
"That's right."
"I told you two stories that account for the 227 days in between."
"Yes, you did."
"Neither explains the sinking of the Tsimtsum."
"That's right."
"Neither makes a factual difference to you."
"That's true."
"You can't prove which story is true and which is not. You must take my word for it."
"I guess so."
"In both stories the ship sinks, my entire family dies, and I suffer."
"Yes that's true."
"So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals...

And you too reader, will have to make that choice. Which story do you prefer. Which story do you wish to be left with to explain how Pi Patel survived 227 days on the open sea. Which is the one you can live with as Pi has decided which tale is the one he will live with.
Life of Pi is tragic on all levels but at its core it is a tale of survival. Not just of the open seas, but of the depths of memory and sanity as well.