In Life of Pi by Yann Martel, a 16 year old Indian boy, Pi, son of a zookeeper, becomes stranded on a life boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after the cargo ship taking him to his new home sinks. He is completely alone, except for an orangutan, a wounded zebra, a hyena and an adult Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. A story of survival, where truth collides with reality and the coexisting relationship between man and beast is examined, Martell creates a world of vivid imagery, of smells and salts and heat and pain.
I read through this book not quite sure of the plot, as the dust jacket revealed little more information than what I have already mentioned. I was pleasantly surprised as I kept reading, and the book grew on me the further I went on.
People who have read Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea will definitely find some similarities to this book. However, stuck between descriptions of the ocean and of Pi's struggle to stay alive in the presence of a tiger, Martel sneaks in religious anecdotes, teachings, thoughts and philosophies. The book begins as Pi, who's real name is Piscine (French for pool) gives a retrospective look on his life and how became what he is- a student at the University of Toronto, studying animals and religion.
The book is beautifully written....and a little too beautiful, because before I was introduced to the history of the name Pi, I was still wondering whether the protagonist is a boy or a girl. A lot of attention is paid to the scenery and the reader basks in the details of Indian life- in some ways, the book also reminded me of The Kite Runner. I don't know if there was anything about Pi that I could relate to, and because it was a retrospective look on his life, and because I felt little closure at the book's end (which I think was intentionally done), I still don't know who he really is. There are still resolutions to be made at the end of the book, where the question of religion could indeed have been applied, but religion in this book sunk with the cargo ship. What you may be thinking- religion was abandoned because it shows how man relies on his most primitive senses when survival is in play- is not precisely identified and there is no closure to his religious pursuits.
 I found the book incomplete- in some ways I felt like the trip to his new home was a creation by Martel initiated on the spur of the moment because I saw no real progression into that eventual solution. It just suddenly happened, and not in a good way. The book was written into three separate books, and I definitely see that in the formation. Pi, the main character, is explained more through what he does than who he was. Sure, he was looking for religion, but at the same time, that doesn't mean to be interpreted that he was still looking for himself (unless that was Martel's point).
All the same, I found the book engaging. I felt the second part of the book, because it was so long and descriptive, and at times tedious, did effectively project Pi's feeling of anxiety and boredom and desparation onto the reader. But I also thought parts of the book were incomplete, and the plot line lacked focus. I felt it was written as Martel was writing, and no thought had gone into resolving all the problems or giving the book some sort of closure, especially after so much details were put into the beggining and the middle- the end is just cut short. I really wanted to know who Pi was....but I wasn't able to.