vivian-cc

About half way through Life of Pi I was prepared to have the book change my life. By the end, I felt disappointed that it didn't life up to its own promise. It wasn't the book's transition from realistic to the surreal that bothered me but rather all the unexplored ideas that were introduced so tantalizingly in the first part of the book. (Possible spoilers ahead...) Why didn't Pi question more dramatically his easy, undogmatic faith after being put in hell for seven months? Why wasn't Pi's relationship with Richard Parker more emotional, more volatile, more personal-- more like Tom Hanks and Wilson the volleyball in Cast Away, say, and less simply that of a trainer figuring out the nuances of a preditor? I struggled too to find the purpose of Martel's almost grotesque focus on gore. Was it meant to capture the realism of life on a lost lifeboat? By the time Pi was rubbing mammal blood on himself on algae island to cool his feet, I wasn't so sure. Nevertheless, the book and its idea got in my head. It was imaginitive and daring, surreal and wild, even if it didn't explore all of the avenues of its own thought. This story wasn't one to "make you believe in God," as Martel promised. But it was a good story.

2023-07-28 14:48