It's been awhile since I've read a book I've been so utterly pleased with as I am with Life of Pi. Pi, is Piscine Patel, a young Indian boy being raised with his brother in Pondicherry India. The family makes their living owning a zoo, and Pi grows up surrounded by monkeys, lions, tigers, and other exotic animals. At fifteen Pi almost simultaneously converts to Christianity, Islam, and Hindu. That's just who Pi is. Political turmoil in India forces the family to pack up, sell most of their animals, and board a Japanese freighters bound for Canada. Partway through the trip, the freighter sinks, and Pi finds himself on a lifeboat, with a zebra, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger. A few days after the ship sinks, an orang-utan floats by on a raft of bananas. The hyena eats the zebra and the orang-utan, the tiger eats the hyena. To help ensure Pi doesn't get eaten, he establishes himself as the alpha male and works to train the tiger, Richard Parker, as best he can on a lifeboat using turtle shells as a shield.
So begins seven months on board a lifeboat with an Indian adolescent and a huge tiger. He eats through the rations stored on the boat, then begins catching fish, turtles, and sharks to feed him and the tiger. After months at sea, they come across an island inhabited only by meerkats. Pi feasts on algae, Richard Parker feasts on the meerkats. Eventually Pi leaves the boat at night to sleep in a tree, and notices strange things happening. The island is carnivorous at night! The next day Pi and the tiger leave the island, and eventually wash ashore in central Mexico.
Yann Martel is a talented writer. He's poetic without being verbose, easy to read without being simplistic. Such a fantastic story. I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up this book. Pi is an awesome teenager; inventive, creative, brave, and strangely funny. This book makes me remember why I love reading.
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