H M. (anchovy) reviewed on + 296 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Several friends and I have decided (based on reading this book particularly) to start up a book discussion group on "books we were supposed to love but we really only like, and not even that much." We want to dissect our experiences with so many of the books that have won awards and got all sorts of critical acclaim and our friends rave about but we just think are so-so.
There are a few shining moments in Pi - I like his religious discussions particularly - but I found it on the whole tedious, and the time aboard the lifeboat a particularly painful slow slog. I repeatedly had to check that I had turned to the correct next page when I finished a page, because there was so little continuity and so much rambling that didn't do anything but make me feel I was stuck on a lifeboat too. I didn't think that the second telling of the story was "life changing", although it was amusing and added dimensions to the first, and it didn't make up for the long time it took me to get there.
If you are bored but you get as far as Pi's boating experiences with Richard Parker, you might as well finish the book just to know what the author is leading up to (skimming in the middle is fine, but do read from chapter 90 to the end), but if you get bored before they sail on the Tsimtsum, don't worry about going on.
There are a few shining moments in Pi - I like his religious discussions particularly - but I found it on the whole tedious, and the time aboard the lifeboat a particularly painful slow slog. I repeatedly had to check that I had turned to the correct next page when I finished a page, because there was so little continuity and so much rambling that didn't do anything but make me feel I was stuck on a lifeboat too. I didn't think that the second telling of the story was "life changing", although it was amusing and added dimensions to the first, and it didn't make up for the long time it took me to get there.
If you are bored but you get as far as Pi's boating experiences with Richard Parker, you might as well finish the book just to know what the author is leading up to (skimming in the middle is fine, but do read from chapter 90 to the end), but if you get bored before they sail on the Tsimtsum, don't worry about going on.
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