Book - Life Of Pi (2003)

Life of Pi by Yann Martel was an interesting read.  I started reading it before I knew that a movie based on the novel was coming.  If I had known, I would have read it much earlier, since everyone knows that only really good books get made into movies (sarcasm intended).

The author’s introduction raises the reader’s expectations, at least indirectly, by having one of the characters state that this is “a story that will make you believe in God.”  I’m not sure that this story convinced me one way or the other but it kept my attention.  I tried hard to keep spoilers from being part of the summary – there are flashbacks and interludes to the present that make the story non-linear.  Even so, I will be sparing with the details.  The book is separated into three parts.

Part One was the most enjoyable section for me and takes place in India, mostly in the territory of Pondicherry (or now called Puducherry).  This was a former French territory that is now part of India and still retains some vestiges of French colonization.  The reader is introduced to Piscine (Pi) Patel and the narrative runs through zoo-keeping, religions, Indian history, regional cuisines and many other fascinating topics.  It was engaging and connects the unlikely dots through which Pi becomes a practicing Hindu, Christian and Muslim.  And, yes, we do get an explanation for why the main character is named Piscine.

Part Two was a study in survival techniques onboard a raft in the Pacific and can be quite gruesome in some parts.  The monotony of being a castaway adrift on the Pacific and surviving for seven months or so with one other companion (Richard Parker) is an unbelievable tale that is made possible through the vivid detail given by Martel.  While the monotony and repetition bled into the reading experience, it was a necessary device to ensure that the reader shared in the pain.

Part Three was the section least interesting to me.  The eventual landfall and investigation seemed like a bolt-on to allow Martel to envelop the story in symbolism and make this larger than itself  - a choice of stories that gives the atheist and the religious something to grasp and leaves the agnostic purposely without answers, as the author believes is deserved.  As Pi says, “It is not the atheists who get stuck in my craw but agnostics…to choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”  However, I think the conclusion falls flat and is not as powerful as it should have been, for two reasons:

• The criticism against agnostics is harsh.  Ask any woman who has been trapped with a man who will not stop to ask for directions when lost and she will tell you that movement for the sake of moving is worthless - far better to stop and get more information.  The agnostic may simply be waiting for more information.
• Martel's allegory has Pi providing two separate stories which means one is patently false.  It's a poor representation of searching for truth from multiple sources, all of which may contain some part of the truth.

While I was drawn to the religious discourse through the book, I found the possibility of a Hindu who also became a practicing Christian and Muslim more difficult to believe than some of the other parts of this tale.  I do not believe that one can pick and choose parts of a religion and still be an adherent.  If idolatry is proscribed by both Christianity and Islam, how can one still be either of those and also be Hindu?  I once met an Indian physicist who claimed to be both Christian and Hindu - I walked away from the conversation thinking that he drew spiritual insights from both religions but could not honestly be called a follower of one or both.  I think adding in a third religion in the mix is beyond my ability to suspend disbelief. 

In any case, I truly enjoyed reading the Life of Pi.  I learned a lot from it and hope that I have it with me if I ever find myself floating on the Pacific in a raft or need to train a tiger for a circus.  I would strongly recommend the book.  It's very entertaining; however, I don't believe this is a book that will change your life, regardless of the hype you may hear based on the movie.

If you liked the review, please support the author and buy the book!!!

Book - Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was an impressive work.  Though I'm an avid reader, this isn't my genre of choice - Sci-Fiction/Fantasy, it isn't!  A friend recommended it, perhaps in the futile hope of expanding my tastes.

Adichie does a great job of developing interesting characters who capture the reader's attention.  Their experiences before and during the Nigerian-Biafran War personalize the historical setting and it becomes more than a dry recitation of facts.  It teaches subtly while keeping the reader motivated to finish the book.

So I learned that pre-war Nigeria was really an artificial English construct, with several hundred ethnic groups mashed together more for efficiency and economics than any true national identity.  However, the three major regional groups were the Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba.  The book explores tensions that led to the Igbo secession and subsequent war.

The book begins with an introduction to Ugwu, an intelligent but unwordly Igbo village boy who gets an opportunity to work as a houseboy for a professor at a local college.  Eventually we meet Olanna, who is Ugwu's master's girlfriend.  She and her sister, Kainene, are from a very wealthy Igbo family and the story begins to center on the two sisters and their relationships with each other as well as the men in their lives, all while history unfolds and intrudes into their comfortable lives.  The idealistic fervor of the academics dim somewhat as the harsh realities of war are realized and innocence is lost by every character in one way or another by the time the book is finished.

For me, the novel was educational and very easy to read.  I was captivated by the evolution of Ugwu as he matured and began to understand the world around him, sometimes better than the better-educated masters he served.  It also showed clearly the Lord of the Flies type of regression that can occur when our social framework collapses, all the more horrifying when applied to an entire nation.  I would strongly recommend this book, regardless of your reading tastes.