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to me for my birthday last year – and I’m just now getting to it. Or – no. I’m just now getting in a fiction mood again, after being out of that mood for, uhm, years?<\/p>\nI actually shed tears about that zebra. I sat reading the book and tears started rolling down my face. So dammit, the book works. It works without seeming like it’s TRYING to work. It is the opposite of sentimental. It just tells its story. And yet … there’s a sense to it … that … maybe this is a fabrication? And does it matter? There’s this whole thing about what is “the better story” – he introduces that thought early on … and it comes back like gangbusters at the end.<\/p>\n
I prefer to believe “the better story” – and I guess I always have. I create narratives out of my own life. I assign roles. I look at some disaster train-wreck that has occurred in my life and eventually … it is turned into a story. You can read some of them on this here blog. This is how I get through life. Or one of the ways. This is how I try to survive, or manage, or … make sense of the things that happen. I’m not a realist. I am very PRACTICAL – sometimes TOO practical – but I am not a realist. I am always looking for “the better story”.<\/p>\n
You can choose a story that will empower you. Or you can choose a story that will weaken you.<\/p>\n
It’s up to you.<\/p>\n
I’m not sure if Yann Martel meant for me to have such thoughts as I read this tale – especially the end of it .. but that’s what came up. The role of STORY in life. And NARRATIVE. And how we navigate events. How do we re-tell the stories of our lives to ourselves? What words do we use?<\/p>\n
I have a lot more thoughts about it – and – notably, it really made me re-think my position on zoos – and I thought that was one of my rock-hard positions – I don’t have too many, but I thought that was one of them – and Pi Patel talks about zoos in such a way that it made me think: Huh. Need to look at this opinion of mine again. A miracle! Jean and I were talking about that on the phone on Tuesday when I started to read the book and I said, “I may have to re-think zoos!” Jean said, “I know!! Me too!”<\/p>\n
It’s a quick read – another one that I could not put down. I read it on the treadmill, and on the bus. It’s fast (unlike The Historian).<\/p>\n
And I love the writing. I love the whole God aspect of it. It’s presented with no sanctimony, no preaching. It is a description of this character’s journey, and how he sees God, and how he came to be a practicing Christian, Hindu AND Muslim. His parents are like, ‘Uhm … it’s great that you want to know God … but you have to CHOOSE ONE.” Meanwhile, his parents are totally secular. They don’t get it at all. But Pi doesn’t choose. To him, it’s all about praising God, and about love. It’s all about love.<\/p>\n
Heart crack.<\/p>\n
Those animals. Richard Parker.<\/p>\n
I love that animal. I love his descriptions of its behavior. I love the whole psychology of it – wild animals and man … alpha males …<\/p>\n
And then the whole survivor castaway aspect of the story … It has a lot to say about sheer grit, and determination. I found myself utterly wrapped up in this tale … horrified at certain parts of it – the storm, the zebra (couldn’t believe I actually cried for the zebra, but I did) – horrified at just the THOUGHT of floating in a raft (with a Bengal tiger) for 227 days. Oh – and that freakin’ algae island he comes upon near the end … Now THAT was something out of a nightmare. Horrifying. Just horrifying.<\/p>\n
I need to pick out some excerpts to post. Some of it was so deep and meaningful to me it seemed to speak directly into some of the experiences I am having right now in my life. It was one of those things when – reading along – with tears in my eyes – I thought, “This is exactly what I need to be reading at this moment.” Hang on. Hang on. It is not the strongest who survive. It is those who are most attached to life<\/i>. The sections where Pi realizes his own ferocity in terms of hanging on to life<\/i> – even though he is barely alive – and huddled in the middle of the Pacific Ocean – terrified – but life<\/i>. Life is all we have. Some people surrender it. Pi will not.<\/p>\n
And Richard Parker.<\/p>\n
Who knew. Who knew that a Bengal tiger could seem so … know-able. I felt like I knew<\/i> him. He was not anthropomorphized – that was one of the best parts of this book – Richard Parker was not a cuddly creature who happened to be a tiger – he was not described as though his emotions were like human emotions. No. He was a freakin’ tiger, on a raft in the Pacific. But still … animals experience things such as fear, or uncertainty, or relaxation. They know when things are wrong<\/i>. They also fight for their lives. They fight to live. Richard Parker is one of the most in-depth characters I have met in a book in a long time.<\/p>\n
I loved it. So so glad I read it.<\/p>\n
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