Life of Pi

Life of Pi  
“The life of Pi” may be the most interesting book you’ve never read! While it professes to be the story of a young man stranded on a boat with a full grown tiger, it may not be about that at all.Starting in India and ending in Mexico, “Pi” spends a lot of early pages before Piscine, as his name is correctly spelled, gets on the fateful boat. We learn about his life as a young man in his father’s zoo, and his curious collection of religions. Born Hindi, Pi learns about Christianity and converts, somehow without dropping Hindi. From there he picks up Islam, once again without dropping his previous beliefs. This makes for a hysterical scene where elders from all three religions approach him and his family on a beach one day. A fight very nearly breaks out.His troubles begin when his father sells the zoo and the family and animals load up to sail to Canada. The ship sinks one night in the dark of Pacific. Only, Pi, an orangutan, some flies, a zebra and a few other animals survive long enough to find the boat. From there the book spans several hundred pages recounting the deaths, one by one of the other animals and Pi’s long, slow relationship with the tiger; his mortal enemy and greatest friend.The narrative seems to make perfect sense until he lands in Mexico and the tiger escapes into the jungle. Agents from the shipping line visit him in the hospital and certain inconsistencies appear in the story. Could it be that the murdered orangutan and zebra were really his mother and an injured sailor? Could the tiger be Pi’s own savage will to survive personified? Deeply symbolic, this book will keep you thinking long after you’ve put it down.