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DISCUSSION:
Johanne -
10 - One of
the best books I have read because: Actually got me to want
to believe in Pi's story, despite obvious logical flaws.
In that sense, it delivered on the 'leap of faith' / spiritual
journey without being preachy and religious, a welcome twist.
This book actually 'made' me go back and re-read the first
section because I hadn't paid enough attention originally
to understand its implications, but upon a second reading,
I understood everything. It all made sense in the end/ beginning.
To me, this was 'Thor Hyerdal meets Jungle
Book' - a thoroughly captivating adventure that created
empathy for both Pi, and his protagonist Richard Parker.
I LOVED that I got 'sucked in' by Richard
Parker. I also enjoyed the Japanese at the end - some good
human insights there. Also, I liked that despite the fact
that they didn't seem to believe Pi's original 'story',
the report at the end stated it as the factual version.
So, if those gentleman, who'd had a much shorter but seemingly
'equally' horrible journey (in their eyes) could believe
it, why shouldn't I?
As is often the case with books I enjoy
very much, this one used imagery which works for my brain.
I was able to 'see' the book playing out in my head. This
is one reason I don't like to see movies made of books I
really enjoyed - they're never as I would have cast/directed
them! Even the island with mongooses came alive for me.
If the storytelling is good, I tend to overlook many technical
details, whether good or not. In this case, I just so enjoyed
the overall story that if there were little 'nigglies',
I chose to ignore them.
Kern -
7 - (notes to come)
Rosemary -
9 - I loved this book. I had trouble
at first understanding the first section - but I went back
to that after I had read more and then everything fell into
place. I spent a lot of time at the beginning trying to
figure out who Richard Parker was and how I had missed him
in the story!
I thought Martel's use of juxtapositioning
was an effective tool throughout the book e.g. the humour
right next to gross and brutal detail: philosophy, religion,
and zoology side-by-side; the unlikely presented so that
it seemed likely etc. I liked the use of humour - and laughed
out loud many times even though the humour was often understated.
The use of humour to offset the severity of the story was
critical to the effectiveness of the novel, I thought. (Lori
interjected with a quote from p.198 "Don't you think
that before he submits to eating puffy, putrefied zebra
he'll try the fresh, juice Indian boy just a short dip away?"
I thought the use of the author's voice
(in italics) throughout sections of the book was very effective.
It gave us the future picture of Pi's life without extending
the story. We wanted to know how he would go on but didn't
necessarily want another whole story. Really impressive
was the amount of research that went into the book- research
into a huge number of subject areas - animal patterns, solar
stills, etc. Martel has great descriptive
talents - examples abound but two I chose were p. 28 the
geometrical description of Mr. Kumar or p. 39 in a different
line with the description of the tiger killing the goat.
I love the ease with which Pi, whom we know
to be somewhat obsessive about religion, can translate and
link the religious with the philosophical with the zoological.
Two quotes from the book really spoke to what the book was
about - "If you stumble at mere believability, what are
you living for? Isn't love hard to believe? Isn't life hard
to believe?" And "To choose doubt as a philosophy
of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."
The sectioning of the book into three parts
worked really well. The first section prepares you for who
Pi is, what he believes and knows. The second test all of
that for himself and the reader. The third responds to his
detractors and reaffirms what we had learned of him.
I thought the use of the Japanese insurance
agents as the disbelievers was brilliant - allowed all the
questions to get asked but again in a humourous way. I think
the second story Pi told was simply meant as a comparison
- you didn't believe this version, so here is another story
that is far-fetched. Take your choice - and the Japanese
men choose the story with the animals - perhaps easier to
live with than acknowledging so much cruelty in humans.
Fiona -
9 - (notes to come)
Kathy -
8.5 - I was not looking forward
to this book because my sister didn't like it. But I ended
up debating my rating because I really liked the
book. However, I decided that it wasn't one of the best
books I've ever read, so I think my rating is right
for me.
I found it a difficult book to get into
and a very difficult beginning section - though when I re-read
the beginning once I'd finished, it made complete sense
and I like it. Nonetheless, the difficulty I had with the
opening section the first time through definitely affected
my rating.
I liked the various voices in this book
- the introduction part where Martel tells the story in
his own voice of writing this novel, and then the narrator's
voice. The flow was great and so believable from the author's
notes to the actual story. I wondered whether the book was
really written as Martel says, or whether that was part
of the story!
I also enjoyed the comparisons of the various
religions and how each works for Pi for different occassions.
