Life of Pi

• Life of Pi - Yann Martell

I've contemplated this book for years. Every time I walked past it I'd stop and stare at the cover, wondering if it were worth my time. I'd pick it up, flip it over, and read the summary on the back. "I don't know," I'd say. I would flip it forward and backward wondering if it were worth my time. Every time I would put it down and think maybe I'd get it next time. I repeated this process, especially so in the last two years. I finally asked a few people about it in e-mails, but they seemed to respond to every question I had asked except for the one about the book. Apparently it wasn't memorable enough for them to praise it, or tell me it was horrific. Finally, I asked a friend over the phone and she said she liked it. I had this feeling that there would be something good within the pages of the book, but that summary was making me doubt myself. So, with some form of confirmation I finally purchased the book.

I loved it. The discussions on the nature of the beast and religion, this crazy boy who thought it was okay to be Christian, Muslim and Hindu, and of course, this elaborate story of one's life adrift. There were moments reading when I would relate to the character, but more often then not, I just felt like I understood him and his struggle. It was like no other book I've read. (Which is ironic seeing how there were questions about whether or not the author had plagiarized the book from a less successful version of a boy and a jaguar stuck on a boat.) It's worth a read.

"...a tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he's not careful." - p. 6