I can well imagine an atheist’s last words: “White, white! L-L-Love! My God!” – and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, “Possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain,” and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story.
Yet another book that had been patiently waiting on my list and that was eventually given to me by my good friend Indira before she moved back to Brazil from Rome. “Life of Pi” is not my usual cup of tea, but being a raving lunatic of a “Lost” fan, let’s say the survival genre has begun to intrigue me a bit…
Pi comes from an Indian family with a zookeeper for a father, and therefore grows up speaking and interacting with, taking care of, and learning about and understanding all of the different animals in the zoo. Growing up Indian, his family and community expect Pi to follow their family religion, but torn between the romance of three very distinct and diverse religions, Pi questions why we must choose just one, and from then on practices as a devout Hindu, Muslim, and Christian. Once news breaks that Pi’s family will move to Canada where his father will open a zoo, they sell the animals and ready the ones they plan to take with them as they pack up their lives to take the far-flung journey by ship across the vast Pacific.
“Bapu Gandhi said, ‘All religions are true.’ I just want to love God,” I blurted out…
Shipwreck. Pi finds himself thrown overboard into a lifeboat with minimal supplies as the ship begins to sink only to find that he’s not alone, but joined by a zebra with a broken leg. Seconds later a hyena crashes into the boat in a last attempt at survival leaving Pi amongst a predator and its prey, and as Pi watches the ship in its tragedy sink to the bottom of the Pacific taking along with it his hopes and dreams of a new life in Canada, he notices the zoo’s pride, a Bengal tiger dubbed ‘Richard Parker’, swimming towards the boat. Pi helps save the beast as well as a female orangutang floating by on a heap of bananas, and so 3 become 5: an orphaned Indian boy, a zebra with a broken leg, a hyena, an orangutang, and a Bengal tiger, all on one lifeboat. And so the real story begins as Pi struggles to tame the wild Pacific as well as his travel companions on his journey towards survival.
I had to stop hoping so much that a ship would rescue me. I should not count on outside help. Survival had to start with me. In my experience, a castaway’s worst mistake is to hope too much and do too little. Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away.
“Life of Pi” was a pleasant surprise for me, and a total page-turner. I found myself eagerly awaiting my train rides so I could lose myself in the adventure, constantly making and using my spare time reading and utterly unable to put the book down. A story of endurance, hope, survival, religion, mortality, self-realization and spirituality, “Life of Pi” and its epic narration will leave you with your jaw to the floor down to, and especially during the very last few pages.
After recently finding out that “Life of Pi” is to become a movie, I’d highly recommend reading the novel first – it’s all about the adventure, and in my experience the book always tells a better story.
I was giving up. I would have given up – if a voice hadn’t made itself heard in my heart. The voice said, “I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen every day. I will put in all the hard work necessary. Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen.”
ohhhhhdanielle 