Life of Pi - Yann Martel

"Oncoming death is terrible enough, but worse still is oncoming death with time to spare, time in which all the happiness that was yours and all the happiness that might have been yours become clear to you. You see with utter lucidity what you are losing. The sight brings on an oppressive sadness that no car about to hit you or about water to drown you can match. The feeling is truly unbearable."

Yes, this is a story of a castaway. Right, it is also a story about courage. And it is definitely a story about faith. But mostly, it is a story of questioning. That is exactly how I feel at the end of it. The ambivalence of huh plus woah left me with this comforting uncomfortable feeling inside that I can't exactly put my finger on. I reckon it is like attending a philosophy class.

As most of us would have known from the recent blockbuster that this is the story about Pi Patel, an Indian castaway on the Pacific Ocean, and his telling of his story (I have not watched the movie so please, no spoilers). I'll admit I don't know Yann Martel prior to Life of Pi. As a matter of fact, I still only know Life of Pi but I'll probably look out for more Yann Martel's writings now. It's cinematic. Rarely have I read a book and risk myself having wrinkles. It's one thing for me to cry when I read books, it's another thing for me to be so engaged and grimacing at all the details of Pi's life at sea as Martel writes it. Yet, I don't find myself getting annoyed as my previous record shows that I have really weak tolerance to too much details in stories. This book is a right balance, enough for you to engage and visualise Pi's life but not too much that it wants to make you skip till the end.

I initially expected the book to be about faith, particularly religious faith. Not sure where the vague idea came from haha. I must say though, the portions that describe his spiritual journey was lovely to read. Especially this quote which I felt close to heart; "They brought me comfort, that is certain. But it was hard, oh, it was hard. Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love - but sometimes it was so hard to love". Profound.

Much of the beginning of the book was to set a context and give an idea who Pi Patel is. I think this was to preclude the differences that occur as he adventure in to the Pacific unwillingly. I'm not really sure if this is a memoir or a fiction, because it seems to be a combination of both. Either way, the second-half of the book definitely felt more fiction. I like how the book brings out the concept of necessity in human survival and even thriving. That sometimes humans would only do things when we need to as opposed to when we have to, want to or should do. It really begs the question of how many people would do anything in Life because they are motivated by an unconscious need. In Pi's case, the need was as obvious as the water of the Pacific Ocean.

The ending of the book has to be the best. Next to Teacher Man and If You Could See Me Now. I did not really fancy it at first because it was pretty abrupt? It seems like the flow came to a halt. Like there are all those chapters before and then *screeeeccchhhh!*, one last chapter for everything that happened in the chapters before. Though to be fair, the conclusion was still amazing because it wraps up the theme of the story, the theme of questioning. As I read it, I felt like the two Japanese interrogators, fumbling in believing, 'reality' and everything in between. I still don't know which story to believe in, read the book to find out which two stories. But I think that's the key of the book. That it is not about one, two, three or a hundred stories. It is that everything is a story, and everything is what you believe. Very phenomenological view of reality, something I tend to subscribe to.

All in all, I think this is a great read. It's easy to read, yet captivating. And the amount of profound quotes is just lovely. Another aspect of the book that I really like is how it has these paragraphs of wonderful details that really describe the context it intends to describe with such vividness and with great lessons; yet, it can't be paraphrased into a two-liner to be posted on FB. Haha. The continuity is amazing.

Oh, and it was just GBP2.99 on Amazon UK. *SCORE!*

 (Image source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P2BPKGcQL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg Sorry couldn't find a better one)

"To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation"