Book Review: Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

Religion and spirituality lie at the heart of Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. This is no surprise as the Author's Note at the beginning of the book claims that this is a story that will make you believe in god. The immediate question then becomes, how does a story about a shipwrecked boy trapped on a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, and a Bengal tiger attempt to make the reader believe in god?

*Warning: This review contains spoilers. 

The main character, Pi Patel, is the son of a zookeeper who runs a small zoo in India. Despite his family's ideas of modern secularism, Pi is drawn to religion. In his adolescence he adopts not only the beliefs of Hinduism, but Catholicism and Islam as well. Each religion gives Pi something that he felt was missing in his spiritual life. He never feels compelled to choose one belief system over the other, although he does keep his worship secret from his family, and from each of his religious leaders, as long as possible.

Though Pi's family is largely secular in practice, they are Hindu in tradition. As such, Pi was first introduced to Hinduism and describes it as the religion of his birth and a deep part of himself. For Pi, Hinduism is not a religion to be left behind when he discovers another, but rather the intrinsic framework of his own spirituality. When he discovers Catholicism, he studies it through curiosity for what it entails, not because of any dissatisfaction with his current understanding of Hinduism. The same is true when he later adds the religion of Islam to his quilt of spiritual beliefs.

While Pi is comfortable with his firm belief in three seemingly disparate religions, the leaders of these religions are not happy when they learn of his expanded view of religion. As chance would have it, Pi's priest, pandit and imam all happen upon Pi and his parents at the same time. The ensuing conversation captures current religious discord as all of the religious leaders agree that Pi cannot be Hindu, Catholic, and Muslim at the same time. Despite their prodding, Pi insists that he simply wants to love god and will not choose between religions.

During his adolescence, Pi also discovers atheism through his biology teacher, Mr. Kumar. Though Pi greatly respects Mr. Kumar, and calls him his favorite teacher, Pi is not comfortable exploring the ideas of atheism or seeing how science holds its own beauty without need for a deity. He decides that atheists are his "brothers and sisters of a different faith", but it is not a belief that he understands or chooses to explore. In fact, the concept of atheism frightens him. Pi, who asks many questions when presented with other religions, is silent when Mr. Kumar offers some of his atheistic views. Pi explains, "It wasn't for fear of angering Mr. Kumar. I was more afraid that in a few words thrown out he might destroy something that I loved."

Yet all of this religious discussion takes place well before Pi is set adrift in a lifeboat filled with wild zoo animals. It is the groundwork that shapes the rest of the story, the story that is meant to make listeners believe in god. Part two of the book begins the tale of Pi's shipwreck and subsequent survival.

When Pi is 16, his family decides to sell the zoo and emigrate to Canada. They will get a better price for many of the animals in America, so the family and several zoo animals begin their journey on a Japanese cargo ship. When the ship sinks, for unknown reasons, Pi finds himself in a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and an adult Bengal tiger. There are no other human survivors, and it is not long before the animals do away with each other, leaving Pi and the tiger alone in the lifeboat.

The book continues with a fantastic tale of taming a tiger while surviving on the open sea for 227 days. When Pi eventually washes up on the shores of Mexico, and the tiger dashes off into the jungle never to be seen again, he is nursed back to health by locals. While Pi is recovering, two men from the company that owned the Japanese cargo ship come to visit him. They are looking for answers about what might have caused the ship to sink.

Pi tells them the fantastic tale that was presented through the book and the men do not believe him. They are upset and tell Pi that they want to know what really happened. After some discussion, Pi agrees to tell them another story, a story that does not involve animals. His second story involves a handful of human survivors, including one who kills the others (including Pi's mother). Pi ultimately kills the killer and is left as the sole survivor. Neither story sheds any light on why the ship might have sunk.

Before the men leave, Pi asks them which is the better story, since neither provides factual information that they can use. The men agree that the story with the animals was a better story. This is the point of the book. It is the reason why readers are supposed to now believe in god. When it comes down to a choice between realism and fantasy, or science and religion, which is the better story?

Religious minded readers may find comfort in the notion that it is better to believe in an uplifting story over more believable, but less entertaining facts. However, this argument is unlikely to be persuasive to atheists or encourage them to believe in god.