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Wow, that was an amazing book. It wasn't how I imagined it would be after reading the first chapters. It started out digressing all over the place to discuss religion and philisophy, and I thought the whole book would pootle along very slowly like that. Then bang, the ship sinks and from then on I couldn't put the book down!

What did everyone think of Life of Pi? It was very gruesome in parts, do you think this was done gratuitously or do you think it enriched the story? Do you think Pi was right to try and tame Richard Parker? What would you have done in Pi's place?

What about the ending - which was the "true" story, or does it even matter? Personally, I wish the second story hadn't been included, as I wanted to keep the magic of the original, and was quite disappointed when a second, more realistic explanation was given for Pi's survival.

What of Pi's religious beliefs - do you think it's possible to have more than one religion? How do you thin Pi's spirituality was revealed in the way he lived while shipwrecked?

We should be able to get a pretty good discussion going from such an unusual and thought-provoking book!

Hi Sophia - I've finished.

I loved this book. I agree with Pi about his spirituality - I am a Christian but there are so many overlaps with other religions, I can see how it is very easy to subscribe to them all.

I actually thought the original story was much more plausible, and the second one was much more gruesome. Animals need to kill each other to survive, I don't think that the people here were at that stage yet.

I think Pi had to tame Richard Parker or he would have been eaten alive. And the way it is described is again, completely realistic.

I thought this book was great - everyone should read it!

I know the second story was probably the "true" one, and this was as much a story about stories and parables as anything else. I guess Pi was a young boy who found it hard to come to terms with the death of his mother in such a horrific way, so he made up a story about the people in the lifeboat and turned all the people into animals (his mother would have been the orang-utan).

That's one of the things I liked best about this book, you could read it in lots of different ways depending on what you wanted to get out of it.

Just finished re-reading this and it's funny, even though I knew the main story wasn't the real one I was still imagining the animals not thinking about them as people.
I thought this thread had some interesting ideas on the island

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/8...

That thread is very interesting. I like the idea that the island symbolises Pi's madness, and seems at first to provide a safe place for him to retreat to, but is actually going to kill him if he stays there (the plants are lethal in the darkness). Fascinating stuff.

It's a good theory isn't it? I must admit I'd forgotten about the island, I think perhaps I didn't get it the first time I read it.

I started it today, on page 100 now, which in my edition means I'm about to start chapter 37, and am therefore already in part 2.

I loved the first part about the zoo, religion and everything, different from what I thought it would be, but very interesting in any case.

I finished it this evening and I thought it was really rather awesome.
I still need to mull it over for a while though.

but for now: I choose to believe that Pi's first version of the story is the one that actually happened.
I became really very fond of Richard Parker and their relationship and how they kept each other alive and (relatively) sane.

but I like that it makes you think and wonder and that in the end it isn't definite.

I'll definitely be reading this one again at some point.

morgaine_cat wrote: "I finished it this evening and I thought it was really rather awesome.
I still need to mull it over for a while though.

but for now: I choose to believe that Pi's first version of the story is the..."

I agree it's definitely one to read again, especially once you know the alternative ending. It makes you want to go back and see if there were any clues to that version beforehand. I also really enjoyed the first section and actually felt like I was learning quite a lot of sensible things about animal behaviour.

I've just finished. What an absolutely fantastic book, I think this one is going to stay with me for a while. I'll need to read it again at some point to clarify my thoughts.

I really do want to believe in the first story, but I'm thinking that the 2nd gory, terrible story must be the true one and that Pi had to imaginatively invent an alternative world, in order to escape his savage reality. I've decided I'm going to believe that the island of meercats was part truth with a bit of madness and paranoia thrown in. I think he did land on the island ... and ate a lot of meercats.

Life of Pi has really made me think, and especially about how much animal behaviour is mirrored in humans. I could apply much of what Pi explained about the zoo animals to the psychology of my workplace, for example - the bit about pecking order and intimidation especially. I definitely need to re-read it all to get the most out of it.

There's something I sort of remember near the beginning of the book, about how being agnostic would be worse than being an atheist? I think the main point of the story is to prove that you need to make a choice in what you believe, however far-fetched the choices are. Are we more fulfilled if we choose the more creative, happier option? This encourages the reader to make a definite choice about what actually happened to Pi.

I still feel like I'm sitting on the fence here a bit with what I believe and what I want to believe ...

I think the main point of the story is to prove that you need to make a choice in what you believe, however far-fetched the choices are. Are we more fulfilled if we choose the more creative, happier option? This encourages the reader to make a definite choice about what actually happened to Pi...."

I love this explantion. It doesn't actually matter what's true and what's not, it's all about how belief can make your life better.

What was with the 100 chapters? He even pointed it out.

Fact: Piscine spent 227 days at sea - Pi is 22 divided by 7.


P.S. I choose to believe the main story. I don't believe that he would have left his mother to face the Chef by herself - I don't think that it fits with his character. I do think that it might have been a mix of the 2 stories and that the island might have been a figment of his imagination.

Kirsty wrote: "What was with the 100 chapters? He even pointed it out.

Fact: Piscine spent 227 days at sea - Pi is 22 divided by 7.



could 100 be an important number, religiously speaking?

and sorry to contradict you, but pi is not 22 divided by 7.
I read this and thought that was really neat, but I know that pi is 3,14159 and 22/7 turns out to be 3,14285.
so then I looked on wikipedia and there it says:

'Ï€ is an irrational number, which means that it cannot be expressed as a ratio of two integers (such as 22/7)'

it goes on to say that π is a 'transcendental number'. I don't know a lot about mathematics, nor about theology, but that might be significant, mightn't it.
my thoughts are these: Pi himself rises above other peoples perceptions of faith by adopting christianity and islam in addition to already being a practising hindu, and he also survives this incredible ordeal, surpassing what anyone would think possible. so he himself transcends things.
I don't know, it's just something that shot through my head, might be complete rubbish.

did you read that they are making a film out of it? ang lee is directing and it's supposed to come out in december 2012. I'm not sure I approve.

I would love to see the film, just out of sheer curiousity at how they approach it. Interesting, yep quite looking forward to that. I'm not really familiar with anything Ang Lee has directed, no idea if he is a good choice.

a film - I'm always interested in seeing how well a book is adapted.

I got those 2 things from a book for book groups - I think it meant as an approximation that's why Pi day is 22/7

I've seen quite a few of his films: sense and sensibility, crouching tiger, hidden dragon, hulk, brokeback mountain and taking woodstock. he makes beautiful films.

as grace (from will and grace) puts it, when she tells will she had a sex-dream about ang lee and he asks her what that was like: 'a little slow-paced, but visually stunning.' ;)

which will perfect for the story really, but I'm just worried how much they are going to butcher it to get it contained enough for a script.

Kirsty wrote: "a film - I'm always interested in seeing how well a book is adapted.

I got those 2 things from a book for book groups - I think it meant as an approximation that's why Pi day is 22/7"

"There are many coincidental things between Pi (Piscine) and pi (math related) in the novel. The number 227 represents two things. The number of day’s Pi was stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the earliest estimate of the exact value of Pi which was 22/7. However, there may be an intended significance to all of these coincidences. The exact value of pie is 3.141592654, the value has an infinite number of decimal places which does not allow pi to have a precise value. This is also similar to Pi in the novel, his adventure in the lifeboat with Richard Parker appeared to be infinite and his whole future seemed very uncertain out at sea. "



I think that Yann Martel made Pi's journey 227 days as a reference to the approximation of Pi - it's too much of a coincidence otherwise.

so who's celebrating with me? lol

I'm also away to look up other interesting little facts about the book:)

Has anyone been to see the film yet? I really want to see it, wondering how true to the book it was?

haven't seen it yet No but want to! Haven't read the book either, so will have to do that too. Trailer looks good

Got to see the film a few days ago, it's wonderful! So impressed with the visuals. It kept very close to the book too, there was just one little bit of romance that Pi has with a dancing girl in Pondicherri that I didn't remember being in the book ... everything else was the same. I thought the story would be unfilmable! Amazed that they managed to pull it off and in such a beautiful way. Even the meerkat island was exactly how I imagined it would be.

Go see it!