Life of Pie by Yaan Martel

"For the love you bring wont mean a thing unless you sing, sing sing sing!" - Travis


The first time I heard about Yaan Martel was in English 11 when his novel Life of Pie was one of my reading options; I didn't choose it. But last year, his name was in the papers because he vowed to send Stephen Harper a book every two weeks as a response to how the Prime Minister cut funding to the arts in Canada. You can read the letters he sends with each book online and so I did; I loved the way he wrote and so I finally picked up a copy of Life of Pie and loved it like fireworks.

It's a fairly quick read even though the book looks a little chubby. Martel introduces the protagonist, Pi, as an Indian boy who is the child of a zookeeper and a bit confused about what he believes. Pi becomes stranded on a lifeboat with animals as company, and he narrates what the months are like as they pass.

It's an interesting plot, because it's really a book about hardly any action - the boy sits and the animals sit and the sun shines - but it's so easy to engage in. Plus, it's had one of the better endings I've read in a book lately, and if you read it you'll understand why.

http://wwwh.whatisstephenharperreading.ca
Life of Pi at Chapters.ca