Yann Martel's Life of Pi follows the story of a sixteen year-old Indian boy whose desire to find deeper meaning leads him to simultaneously embrace three different religions. This is the source of some of the novel's funnier but also personal moments, with Pi trying to be a good Hindu, Christian, and Muslim all at the same time. Pi's faith is put to its greatest test when he is stranded aboard a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific, after a cargo ship that was supposed to take him to Canada sinks. Also on the lifeboat: zoo animals from the cargo hold that include a zebra with a broken leg, a hyena, an orang-utan and a 450-pound tiger, a scenario that holds the reader captivated while bending his or her belief at the same time. Author Yann Martel:

"What I was trying to do in this book was try and discuss how we interpret reality - most secular readers will read the book and say 'Ah, okay, there's one story told and actually something else happened, and Pi 'invented' this other story to pass the time, or make his reality bearable. That's the secular. The other one, the more religious interpretation, would just be the story you're reading and that's what happened..."

What follows then is a 227 day fight for survival, which ultimately balances the fate of Pi against the Bengal tiger, the story stretching the readers' suspension of disbelief ever further as it unfolds. Once rescued, Pi will choose to present a more believable version of his adventure as the truth, forcing us to question "what actually happened", as well as to ponder different levels of interpretation and meaning........

 

voyager