danburn's review against another edition
2.0
The Life of Pi (by Yann Martel) was a bit of an odd one. I'm not sure I liked it. I've heard nothing but rave reviews for it, and it was the Man Booker Prize winner for 2002, but either I missed the point, or the point it was making was a bit simple and twee. A bit more reading about it showed that I hadn't missed much, point-wise; it just seems that the themes of the book had a lot more resonance for other people then for me. I think any story that sets itself up in the first chapter by saying "I have a story that will make you believe in God" is always going to annoy me a bit.
julietwanders's review against another edition
2.0
i have a myriad of issues with this book. i find it deeply problematic that a white person wrote this book with the casual references to the good christianity has done for india, the initial thought that “bamboozle” described india as a whole, and onward. i think martel does a few good critiques of capitalism and has beautiful imagery at some point. but in a book about identity and finding one’s story - questioning what we believe and what we see - a white man should not be telling the story of a colonialized land. not to mention his discussion of religion and storytelling - and whatever other points he tried making - ultimately just don’t line up for me.
but my suggestion is to not read it for all the reasons that i usually don’t like books - not considering authorship and authorial issues - it’s boring. he floats for 227 days and it felt like it took me that long to read it. beautiful language is only magical if it takes you somewhere other than sleep. and he ends on cheap dialogue that offsets the rare beauty other times found...
just pass. all around. pass.
but my suggestion is to not read it for all the reasons that i usually don’t like books - not considering authorship and authorial issues - it’s boring. he floats for 227 days and it felt like it took me that long to read it. beautiful language is only magical if it takes you somewhere other than sleep. and he ends on cheap dialogue that offsets the rare beauty other times found...
just pass. all around. pass.
2shadowsdeep's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Cannibalism, and Death
Moderate: Death of parent
ch103xoxo's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
abbyallen444's review against another edition
4.0
so i read this for my honors english 9 class. i think it was pretty good, it had beautiful writing, the most in detail descriptions of things, some good some bad. pi said in the beginning that it would be a story to make you believe in god, it did not but whatever. i loved the writing and i liked the exciting adventure he went on and i think that’s enough for 4 starts.
what i really want to talk about is the ending. it was probably the best ending to a book i’ve read in a long while. like my good friend kaylee said, the idea of choosing the story you want to tell. you can make it light hearted and fun or you can tell the complete truth which isn’t always the nicest thing. here’s an example:
a couple months ago i got into a skateboarding accident. it was at night and me and my friends were goofing around and i had a bad crash and scraped my knees and fucked my hip up.
or
a couple months ago me and my friends were walking our other friend home, he was sitting on the skateboard and i was pushing him but i pushed myself a little far and i slipped on a rock and fell forward. i scraped my knees and fucked my hip up.
both of those story’s started and ended the same. one just sounds a little more heroic and not stupid. obviously the second one was the true one but i’d want people to tell the first one. i like the first one.
life is just one big story and you get to choose how you want to tell it.
what i really want to talk about is the ending. it was probably the best ending to a book i’ve read in a long while. like my good friend kaylee said, the idea of choosing the story you want to tell. you can make it light hearted and fun or you can tell the complete truth which isn’t always the nicest thing. here’s an example:
a couple months ago i got into a skateboarding accident. it was at night and me and my friends were goofing around and i had a bad crash and scraped my knees and fucked my hip up.
or
a couple months ago me and my friends were walking our other friend home, he was sitting on the skateboard and i was pushing him but i pushed myself a little far and i slipped on a rock and fell forward. i scraped my knees and fucked my hip up.
both of those story’s started and ended the same. one just sounds a little more heroic and not stupid. obviously the second one was the true one but i’d want people to tell the first one. i like the first one.
life is just one big story and you get to choose how you want to tell it.
nonsensetwice's review against another edition
3.0
This book had its moment. Over all, I liked it. The style has a witty, clipped feel to it that I rather enjoyed, and that carried me through parts of the book where I otherwise would have put it down and never picked it back up again. Such is the way of style, though. Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell was very similar in that her sharp wit carried me through much of that book as well. Style aside, Life of Pi wasn’t particularly fun, but it was pretty good. I’ll leave it at between three and four stars.
rhodesrt's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75