1. LIFE OF PI
NOVEL BY FILM DIRECTED BY
YANN MARTEL ANG LEE

2. INTRODUCTION
Yann Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain in 1963, his parents were doing
graduate studies in Spain at the time.
His father was a diplomat and he grew up in Costa Rica, France, Spain,
Mexico and Canada. He obtained a degree in Philosophy from Trent
University in Ontario.
As an adult, he travelled around the word, nowadays he lives in Montreal.
He had various odd jobs before taking up writing full-time at the age of 27.
Martel published his first book, a short-story collection entitled The Facts
behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, in 1993.
Novels published:
1996- Self
2001- Life of Pi
2004- We Ate the Children Last: Stories
2009- What is Stephen Harper Reading? Yann Martel's Recommended
Reading for a Prime Minister
2010- Beatrice and Virgil
Awards:
2003- Book Prize (South Africa), Life of Pi
2002- Man Booker Prize for Fiction, Life of Pi
2002- Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book), Life of Pi
2001- Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction (Canada), Life of Pi
2001- Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction (Canada), Life of Pi
1996- Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award (Canada), Self
1993- Journey Prize (Canada), The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios

3. MAIN CHARACTERS
The author
It’s been said that it’s Martel himself. He is from Canada and is trying to
write a book about Portugal, but fails to do so. Then he decides to go to
India (where he could live longer with less money). By chance he meets a
man who tells him to go back to Canada an look for a man call Pi, who has a
great story that will make him believe in God.
Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi)
He is the main character, he was named after a swimming pool, a peculiar
name. He is the one that survives the drowning of the ship that was taking
him an his family to Canada. He is also the one that tells the story to the
writer.
Richard Parker
A Bengal tiger from Pi’s father zoo, it’s Pi’s companion in the adventure
through the Pacific Ocean.
Francis Adirubasamy, also call, Mamaji
He is the reason why Pi was named after a swimming pool. He is one of Pi’s
father bussiness contacts and a family friend. He is very fond of Pi and the
one that teaches him to swim.
Ravi
Pi’s brother. He likes to pick on Pi, making fun of him about his desire for
religion. He is two years older than Pi and quite popular at school.
Santosh Patel
Pi’s father. Before moving to Pondicherry he ran a large hotel in Mandras,
but his interest in animals lead him to the zoo business. He owns the Zoo
situated at Pondicherry Botanical Garden. He is good at business. He teaches
his sons to take care of the animals at the zoo but to fear them too. He isn’t
a religious man, he believes in reality and science.
Gita Patel
Pi’s mother. She encourages Pi to read as much as possible; she doesn’t
agree with her husband’s methods to show the kids how fearful they must
be of wild animals.
The Hyena, the zebra and Orange Juice
For a few days they were on the lifeboat with Pi, Orange Juice is an old
female orangutan.

4. THE PLOT
The book is divided into three parts:
The first one goes from chapter 1 to chapter 36, the story is set in Toronto
and Pondicherry.
The second one goes from chapter 37 to chapter 94, it’s about the Pacific
Ocean.
The third part (and the last one), goes from chapter 95 up to chapter 100
it’s set in Benito Juarez, Mexico.
The book starts as the writer describes how he ended up writing Pi’s story.
After that, Pi starts to talk about himself, not much really, just to use it as a
connection to the story.
Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi), whose name comes from a swimming-pool situated
in Paris. How so? Because one of his father’s business contacts, and later, a
family friend (Mamaji, as Pi calls him), was a competitor swimmer. He has
been in lots of swimming-pools around the world, but in his opinion, the
most remarkable one, is Piscine Molitor, in Paris and this is the gift he gave
to Pi’s family…Piscine’s name.
Pi lives in Pondicherry, with his family: his brother Ravi and his parents.
His father owns a zoo at the Pondicherry Botanical Garden, he is quite a
successful businessman, and they have a good life. For Pi, the zoo is heaven,
he loves to go there after school and feed the animals. He knows all of them
and he can tell quite a lot about their life conditions at the zoo.
Pi is a good student, but he hates that his schoolmates make fun of him
because of his name, even the teachers without realizing, end up calling him
Pissing. As a new school year starts, he tries to have a new start, and as
soon as they have to tell their fellow classmates their names, Pi goes
straight to the blackboard and tells them how his name is spelt and the
similitude with the mathematical number Pi. Even though he does this in all
his classes, it is all in vain, one of his classmates remembered what is
nickname was… Pissing.

