The movie trailer deceived me. The image of a boy and a tiger on a boat evoked Calvin and Hobbes. The book is most certainly not that. A ship transporting a zoo sinks in the Pacific. Amongst the survivors are the boy and the tiger. Their time together is horrifying tale of survival.
Or is it? The book is known for its philosophy. Which, I think, is loosely that if two different stories fit the facts, then choose the story that inspires you the most.
I disagree with that philosophy. Of course I am a pragmatic realist. This does not diminish the book. It’s wonderful writing. It’s a testament to the author that one can disagree with the book, without rejecting it.
There is another way to interpret the book. That the boy was trapped on a life boat with a cannibal. After being rescued, rather than face those horrors, he tells a story of being trapped on the boat with a tiger.
Saturday, August 8, 2026
The Life of Pi
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2 comments:
"The Life of Pi" is one of my most favourite books! The movie was good too -- so beautifully shot -- but in my opinion, the film kind of fudged the full horror of what actually happened on the lifeboat. Pi prefers the "animals fable" version of the story, not for any reasons of inspiration, but out of psychological and emotional need to mask the horrifying truth from himself. Pi is Richard Parker. He is the cannibal. The anthropomorphic animals fable is a distancing technique so he can live with himself later in his continuing life.
I just finished reading Yann Martel's new novel "Son of Nobody." It looks at the Trojan War as the classic Homeric myth and at the narrator's own personal "Trojan War" of marital breakdown. I enjoyed it -- an interesting and entertaining reflection on the devastation of both kinds of war.
I will put “Son of Nobody “ on my list!
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