Tolog Review: Life of Pi

Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
reviewed by Natalie Burnham

Have you ever been lost? I have. But following Pi Patel through the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel makes my being lost look pretty wimpy. Piscine, or Pi, is only a young teenager when he leaves India with his family to make for a better life in Canada. Soon enough, however, tragedy strikes when his ship sinks, and he is left on a lifeboat- with only a tiger for company. The book is well written and intense, but, disappointingly, boring, especially in the middle. 

My expectations for this book were pretty high, just because of what I had heard from my parents, my friends, and even teachers. I’m slightly sad to say I got unbelievably bored in this book. It was almost too much information at times. Martel would go into full detail on how to do things, like kill a turtle or a fish, and that would take a few pages. Don’t get me wrong, it was interesting to think of how you would try to accomplish these challenging tasks, too, but it was too much information to me. The majority of the book is spent with just Pi and the tiger, which makes for no dialogue, basically, no real human interaction, no love interest, nothing. The book seemed to drag on to me, and it looked like it was just trying to fill pages. There are times when the book seems more informational than fictional, serving as a how-to survive with tigers on the open sea manual, going into lists of what to do, and how to tame your beast, and all types of survival tips. Although the book was good, I probably would not recommend this to a friend. I was slightly bored throughout almost the entirety of the book, and that’s the main reason I wouldn’t.