Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Life of Pi

This weekend, I finally finished reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It honestly felt like one of the longest books I've ever read. The book came highly recommended by several of my friends, so I really looked forward to reading it. I have to say that it did not meet my initial expectations, but that it was well-written and I would recommend it (mostly).

I found the first section of the book to by highly entertaining and engaging. This is where Pi Patel is still living in India and his father is a zoo-keeper in Pondicherry. Martel uses the language to his advantage and he is a fantastic story teller.

The second part of the book, at the length of a few hundred pages, is the telling of Pi's adventure at sea in a lifeboat. This truly was years long in the reading. Perhaps that was part of Martel's method, since it must have felt like a lifetime to the young boy, but I got bored and lost patience. I only picked the book up to read because I was flying for several hours. I had to force myself to keep reading. The writing is still good, but the story just wasn't compelling enough to keep my interest for such a long telling.

The final section of the book is very short and happens after Pi lands on dry ground. It was interesting and tied the story together.

All in all, I thought the book was good, but I didn't find it to have the profound effect that I was given the impression it would deliver. It also says that it will make you believe in God, but I didn't think it would have that impact on anyone. In the end, it's a nice story, a little long, but pretty good.

1 comment:

Colin R. said...

You could have asked me, I'd have told you much the same thing you discovered by reading it. It started out reasonably well, but by the end I found it more annoying than enjoyable.