The Web Site of Krzysztof Gajos

"Life of Pi"

This book is about a Story, and the Story is about an Indian boy named Piscine Molitor Patel but "known to all as Pi Patel". The Story is as incredible as it is convincing: it tells us of a sixteen year old boy, who survives 227 days in a life boat in the sole company of a Bengal tiger drifting across the Pacific Ocean. But this Story is more than just "The Young Boy, A Tiger, And The Sea."

It is Pi himself, who narrates the Story, and he begins by telling us of the times, early in the history of Indian independence, when his family became the owners of the zoo in the town of Pondicherry. The unusual upbringing in the company of animals from all over the world, gives Pi a deep, even if unorthodox, insight into the feelings of the zoo animals and their needs, happiness and notions of freedom. The originality of his thinking is not confined to the zoo animals, however, and he proceeds to tell us how he ended up becoming a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim, all at the same time. But the heart of the Story begins later.

The real Story begins when Pi's family, frustrated by Indian politics, decides to sell the zoo and emigrate to Canada. Pi is 16 years old when his family boards a Japanese cargo ship headed for the cold and unfamiliar North American country. A fair number of the zoo animals end up on the same ship, on their way to zoos throughout the United States. When the ship sinks, only Pi, a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, an orang-utan and a Bengal tiger manage to avoid drowning by boarding a life boat. The rest of the Story is about the ingenuity and the resolve that allow Pi to land safely at the shores of Mexico more than seven months later.

This is a beautiful piece of prose and it should be read by everybody, especially those, who upon reading the first few pages of the book reach for a phone book to look for Mr. Piscine Molitor Patel to congratulate him on his survival and to and to ask if this really is his story.