Life of Pi (Yann Martel)

I am glad that I have finally read this novel, which had so much attention when it first was published that I actually decided to avoid it for awhile.

Two lines anchored this book for me. The first is one spoken by an elderly man who tells the future writer of Pi's story that it is "a story to make you believe in God." That's quite a high standard to set at the beginning of a novel.

Pi Patel is Christian, Muslim, and Hindu. (Seriously - he devoutely practices all three religions!) The Life of Pi is, at its core, a story of religion and a story of survival. Perhaps, also, it is a story about stories.

"And so it goes with God." That is the second anchoring line, which comes at the very end of the book.

Reading the ending, knowing that Pi's story was to "make me believe in God," I was waiting for the "wow" sensation as a I closed the last page. It didn't come. Rather, I have lots of questions, conjectures, and a need to re-read this book in a few months to examine the details more closely.

For now, here is my speculation [mild spoiler alert]. Pi himself is a contradiction, practising multiple religions with extraordinary devotion. He endures intense loss and suffering, but his faith and industry enable him to survive. In the end, when Japanese investigators meet with him to discover how he survived, they don't believe his tale. So he retells it, replacing the animal characters with human ones. The revised story is barely readable for its brutality. At the end, he asks the investigators which they prefer. They reply that they prefer the one with animals. "And so it goes with God." Does that mean that only God knows what story is true? Or does it mean that whatever story is pleasing to us - whatever religion - is how we engage with our God? In other words, "And so it goes with God" could be translated as "the same is true for God." I'm still thinking...