Book Review: Life of Pi

Life of Pi by Yann Martel
2.3 of 5 stars (only slightly better than Wild)

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

I definitely enjoyed the second half of the book. A story about a boy surviving the Pacific with a tiger for almost a year was very interesting and it was interesting to see where the author took the story line since they were essentially in the middle of nowhere. 

However, I found a lot of the book irrelevant and parts of it just trying way too hard. The first part of the book about Pi choosing his religion really didn't fit into any part of the story line. I feel like it could have been cut and the book would have been better off. It was like Martel wanted to include it to be hipster or different or artsy and it just didn't work with me. 

I also, of course did not agree with the theology, because it wasn't well founded at all. I'm not sure about Hinduism but Islam and Christianity do not agree that all ways lead to God or heaven, so it was really absurd that he even presented that and then acted like Pi was practicing three religions well. I felt like he didn't know much about any of the religions other than the names people used for God/gods.

 I also detested the chapters that he included basically from his perspective. Again, just trying way too hard to make his book different. It wasn't daring writing, it wasn't art for art's sake, it was just kind of lame. He just wanted his one hundred chapters and that was a weird way to do it. 

Then he got into his weird act of self-suffocation, which didn't add anything. It just reminded me of my friend who accidentally killed himself that way and made Pi less relatable to me than he already was. 

All in all, not my favorite read ever, but the tiger was cool. Richard Parker was my favorite character.