5. Pi is Hindu, Catholic and Muslim. He finds religion through different ways and
he believes in God. For him, as Gandhi said: “all religions are true”. The only
thing he wants to do is to love God, doesn’t matter how you get to him.
India is changing and his parents don’t agree with the political situation. Pi’s
father decides it’s time to leave the country and have a new beginning in
Canada. Pi and his brother aren’t happy about it, but there is nothing they
can do. The decision is made, they are leaving. The animals will be sold in
America, they could have been sold in India, but the American zoos are
willing to pay more money. They will end up with a good sum to start a new
life in Canada (that’s what his father thinks anyway).
They leave Madras on June 21st, 1977, on the Panamanian-registered
Japanese cargo ship name Tsimtsum. A few days after their stop in Manila,
the ship sinks and Pi ends up in a lifeboat with a tiger named Richard Parker,
a hyena, a zebra and an orang-utan.
Days and nights pass by and he has to deal with the weather, with the sea,
and most importantly, with the tiger. The adventure is marvellous and he
gives us a great description of sea life at the Pacific Ocean.
He survives in the sea for as long as 227 days, more than anyone can
remember. He learns how to fish small fish, big fish, deep-sea fish, small
sharks, tortoises (turtles as he calls them in American English).
He learn how to keep occupied during the day with multiple tasks so as to
keep his mind busy.

6. He ends up at the Mexican border, found by a member of his own specie, as
he recalls. But he is quite sad at how Richard Parker left the lifeboats,
without looking back at him, without saying goodbye.
The last part of the book is where two Japanese from the Maritime
Department in the Japanese Ministry of Transport comes to see him. They
need to know what happened on the ship and why it sunk. He tells them his
story and how he ended up in Mexico.
As they don’t believe him, they want to hear another story, one that
everybody can believe, so, he tells them a new story, a shorter one. In the
end, you’ll know two stories, the one he believe in, and the one the
Japanese want to hear.
You have to read the book and see which one you like most, and which is
the one you prefer to believe.

7. MY PERSONAL OPINION
I have to be grateful that I had to write this review, because a few days
before writing it, I heard on the radio about the film based on this book, and
about the book itself.
Apparently, the reviews for both of them were remarkable and the book has
been translated into forty-four languages and sold 9 million copies
worldwide.
Although at the beginning it was heavy-going and it took me quite a while to
like it, after I did, I couldn’t stop reading it.
It’s an amazing story of determination and survival in one of the most
challenging situations someone can be driven into. Written in short phrases,
it’s fast-moving, easy to end up running through the pages.
The only negative thing I can think of is that I found myself stuck to a
dictionary as the author describes the sea species of the Pacific ocean since
I’m not used to this kind of vocabulary.
Right after I finished the book, I watched the film. I was a bit sceptical,
because I thought it had to be difficult to fill up a two-hour film with a boy an
a tiger in a lifeboat, and not much of a dialogue It was going to be boring, it
was going to be difficult not to get bored with it.
But Ang Lee it’s an expert at catching your attention. The scenery is
indescriptive, the light, the colours of the sea, the sky, how he captures sea
life. For me? The colours are the most amazing thing in the entire film. How
bright they are during the night, during the day, the way a whale jumps over
the lifeboat…

8. If you have the opportunity to watch this film in 3D, the birds, the water, the
storms will come upon you and you’ll be part of this adventure.
I truly recommend both. They are moving, thought-provoking making us
think about the way we complain all the time about our lives, well, you’ll
hear a boy that had to go through the most painful experience in his life and
he gets through it and becomes a lovely husband and father and still, he can
tell his story aloud.