yann martel has to be one of the greatest authors alive. he brings the characters to life and makes you feel as if you are pi on that boat with the carnivourous tiger. the end was the truly amazing part

In this inspired novel Yann Martel blends story and craft with a mastery that leaves readers glowing in the ineffable consciousness only genuine art can induce.

I was skeptical going into this book....how much could one write regarding a tiger and a boy on a boat. Was I wrong! Yann Martel is an amazing wordsmith with an outstanding ability to combine wit and philosophy to give his readers a deep message in a lighthearted way. This is a must read! It's fast, easy yet deep and meaningful. It may just change your life!

Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, a Tamil boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

It is the most interesting book that I have come across.

Life of Pi: a book about a boy named Piscine Molitor Patel and his life, including the important events of losing his family through a shipwreck and surviving through persistency on a boat with a Bengal tiger. It is a powerful book of struggle, survival, and finding the truth in oneself; it is an excellent read for all.
The survival on the boat itself is strong and exciting enough to draw attention and make a good book, so the long part one is intriguing, but a further examination shows us why the author, Yann Martel, chose to include the whole youth of Pi. His name’s backstory, his religious beliefs, his interest in animals, it all fits well together to make up the person who Pi is. On the boat, Pi needs his religious beliefs and his knowledge of animals to survive, and his name’s backstory only further increases the irony of the situation, as he is trapped on a boat, surrounded by water, and he is named after a swimming pool. Moreover, his ability to balance out all three religions is very impressive and deep, adding to his cleverness, hinting that he really was able to think of the smart tricks to tame the tiger, as well as his thoughtfulness as to go through every conceivable plan in his mind possible before actually acting. Pi even managed to weave a story similar to his real story, but horrible in such a way that the reporters could only choose his real story because they liked it more. It is because of Pi Patel’s ingenuity that he is likable; he is similar to a hero, perhaps say, Odysseus, except he actually learns on his journey, which only extends upon his already-vulnerability to the tiger, and contributes to the fact that he is only human, he is not perfect. His vulnerability makes him more closely related to us, as we face similar obstacles in life as he does—only symbolically instead of real tigers and boats. It is as a result of the way he persists through and never gives up that provides us with a solid, likable character.
However, Life of Pi is not a book without flaws. Its ending is very ambiguous, and the readers are left mourning over Pi’s poor parents. Furthermore, Pi has displayed a sense of untrustworthiness to his personality, throughout his talking to Richard Parker, and throughout his weaving of the horrid, cruel story, it seems likely that Pi could have made up his original story in the first place, and his horrid story is true, only to be replaced by his animal story so it doesn’t sound so terrible. Nevertheless, even with lots of mysterious unanswered questions, Life of Pi still stands strong with a good character and a solid plot. I give the book a 9 out of 10.

this is what i have written for school.............
Pi Patel is 16 when his family decides to move from India to Canada. His father, a zookeeper, sells some of the animals, and the rest go with the family. Through out this entire novel Pi is experimenting how to best display his devotion to God, by practicing, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.
When the ship they were aboard suddenly sinks along the way to Canda, Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger. Pi appears to be the only human survivor of this wreck. The hyena eats both the zebra and the orangutan, and the Bengal tiger finishes off the hyena. The only way Pi survives is by using his knowledge of animals, to show “Richard Parker” who is boss.
Throughout this ordeal in the lifeboat, Pi still prays to God, and while God is never a set character, it is obvious that He plays a big part in what happens to Pi. When Pi is finally rescued after surviving 200 plus days on a lifeboat on the Pacific, he is interviewed. The interviewers are closed-minded and can’t believe the animal version of the story. When Pi tells the more conventional story with humans, it is still evident that the certain “human” characters have similar personalities and seem to symbolize the animals Pi originally talked about. Whichever story is true it is still amazing to have survived so long, and this book is about Pi’s love of life, and Pi’s God.

I loved the story from the get go and was unable to put it down. I couldn't ascertain the meaning of the story at all on my own and asked around among my more literate friends.l They all were at the same impasse. We are not a dumb group but we were truly stumped. The story is too bizarre not to have an alternate meaning yet we couldn't figure it out, especially the part about the crazy meerkats and the aciditic, and man eating island. I enjoyed reading everyone elses comments and am still forming my own opinions about the symbolism and philisophical meaning in the book. overall I recommend this beautifully written fable and I enjoyed Yann Martel's lyrical writing style.