Life of Pi is a novel that is sometimes hard to wrap your mind around. The main premise is that a young man, Pi, and his family decide to move to Canada via ship, taking along some animals from the zoo they owned in India. Once aboard, the ship has mechanical trouble and sinks. Pi is tossed into the only successfully launched lifeboat. Unfortunately, the lifeboat is also occupied by part of his family's zoo-a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and Bengal tiger.Although the synopsis makes the title sound like a survival story, it is anything but. Along Pi's journey, you are given clues as to the real meaning but it isn't until the end that you truly understand Pi's struggle.
The challenge with this book is that when you DO get to the end, you realize that you need to reread the entire novel. So much of the book is written with symbolism in mind that determining what really might have happened takes work on the part of the reader.
But even with the extra work, the storytelling from Martel is well worth it.
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