FINISHED: Life of Pi (spoilers)

So, this story is about so much more than a boy, a tiger and a lifeboat. But the tiger certainly helped in my case (tigers are my favourite wild animals).

Pi is a boy who lives on a zoo in India, he has a passion for God so strong he is a practicing Muslim, Hindu and Christian. The passages where he describes his impressions of the seperate religions upon first encountering them and then as he comes to understand and appreciate them are beautiful and often hilarious. For the first time since The Virgin Suicides I found myself underlining passages in pencil.

After the family uproots from India, travelling on a cargo ship to Canada to start a new life, and to sell the animals abroad where they will get more money, the ship sinks and Pi is left stranded on a lifeboat with Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger. The desperation of the situation is put across perfectly, you feel as though you've been on the lifeboat by the time it reaches land. I simultaneously was desperate to find out what happened, but also to slow down to make it last longer. I didn't want this book to end.

The only part I felt uncomfortable with was during Pi's temporary blindness and the emergence of the frenchman, mostly because I was confused, but I assume that was the point.
It as been noted before I am not a fan of unreliable narrators, and the ambiguity in whether or not this part was real made my brain ache. But after Richard Parker intervenes (best name for a tiger.. none of these pet names), the story is back to its normal self and all the better for it.

But the ending is perfect, although somewhat sudden (but I suppose Pi's personal ending is spread throughout the book). Two stories, one fantastical, one incredibly grim but more realistic. Which do you choose?
I don't consider myself a religious person, but I prefer the tiger. Tiger over the true ruthlessness of the human race any day.

9/10

(On a side note I watched the film today and it was very well done considering the book is almost entirely internal monologue. Two things I would have liked to have seen more of were the writers opinions on the story which are interspersed throughout the book but only featured at the beginning and the end of the film, and Pi's struggle to find food for Richard Parker. His use of the turtle shells for defense against Richard Parker struck a chord with me. Although it may have been too gruesome for the screen...
It deserved its BAFTAs and Oscars wholeheartedly.)

Currently Reading: Life of Pi

Oh this book you guys, this book.
I'm only 89 pages in and I'm infatuated.

The descriptions of religion we've had so far have pushed me to underline certain phrases in pencil. And I barely ever write in my books. I'm pretty sure the only other paper book I have ever done this in is The Virgin Suicides and that is basically my favourite book. So this is saying a lot guys.

I have very few coherent thoughts about this book, all I can get out is a stream of ALKJALRILAJR IT'S SO GOOD but that may be the horrendous cold I am suffering from.
I'll be back once I'm done with hopefully a better review than bashing my hands off the keys!

STARTING: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Not sure I really need to say much about this book! Other than it involves a tiger and therefore I have to read it! See you all soon!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky (trigger warning for sexual assault)

I tried guys, I tried again. I wanted to like this book, I read the first page a few months ago and got annoyed at how he judged the person he was writing to's worth based on who they had sex with and put it back in disgust. But then I watched the film and really enjoyed it, felt I had misjudged it and decided to give it another go. So I did. But to no avail.

I just want to put the record straight that I do not think this is a bad book, I don't think it's a bad story. It is just not a book for me. I have a problem with unreliable narrators in books as a general rule, I don't like them, they stress me out. Sometimes I can cope, in murder mystery novels it can add to the plot, but in books not about mystery it makes me anxious and this book was no different.
I was doing fine and thinking maybe I could cope until we reach a scene *TRIGGER WARNING* in which the narrator describes a rape he witnessed in great detail to someone else, not realising what he had witnessed. And at this point I closed the book. I couldn't deal with reading something like that in somebody's voice. I have enough trouble reading accounts of sexual assault without being trapped in somebody's head. It makes me feel sick and shaky and everything is just far too triggering.
And knowing what was to come in the book (having seen the film) I decided for my own mental health not to read it.

So I understand why a lot of people really like this book, I just couldn't cope with the subject matter and the writing style together. So I won't be trying to read it again. But that doesn't mean I think it's bad.
Just so you know.