Helpful Score: 35
This book is genius.
The beginning is a bit dry--about the first 80 pages were hard for me to get through (I wanted the TIGER! Bring on the TIGER!) but once the story got moving it was a beautiful, fascinating book. One of the best endings of all time, IMO. And you can go back and read the beginning once you've finished the book, and have a much better appreciation for it.
I highly recommend this book; it well deserved the Booker Prize.
The beginning is a bit dry--about the first 80 pages were hard for me to get through (I wanted the TIGER! Bring on the TIGER!) but once the story got moving it was a beautiful, fascinating book. One of the best endings of all time, IMO. And you can go back and read the beginning once you've finished the book, and have a much better appreciation for it.
I highly recommend this book; it well deserved the Booker Prize.
Helpful Score: 31
This is a fascinating book. There is so much fact in it that I kept checking that it was actually fiction.
Within the book is a treatise on the benefits of zoos and how, if they are created and maintained properly they are the best possible environment for the animals involved.
There is a discussion on comparative religions â Muslim, Hindu and Christianity. The main character gets involved and practices all three. He describes how they all benefit him in different ways.
Then there is the main part of the book â how to survive in a lifeboat at sea for seven months â especially if you are sharing the boat with a Bengal tiger. So there's a short treatise on how to train a tiger â how to let him know you are the alpha male and therefore he is not to dominate (aka eat) you.
Much of the book is matter of fact, and it is all beautifully written.
I HIGHLY recommend it.
Within the book is a treatise on the benefits of zoos and how, if they are created and maintained properly they are the best possible environment for the animals involved.
There is a discussion on comparative religions â Muslim, Hindu and Christianity. The main character gets involved and practices all three. He describes how they all benefit him in different ways.
Then there is the main part of the book â how to survive in a lifeboat at sea for seven months â especially if you are sharing the boat with a Bengal tiger. So there's a short treatise on how to train a tiger â how to let him know you are the alpha male and therefore he is not to dominate (aka eat) you.
Much of the book is matter of fact, and it is all beautifully written.
I HIGHLY recommend it.
Helpful Score: 27
I did not finish the book, I think the writing is excellent and the story compelling but for all animal lovers,reading the details of zoo animals being eaten alivel and Zebra's flesh being torn off as the Zebra lay in misery still alive. If I had know the book had this vivid discriptions of animals being butchered and tortured I would not have ordered it. Maybe after the Zebra incident the book's detail on animal torture ends I don't know becasue I couldn't risk having to read more about these beautiful animals being slaughtered. If you are the kind of person who gets squimish when animals are brutally sacrificed for the sake of the story don't read this. I only wish someone had told me that.
Helpful Score: 21
You have to start out reading this book with no expectations. It is completely unrealistic of course in the beginning, but when that is behind you, it is a surprisingly good story of survival and the close bond between man and creatures. And the end leaves you thinking for quite some time.
Helpful Score: 17
Absolutely amazing. The best book I read in 2004 hands down. About a boy ,Pi Patel, who unfortunately finds himself stuck on a float with some interesting zoo animals, and his survival among these beasts. It left me thinking long after I was finished reading. It is so much more than meets the eye. This is one of my keepers. Rated 5/5
