Tina's Review: Life of Pi

by Yann Martel

I loved this book. It's a wonderful story of survival in adversity where the irony is that the very thing that seemed the biggest threat to his life actually saved his life.

When his family decides to move from India to Canada and their ship sinks, Pi Patel is the lone human survivor, making it to the lifeboat with a few animals from his father's zoo, which were being shipped to other zoos in America. Following survival of the fittest, only one animal remains and Pi has to learn ways to maintain the alpha position in order to keep from becoming prey. This prevents him from breaking down mentally to the point of losing hope, which would certainly lead to a steep decline towards eventual death.

Faith is an underlying theme in the book. Though Pi has a strong belief in God, he hasn't settled on any one faith. He follows the teachings of Gandhi who claims "All religions are true" and when pressured to choose one, states his only desire is to love God so why should he follow only one faith? Perhaps this helped him hold on to the belief that he would eventually be saved.

The author's note at the beginning of the book suggests that this is a story to make one believe in God. I'm not sure of that but it certainly could motivate one to study various faiths and have a more open mind perhaps becoming less judgemental of others.

I have to admit I initially believed this was based on a true story (just call me naive) but I have since learned that it is indeed fiction loosely based on a book by Moacyr Scliar.(Essay: How I wrote The Life of Pi by Yann Martel). Though it's somewhat disappointing, it doesn't change how the story moved me.

Tina's Review: One More Year

written by Sana Krasikov

This is a book of short stories. I found it most incredible how well I, as the reader, was able to get to know and understand the characters in each of them in such a short length of time. The writer masterfully reveals characteristics in the fewest possible words. I found the stories held my attention quite well, making me want to keep reading.

Unfortunately, they didn't make me feel ... happy, but rather depressed. This was somewhat disappointing. I get the impression from the sadness in these stories that the writer, too, has had a sad and painful life or seen pain in other people's lives. I'm not saying I don't ever like reading sad stories. In fact, after a bad day, reading about something sad can help me feel I'm not the only one; someone else out there understands. But when books and movies are an escape from reality, especially necessary when life and reality become difficult or painful, I look for something uplifting. This book would not provide that. Nor are the stories like anything I could relate to. Each involves an immigrant struggling or having struggled to succeed.

Having said that, these stories reveal a very real truth about the difficulty immigrants face. They make the decision to leave their home country, generally a 3rd world nation, often leaving loved ones behind, in hopes of finding success and a better future. It is only in learning of the many people experiencing these hardships that we become more sympathetic to others and learn to appreciate how fortunate we are to have been born, raised and lived in a country so many dream to immigrate to. It is their hopes and dreams that drive them to continue despite all the trials and odds against their success.