by Yann Martel, 2001
This book was recommended by Sara K.
“I have a story that will make you believe in God.” Piscing Molitor Patel – named after a swimming pool – Pondicherry, India. His dad was a zookeeper. He grew up in a zoo. His Mom and Dad, fed up with Mrs. Ghandi, decide to move to Canada. They board a cargo ship, TsimTsum, that sinks in the Pacific Ocean. Pi ends up the only survivor on a lifeboat with Hyena, Zebra with broken leg, Orang-utan, and Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. The Hyena kills the Zebra and the Orang-utan. Richard Parker kills the Hyena. Then it’s just Pi and Richard Parker, alone on the boat for 227 days. Pi builds himself a raft from oars and life vests and lives on the raft tied to the boat. He learns to fish and feeds and trains Richard Parker. They are both almost dead when they drift to a floating island of algae.
The algae is life-giving during the day, but at night it becomes acid and can kill you. So they leave – drift to Mexico. Richard Parker hops off the boat and disappears forever into a jungle. Pi is rescued and brought to a Mexican hospital. He tells his story to representatives of the TsimTsum. They don’t believe it. So he tells them another story. The hyena was a French chef from the ship who murders his mom, the orang-utan, and a Taiwanese soldier with a broken leg (the Zebra). Pi kills the chef.
When Pi was young, he ventures into a church while the family is vacationing in Munnar, India. A priest tells him the story of Jesus. Pi:
I couldn’t get Him out of my head. Still can’t. I spent three solid days thinking about Him. The more He bothered me, the less I could forget Him. And the more I learned about Him, the less I wanted to leave Him.
Then he becomes Islam also. As well as Hindu. On the lifeboat:
Sometimes my heart was sinking so fast with anger, desolation and weariness, I was afraid it would sink to the very bottom of the Pacific, and I would not be able to lift it back up…
“THIS IS GOD’S HAT!”
“THIS IS GOD’S ATTIRE!”
“THIS IS GOD’S CAT!”
“THIS IS GOD’S ARK!”
“THESE ARE GOD’S WIDE ACRES!”
“THIS IS GOD’S EAR!”
And in this way I would remind myself of creation and of my place in it…Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression. I thank God it always passed. A school of fish appeared around the net or a knot cried out to be re-knotted. Or I thought of my family, of how they were spared this terrible agony. The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light in my heart. I would go on loving.
When they are almost run down by a huge oil tanker:
He [Richard Parker] did not see that it was salvation barely missed. He only saw that the alpha here, this odd, unpredictable tiger, had been very excited. He settled down to another nap. His sole comment on the event was a cranky meow.
“I love you!” The words burst out pure and unfettered, infinite. The feeling flooded my chest. “Truly I do. I love you, Richard Parker. If I didn’t have you now, I don’t know what I would do. I don’t think I would make it. No, I wouldn’t. I would die of hopelessness. Don’t give up, Richard Parker, don’t give up. I’ll get you to land, I promise, I promise!”