Life of PI

I read it for the same reasons you did (critics recommended it...so enlightening...blah blah blah) I HATED it and ended up skimming through parts of it (some of the sections were a bit tedious) I DID like how it all tied together at the end. And I will admit that I think about that part occasionally. It's a good book to read for a book discussion group. With all the religion and psychological sub-plots, there's plenty to talk about. But overall, I think it's over-rated.

maybe i am not smart enough, but i was expecting all of the religions to play out in the end and have some internal conflict. I didnt really see where the religions and the ending were even related.

I don't think the religions and the ending were related. The ending was just a psychological twist.... About how he took horrible horrible events and twisted them around in his mind so that he could deal with it. However, I thought the religion stuff was kind of goofy. I don't see how a person can sincerely PRACTICE all the different religions at the same time. I KNOW about the various beliefs of different religions, but the only one I practice is Christianity. Otherwise, there's too much conflict. (I hope that I'm making sense).

you are making perfect sense. the book was way overrated. i give it a thumbs down, but i cant help thinking about the ending. IF he was smart enough to comprehend and practice three different religions, then he could be smart enough to make up the version with the people simply to satisfy the japanese investigators. any thoughts on the man eating island?

http://www.chicklit.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=...

interesting book club thread if you are interested.

The thing about some books is that there are many that I don't like, but I will I find myself thinking about them later on. For example, "The Lovely Bones". I did not like that story, but I have found myself thinking about it at times. So---if a book is memorable does that make it 'good'? And other books that I have found entertaining, (The Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich) I forgot the story lines shortly after. So, I don't know....I guess it's good to just read a variety.

I found that in book clubs, it is good to read more "controversial" books like "The Life of Pi" or "The Lovely Bones" because then there is more to talk about. Discussion about something like a John Grisham book would die out quickly.

I liked the book.  A friend who saw Yan Martel speak about this book pointed out to me how Martel made the story more unbelievable as the book when on to mimic faith, and to see what happens when reason and faith collide.  At what point did you stop believing?  or did you have faith in the story tellers accuracy the entire time.  I thought it was a good read

I thought it was some new kind of transition....I thought it said Life of P1