The last two weeks have been really hectic. Not only could I not visit my 'regular read' blogs, I could also not put down my impressions of 'The Life of Pi', as I had been intending to do, all this while. Last weekend, I could just manage a post on 'A Rive Sutra'. And since then, I haven't had time to give even a thought to the blogworld. In face it seems a long time since I read it, and by now my impressions of the book have been overshadowed by a myriad things. So, this "review" is going to be rather abstract.
I liked the book, though I did not "love" it [as did the people who suggested this to me ... sorry folks!] One of the reasons is that I am not much into "animal stories" - I prefer to read fiction that is founded in human character, emotions and relationships. Tales of sorrow, tales of triumphs, but that have human interaction. 'The life of Pi', for most part, describes the adventures of Pi in the open seas, when he has no-one for company save a few animals, and how he deals with them. How he manages the tiger was interesting, but the way animals attack each other was rather gory. In fact, the extensive details (of how the hyena eats the zebra alive, and how Pi catches and eats turtles and fishes, etc) were somewhat repulsive to a hard-core vegetarian like me. Then, the adventure in the carnivorous forest was not only difficult to believe, but also didn't seem relevant to the story, in my opinion.
I liked the book, though I did not "love" it [as did the people who suggested this to me ... sorry folks!] One of the reasons is that I am not much into "animal stories" - I prefer to read fiction that is founded in human character, emotions and relationships. Tales of sorrow, tales of triumphs, but that have human interaction. 'The life of Pi', for most part, describes the adventures of Pi in the open seas, when he has no-one for company save a few animals, and how he deals with them. How he manages the tiger was interesting, but the way animals attack each other was rather gory. In fact, the extensive details (of how the hyena eats the zebra alive, and how Pi catches and eats turtles and fishes, etc) were somewhat repulsive to a hard-core vegetarian like me. Then, the adventure in the carnivorous forest was not only difficult to believe, but also didn't seem relevant to the story, in my opinion.
8 comments:
Hmmm Though I have bought this book, after reading your review, I don't think I'll give this a priority.
Me too love fiction of humans rather than animal stories.
I too :-)
hmmm....the incidents remind me of a similar incident, which I was witness to in Andamans....dogs eating goats & on a different note, cows eating clothes & other garments...stay well!
Hmmm..that part never came to me...! However I do recall you mentioning on Ash's blog...that the pic of fishes caught in snare was bit too much for you....and I recall - Suyog's review on this book...( remember the Guy who wrote Phanniyaama...) even he mentioned the gory part...
I found the initial bit very different then others...what do you say..??
Oh yeah...don't worry on your regular read blogs....we are not MOVING...lol...
tk care ~
hope u'll have some time now ;)
Agree that narration of animal fighting is gory. Even I didn't like that section...
I guess that inclusion of the carnivorous forest is puposeful - to make whole Pi's story fictitious. At the end when those people from Japan didn't believe in Pi's version of the story, Pi tells another version which seems completely logical.
Pi narrates a story for 200 pages which is bit far from facts. And in just 2 pages he gives another version. Author gives 2 versions and its user to chose between two :P
@Cuckoo: I have biased you against yet another book! The publishers are going to sue me!!
@Pijush: :-))
@Kalyan: Ouch!
@BTR: I liked the initial chapters too - the introduction part (where the author presents the story as if he heard it from someone), and the part where he describes the habits and nature of wild animals.
I remember Suyog's blog, and I checked out his review on 'Pi' ... he seems to have captured most of what I felt, better than me :-)
And thanks for not moving!! :-D
@Adi: not yet. not yet.
@Prashanth: Hmmm .... that is an interesting observation. Perhaps the whole purpose was to tell the users which version is more entertaining ?
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