Man Booker Prize 2002

Longlist

Buy this book

Life of Pi
Yann Martel

Susan Harper

It is a refreshing surprise to find a novel that mixes the usually discordant schools of zoology and philosophy, especially one that does so successfully.

Life of Pi is unusual in a number of welcome ways. An original take on the shipwreck adventure, Martel's story charts the extraordinary 227 day sea journey of 16-year-old Pi, and the bizarre menagerie of animals that accompanies him on his raft: a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and the formidable Bengal tiger, Richard Parker.

The book is easy and sweet to read - the narrative is fluid and innovative and the descriptions are resonant and simple. The reader experiences a journey upon words as Pi does upon the sea, as the narrative runs playfully, with ebbs of light humour and comic asides. It is as much educational as adventurous, as the reader is informed of useful survival and zoo keeping tricks such as: 'how to ward off sea-faring induced insanity with "I spy"' and 'how to use circus training to stay at the top of the food chain in an inflatable raft'. The story is imaginative yet without froth as religious and zoological digressions are blended with Pi's account of his adventure.

Martel asks interesting questions in his book on the nature of freedom for both caged animals and humans, the growth of religion out of the demise of the primal survival instinct, man's relationship with nature and the finely balanced similarities and differences we have with animals. As a parable, Life of Pi offers its protagonist as having an ideal attitude of curiosity and respect toward life. He is precocious in his knowledge of the instinctive and intellectual sides of human nature. Pi's interests on land foreshadow the challenges he meets at sea. Having developed a profound spirituality, with a three-fold devotion to Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, and having studied the behaviour of animals at his father's zoo, Pi is able to ward off despair and boredom on the raft with his faith and his time-consuming need to continually assert himself as the super-alpha male above Richard Parker.

Martel enjoys playing with narrative and skillfully teases reality with fantasy and fact with fiction. Although the story is presented as a real-life interview, Martel pushes our boundaries of belief with accounts of a visit to a carnivorous island and a chance meeting in the Pacific Ocean with a blind shipwrecked friend.

As the book's realism wanes the story becomes increasingly incredible and frankly strange and we are eventually presented with an alternative, more sinister version of Pi's journey. Yet one is led to choose fantasy over over-rated factuality and agree with the accident investigators who don't believe Pi's yarn: 'The story with the animals is the better story'.