This book opens with the declaration that it will make you believe in God. [Or something like that. Rebecca picked it up and when she reads a book, she gets really into it so I'm not going to bother looking up quotes or anything.]
Everyone I know has read this book and enjoyed it. We finally got it from the library and while Rebecca was out of town, I read the whole book. Couldn't put it down.
My worst fear is of swimming in the deep ocean. I can't handle the thought of not knowing what is underneath me. I can barely swim in lakes. Once I went to Lake Powell and saw a big turtle swimming right under me. I freaked.
Life of Pi is an abstract book. There's no surprises here, but just poignant reflection afterwards. It's not like I would spoil the plot by saying that Pi Patel spends most of the book in a life boat with a bengal tiger in the middle of the ocean, but this book does an amazing job of showing the absolute danger he is in. Being a zoo goer, my perceptions of the docility of zoo animals were shattered.
But here's the catch. On his 227 day trip, amazing things happen. Surviving a bengal tiger is only one of them. But then, at the end of the book, you have a question given to you: is this story real, or fake? Better put...which one would you rather believe in?
I've often thought about this as a viable explanation for people who don't believe in a Higher Power. Faith is the sort of thing that you believe in something fantastic. But in order for faith to grow, it has to go beyond this point of simply "believing in order to know." But this book (is it a biography?) isn't addressing that question. It's a simple tale/parable about how we come to approach God. The more I think about this book, the more I reflect on my own weaknesses with faith. It's quite good.
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