Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion."

Tremendous Disappointment

I read the reviews on Amazon, so it was with great anticipation that I started this book. The beginning is quite tantalizing, background on the teenage Pi, and his exploration of 3 major religions, his family's adventure to move to Canada via a steamer. What a great set-up! However, once the teen leaves India, in my opinion, the book slows down and bogs down into minutia that seems to have little to do with moving the plot along. How many ways can you describe how to kill fish? You will discover it in this book. I felt bludgeoned by the author in all the grisly details of killing and death over and over again. There were a several leaps of faith required by the reader to follow the plot. The greatest leap of faith I could not make was the book's promise, "You will believe in God": I didn't.I felt as though it was a bad remake of the Old Man and the Sea with more grisly elements of Lord of the Flies. I had mentioned I read the book, (without saying my opinion of the book), I was surprised by the the comments I have had from my own circle of book lover friends and co-workers: "...book was so boring I couldn't finish it...", "...I just lost interest and couldn't finish it...", "...book was disappointing...". I have yet to find a single person, outside the reviewers here that actually have anything positive to say about it. My apologies to the author, I really really wanted to like this book, but just couldn't.

I don't give many 5-star reviews, but ....

Life of Pi is definitely one of the best books I have ever read. I don't consider myself much of a reader, but this is a fantastic book that I would recommend to anyone.

Life of Pi is great fiction. It comes with a story that is almost unbelievable, but after awhile, you find yourself drawn in and basically end up living the story with Pi.

I don't want to say a whole lot about the plot, other than to read it. I found it a little slow-going for about the first 100 pages, but it definitely took off from there.

Life of Pi is almost a religious experience in a book. It's that good! Fantastic fiction. Great storytelling. Thank you Yann Martel. Buy it!

Reward at the End of the Rainbow

"Life of Pi" has many parallels to spirituality, not only in the context of the author's wording of the story, but in the reading experience itself. Patience is a virtue and "Life of Pi" is a testament to this noble inner moral. The author starts slow, taking time to layout a framework of plausibility to justify the events that are to unfold. Without taking the patience to lay down this groundwork, the miraculous story that unfolds would seem far to infeasible to engross the reader. However, through the author's patience and that of the reader in the initial stages of the book, the ensuing experience is one that will most assuredly reward the reader in literary enjoyment and uplifting of spirit.

True, such a book does not make an instant grab of the reader's devotion as popular mysteries typified by "The Da Vinci Code" or celebrated postmodern literature typified by "My Fractured Life." Nor does such a book as "Life of Pi" present an effortless reading experience typified by easy reading, mass market adult fiction typified by "The Five People You Meet in Heaven." Yet, "Life of Pi" does not need to fall into one of these categories to achieve the same level of grandeur. It is an experience that requires more patience, but in so doing provides a different variety of pleasure.

"Life of Pi" is a stellar novel that will reward your patience. Other recommendations: "The Da Vinci Code", "Curious Incident of Dog in Night-Time", "My Fractured Life", "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" and "The Glass Castle."