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.)