He essentially chooses the best from each for him - and
somehow manages to make each one seem very similar.
Martel's writing is so readable and yet
so meaningful. What did Pi's alternate story mean? A) a
way of not dealing with the reality of his terrible survival
ordeal (maybe....) B) the actual story of his survival C)
both stories are fiction as one is a description of this
hallucinations and the other is simply fabrication. I wondered
if the fantastic (the meercat island and the weird story
with the murderous Frenchman) was meant to lead us to believe
that it was a hallucination - I certainly am leaning that
way.
I also really enjoyed the various facts
he put into the book - the zoo stuff about animals was great
and so was the survival lore. Terrific research and yet
thoroughly readable and enjoyable. And I loved the aftermath
- the new life Pi had in Toronto with his family, etc. Great
stuff!
Lori -
9.5 - In The Princess Bride, William
Goldman creates a believable backstory for the novel - he
is simply retelling the story he heard as a child, an excellent
story that he comes to realize that his father edited in
reading to him, reading only the "good parts." So deftly
does he write that it is only by recognizing that the "original
author" is from the fictitious country of "Guilder" that
the illusion begins to waver, and the joke becomes apparent.
So too with Life of Pi. Martel weaves a story
that stretches our belief to the breaking point, but does
so with such eloquence that we are swept along for the ride.
Young Pi is a character for which I felt tremendous compassion
- when he realized that his parents and brother were not
going to appear on the horizon to snatch him to safety,
I nearly wept with him. Right until the moment of the floating
island and the meercats, I thought that the story was a
wonderful example of magic realism - improbable, but delightfully
possible. But with the introduction of the island and the
meercats, the illusion was torn for me and while I continued
to enjoy the writing, I was puzzled. If it wasn't magic
realism, what was Martel doing? Where was he going? What
was the punch-line? (Was there a punch-line?)
And then Pi tells the optional story and I
felt sick to my stomach as he unveils this stark and frightening
tale - no magic, just realism. And it seemed to me that
his story of the long struggle with the great cat was Pi's
way of dealing with the mind-breaking horror of what had
truly happened - and of what he himself was capable of.
The fact that he ate meat in the tiger story was representative
of how far away from his principles he was driven by circumstance.
I loved this book - I loved the story, I loved
the writing, and I loved the characters. I was so involved
with Pi and wanted things to work out for him so much, that
like the narrator, I was completely delighted to discover
that the older Pi is married with a child. Even the most
minor characters were drawn with love and humour and great
attention to detail. The Japanese interviewers are some
of the funniest characters I've come across in a long time
- they remind me of Shakespeare's soldiers and guards.
I borrowed this book from a friend to read
it, and then loved it so much I bought my own copy. I know
I say this all the time, but this really is one I hope to
re-read. In the meantime, I'm getting Sean to read it! Considering
how I'm raving about it, maybe Johanne is right when she
called me a coward for not rating it a 10! ;-)
Lesley -
6.5 - I've had the Life of Pi for
several months - it was a gift. I didn't want to read it.
Usually I can't wait to get the Booker winner, but I don't
like parables, I don't like fantasy and I don't like religious
books. As soon as I heard it was a book that would make
you believe in God, whatever reamining inkling of interest
that existed vanished!
The book was a delightful surprise. I thought
it was fresh, funny, interesting, even gripping in parts.
I liked the ending. I liked Pi. And I never felt like the
latest target for religious conversion by the author. I
even had to remind myself that it was all fiction at several
points.
I though the story could have been tightened
- the India portion dragged at the end, so did the ocean
voyage. But these are forgivable, especially in light of
the whole.
I liked the juxtaposition of this horror
over the hyena killing the zebra ander his predatory perspecitive
as the killed the sea turtle in almost exactly the same
way. The theme that we do what we have in order to survive
is well-worn, but I thought his reluctant shift in perspective
was interesting - not so much for the events over which
he felt guilty as for one events about which he seemed sanguine.
I also really liked this comments about
time. About surviving by not keeping track. We are so obsessively
grounded in time that contemplating time, and the tracking
of time, as the enemy is a radical concept.
I was disappointed in the ending. If the
alternate is the real story, the two Japanese investigators
should have stuck to it. Otherwise why introduce it? Their
pressure to find the truth and then cavalier disreage for
proving it definitively was baffling. Life of Pi isn't the
best book I've ever read, but I would recommend it. I would
even recommend it to the reluctant. Martel is a great storyteller
- entertaining, thought-provoking and inventive. I thoughly
enjoyed the book.
