Vista Book Group: Life of Pi
Vista Book Group’s February read was the Life of Pi by Yann Martel which won the 2002 Man Booker Prize. The book has three parts, the first of which details Pi Patel’s life in Pondicherry, India and touches on his later life in Toronto, Canada, the second part details his 227 days as a castaway on the Pacific Ocean after the sinking of the Tsimtsum, and the third and shortest part takes place in Mexico where Pi washes ashore and tells his “unbelievable” story to two members of the Japanese Ministry of Transportation Maritime Department.
Piscene Molitor Patel and his family live in Pondicherry, India where they run the local zoo. Sixteen year old Pi is a very religious young man; in fact he is a faithful follower of three different religions: Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Due to political upheaval in his home country of India in 1977 his father decides to move the family to Canada in search of a better life. So, packing up family and the zoo animals which are to be sold in North America, they set out by ship across the Pacific Ocean. The journey goes well enough at first, but after leaving Manila something tragic happens to the ship and Pi is forced to abandon ship without his family.
Pi finds himself floating on a lifeboat, with a tiger named Richard Parker, a zebra, a hyena and an orangutan. Of course, things are quite precarious, and it does not take long before the laws of the jungle come to the fore, until finally only Pi and Richard Parker are the only two alive on the lifeboat. At this point Pi must use his knowledge of animals and all of the other tools at his disposal to save himself and Richard Parker. During his castaway voyage Pi waffles between despair and hope, hoping that his family has somehow survived the shipwreck and knowing deep in his heart that he was the only one of his family to escape the disaster. When he finally washes ashore in Mexico, he tells the story of his horrific journey in a lifeboat with a tiger. Of course, it is not a readily believable story, so Pi offers another account and asks “which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?”
All of the book group members that attended liked the book, although many of us found some of the scenes in the story to be somewhat gruesome and difficult to read. Most of us decided that we probably would not have survived the same ordeal. We found the book to be a witty and unique read, so unique that we couldn’t think of a book that would be a good “read-a-like”. However, we did come up with a list of materials that would be good companion reads and of course, the movie. Below please find books on the following subjects: castaways, shipwrecks, survival, voyages, India, religions, books with animal and human protagonists and other books by Yann Martel. If you have read Life of Pi or seen the movie, let us know what you thought. Life of Pi makes for an interesting discussion if you are thinking about using it for your own book group. Also, please view the YouTube video interview with Yann Martel to hear what he has to say about the Life of Pi and about the art of writing.
During one of his several adventurous voyages in the 1600's an Englishman becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck and lives for nearly thirty years on a deserted island.Amazon
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