Dakota County Library, audioCD, 11.5 hours
read by Jeff Woodman
This was both fascinating and infuriating. What an odd mix of zoology and theology in the guise of a survival adventure. Piscine (Pi) Patel is traveling from India to Canada with his family when their ship sinks. The only human survivor, Pi is on a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutang, and a Bengal tiger.
Least liked: the hyena eating the zebra live, the muddied theology of being a devout Hindu and Christian and Muslim successfully. The ending. Grr! The way Richard Parker was mentioned for many chapters without me having a clue who he was.
Most liked: the beautiful way he uses language! Some of the passages were so striking, I wanted to stop and write them down. I liked the relationship between Pi and Richard Parker. The survival aspects of the story.
I liked the book much more the second time around. I almost wish I owned a print copy . . . and may yet buy one.
- "Fellow students . . . who were in the thrall of reason, that fool's gold for the bright." I had to be parked and hit the back button to listen to this and get the wording right. I love the way he expresses things!
- I made a comment about science vs religion . . . the character is a double-major in those fields and makes some very interesting observations. It apparently bothered me the first time, but I appreciated the insights this time.
- I made a note about the rich detail and beautiful language.
- Pondicherry, India and Toronto, Canada
- Richard Parker . . . fascinating
- Mr. Kumar (atheist teacher) and Mr. Kumar (Muslim baker) - both had a profound impact on young Pi.
- Piscine / pissing / Pi - school kids can be so mean. I love his solution to the name issue!
- seven months at sea! 1977-78
- killing sea turtles - makes me sad.
- Zebra becomes young Chinese sailor with broken leg / hyena and man in other lifeboat becomes cruel French cook who killed a man and a woman and was killed by Richard Parker / the orangutang Orange Juice became Pi's mother / the tiger Richard Parker . . . becomes Pi!
- the ending . . . what's the true story?
- 100 chapters with #99 being the alternate story
4 comments:
How was the narration?
Some blogger I am . . . can't figure out how to respond to Neely directly. The narration was fantastic! The reader had the boy / adult voices, the Indian accent, French accent, etc. He made the story come more alive for me than if I'd read it in print. Very enjoyable!
Thanks Jeanne, I'm gonna download this from Audible and give it a listen!
Happy New Year!
Neely
I found a notecard in my piles of papers from when I read this. If the main narration is simply representative of Patel's life story, then the characters become: Patel = ?, Richard Parker = Patel, the Frenchman = the cook, orangutang = his mom, hyena = ?, and zebra = sailor.
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