Guest Post from Danielle from Book or Big Screen?

Hello fellow bloggers. Today, I’m happy to welcome Danielle from Book or Big Screen? to my blog with a guest post here. She reviews the book The Life of Pi. Her blog explores the differences between the book and its companion movie adaptation. You may remember a when I was able to guest post (talking about Sense and Sensibility) on her blog. So I’m glad that she agrees to write something here. Read on below to find out what Danielle thought about this book. 

GUEST POST FROM DANIELLE (FROM BOOK OR BIG SCREEN?)

Reivew: ‘The Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel   Did you hear the one about the boy, the boat, and the tiger? The Life of Pi is a fictional novel about Piscine Molitor Patel, an Indian boy whose family owns a private zoo.  

‘Pi’ has a deep love for animals that is only surpassed by his love of religion. When the cargo ship that he is travelling on sinks, both of these passions are put to the ultimate test – because Pi becomes stranded in a lifeboat for 227 days, and his only companion is a man-eating 450-pound Bengal Tiger.  

The Life of Pi is an engaging novel. For me, its beauty came through its deep exploration of the
nature of animals and humans. How Pi manages to survive his ordeal is a truly magnificent and fantastical story, but it only really takes place from chapter 37 to chapter 95.  

There are 42 other chapters that set up the story by describing – in excruciating detail – Pi’s life in India, how he created his own nickname, and how he dabbled in a number of religions. I understand that Yann Martel needed to establish his central character, to give readers the ability to understand his thought processes and motivations, but I have to say that a good deal of these cushioning chapters were unnecessary and – to be blunt – boring!  

Another gripe that I have with The Life of Pi, is the way that it is fiction guised as fact. Yann Martel includes an author’s note, in which he describes the way that he basically stumbled across this story while travelling in India. It gives the reader the impression that Pi Patel is a real person, and that his story actually happened – when apparently it didn’t.  

To take it even further, Martel also includes the occasional chapters that detail his process of meeting and interviewing the adult Pi: What his house looked and smelt like; what he did for a job; and how his family behaved… It was quite annoying actually, and it didn’t add anything to the story.  

I don’t want to seem overly negative, because I really did enjoy this book – truly, the middle 58 chapters are worth waiting for, so do read it!                                       

Thank you again, Danielle.