To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.
– Pi Patel on agnostics.
I started reading this books a couple of years back, but for some reason or another (probably school and the presence of other fun novels I just had to read) I never finished it. Picked up a copy the last time I stepped by Barnes&Noble and the last two days have been devoted to the story of the religious Piscine Molitor Patel, known as Pi to avoid the unfortunate slip of tongue that turns Piscine into Pissing and ordinary children into vicious bullies. As the son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry, India, Pi lives a life most children would envy, but that all comes to an abrupt end when he is the victim of a shipwreck. The accident leaves him, an orangoutang, a hyena, a zebra and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker the soul survivors in a small life boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
“Just beyond the ticket booth Father had painted on a wall in bright red letters the question: DO YOU KNOW WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a small curtain. There were so many eager, curious hands that pulled at the curtain that we had to replace it regularly. Behind it was a mirror.”
The novel itself does not devote a lot of time to the whole aspect of survival, the main themes of this fascinating story (“that will make you believe in God”) are spirituality, religion and animal psychology. An obligatory addition to your average “must read”-list.
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åh. verdens fineste bok. i høst bodde jeg to måneder i Pondicherry, faktisk! det var helt fantastisk å gå rundt i en by som jeg allerede har lest så mye om – og besøke tempelet, moskeen og kirken som betyr så mye for pi. ah. jeg tror jeg må lese den omigjen nå – så jeg får enda mer følelsen av å være pi.
for min del handler forresten boken mest om fortellerkunst. forfatteren får så utrolig mye ut av så lite. for en fantastisk bok.
Miriam: envy you, alt jeg vil er å dra til India. Har stått øverst på listen i ganske mange år nå etterhvert som jeg har lest mer og mer indisk-relatert litteratur (white tiger, slumdog millionaire, shantaram, life of pi ++).