Melissa
- 3 - I really don't feel that I should rate this book
at all, because I did not really read it. I got about 75
pages into it and after trying several times I gave up.
My life is too busy and my time too precious to struggle
through a book that I simply found completely uninteresting!
To be fair, I was also preoccupied with my perceptions of
where the bookclub itself was going, and feeling tremendously
pressured to read the book on time in its entirety, which
to be honest made me feel a little rebellious. But I can
honestly say that this book did not capture my interest
and that I found nothing to pull me into the story and make
me keep reading.
Pat -
9 - As I said
in my rating for "Unless", I really prefer a story that
has a beginning, middle and an ending, and boy, did this
book meet those criteria! What a great storyteller Martel
is, and what a great imagination! I loved his writing, which
I thought was simple and straightforward, but incredibly
evocative, and he had my full attention the whole time,
especially through parts 2 and 3. I could easily picture
the scenes he described. I loved the characters, especially
Pi and Richard Parker (of whom, like Pi, I grew immensely
fond)! I thought the first part (pre-sailing) was also interesting
and in hindsight was a great set-up for parts two and three.
In fact, when I finished the book I went back and reread
parts of part one to see if it would help me understand
the ending - in short, which version of the story was the
real one?
The ending really threw me a curve, and I
wish I were there to hear everyone's opinion about it. On
the one hand, the fact that there were meerkat bones (or
at least small animal bones) in the lifeboat makes me think
that the Richard Parker version was the true one. But unfortunately,
the second version (with humans rather than animals) could
also be true. Martel makes it a credible alternative because
of the links between the two stories -- the cook was a Frenchman
(Pi may not have known this until the Japanese told him,
but he did in fact run into a Frenchman in version one)
and the human characters all corresponded to the animals.
It's also easier to believe that humans can behave like
animals than that animals can behave like humans - and what
a sad statement that is!
In chapter 10 (page 44), Pi states: "But even
animals that were bred in zoos and have never known the
wild, that are perfectly adapted to their enclosures and
feel no tension in the presence of humans, will have moments
of excitement that push them to seek to escape. All living
things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange,
sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving;
it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it,
no species would survive. Whatever the reason for wanting
to escape, sane or insane, zoo detractors should realize
that animals don't escape to somewhere but from something.
Something within their territory has frightened them - the
intrusion of an enemy, the assault of a dominant animal,
a startling noise - and set off a flight reaction. The animal
flees, or tries to."
Is this what happened to Pi -- that Story
2 was the real story, but it was such a horrific experience
that it drove him to escape by creating an alternate (and
more palatable) version of what happened? Or is Story 1
in fact the real story, but elements of it are so incredible
that it is easier for the Japanese investigators to accept
Story 2 as the real story? Given the two alternatives, the
Japanese preferred Story 1 -- just like I (and probably
everyone else) did. I loved version one of the shipwreck
story and was drawn in by Martel's skillful storytelling
into believing all of it as it unfolded, although it did
stretch credulity when Pi encountered the second blind lifeboat
survivor and the algae island. And what was that temporary
blindness thing all about? (In fact, in an interview with
Martel on one website, the interviewer tells Martel that
he too: "believed it all, up until the island and the meerkats,
and then my suspended disbelief started to wobble earthwards...
did you [he asks Martel] intend to create that effect in
the reader? To see how far they would follow you?" and Martel
responds "Yes, I did. I wanted to push the reader till he/she
was forced to make some leap of faith. If the island didn't
do it, then I hoped the second story would."
I'm not sure what to make of that, unless
Martel means that by the very act of choosing which was
the real story, we would be forced to accept, or believe
in, one or the other! I like to think that version one is
the true story -- being aware, even as I write this, that
"Life of Pi" is fiction, so that neither version is in fact
"true"! I guess the fact that I care so much one way or
the other is a tribute to Martel's storytelling! This is
one for the re-read pile!
General Discussion -
This book generated a LOT of discussion
- and unusually for our club, it was quite passionate! We
discussed faith and whether "choosing" doubt is
just too easy. Kern felt that sometimes doubt isn't a choice
and that Martel was smug in his religious fervour. But many
of us loved the lines in the book quoted at the top of this
page, and felt that they spoke powerfully of the need to
eventually wrestle with choice and not simply sit with doubt.
There was also some discussion about what
the alternate ending meant - and the fact that most people
both preferred and believed the tiger story. But ultimately
we decided it didn't really matter which was true!
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