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Life of Pi | 
 enlarge | Author: Yann Martel
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: $11.88
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $11.87 (100%)
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Rating:  1843 reviews
Sales Rank: 323104
Media: Paperback
Pages: 348
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 184195392X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781841953922
ASIN: 184195392X
Publication Date: May 17, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
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." An award winner in Canada, Life of Pi, Yann Martel's second novel, should prove to be a breakout book in the U.S. At one point in his journey, Pi recounts, "My greatest wish--other than salvation--was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and fresh understanding each time." It's safe to say that the fabulous, fablelike Life of Pi is such a book. --Brad Thomas Parsons
Product Description
Like its noteworthy ancestors (Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, the Ancient Mariner and Moby Dick) Life of Pi is a tale of disaster at sea. Both a boys' own adventure (for grown-ups) and a meditation on faith and the value of religious metaphor, it was one of the most extraordinary and original novels of 2002. The only survivor from the wreck of a cargo ship on the Pacific, 16 year old Pi spends 221 days on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal Tiger called Richard Parker ...
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1838 more reviews...
 Life of Pi November 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book was very well written. Not my type of book. It was selected as a book for my book club. I thought it would be more spiritual. A bit too much agony and strife to take in for a pleasure read.
 Amazing book November 19, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is amazing. Pay attention to the metephor at the end, and decide which is the truth, the story or the metaphor?
 So-so book November 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I ventured out of my usual kind of reads for this book because of all the hype. It sounded kinda interesting. When I read the blurbs on it, I was expecting some kind of big epiphany from it. I'm disappointed in it, it was just a weird story that dragged on, and the back and forth in time thing was confusing. I've read other books with that technique that flowed well and were easy to follow. I am giving it three stars because Mr. Martel can obviously write, no shortage of talent there. There is also a decent amount of creativity in his book. The third star is me admitting that I bought this book because of the hype, so I won't punish it because it's not my usual taste. Honestly, the story is not that interesting, a lot of the scenes seemed pointless, and the big message of the book comes across weak and contrived. Like someone shoved it in hoping it would leave you in awe. It doesn't. I really don't get the big hoopla here. Wasn't time well-spent for me.
From a High School Freshmans Perspective November 10, 2008
Life of Pi is a very interesting book once you get past the beginning. In the whole first part of the book, I had to force myself to read it. I would have stopped if the book was not assigned for school. Yann wrote about topics as if he had just watched a show on The Animal Planet and wanted to tell us about why animals did certain things like escaping from their enclosure. But after I got past that part, which put me to sleep. I could not stop reading. He describes Pi's adventure with so much detail that it was practically a movie in the form of words. He really gives a lot of personality to the tiger; Richard Parker. Richard Parker is such a huge role and I think it is very hard to describe an animal's personality with such detail.
If you can get past the first part of the book, you will enjoy the rest of the story. All i can say is that Yann wrote with so much detail that it ties you to the two main characters, Richard Parker and Pi.
no words can describe how good this is! November 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
it breaks down all barriers of imagination and offers a breathtaking understanding of life through a story of simple transition from innocence to maturity...something each adult reader can relate to. be prepared for the more graphic details in the second and third section of the book which are a little unpleasant, but it is this very crudeness that gives the book that extra sense of realism and makes the book a thrilling read... i definitely recommend it!
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