[Fantasy] Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2001) (Age 14 and up)

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Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2001) Yann Martel (Author) Ages: 14 and up | Lexile 830L | Paperback: 326 pages Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional--but is it more true? Amazon.com Review Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion." An award winner in Canada (and winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize), Life of Pi, Yann Martel's second novel, should prove to be a breakout book in the U.S. At one point in his journey, Pi recounts, "My greatest wish--other than salvation--was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and fresh understanding each time." It's safe to say that the fabulous, fablelike Life of Pi is such a book. --Brad Thomas Parsons --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly A fabulous romp through an imagination by turns ecstatic, cunning, despairing and resilient, this novel is an impressive achievement "a story that will make you believe in God," as one character says. The peripatetic Pi (ne the much-taunted Piscine) Patel spends a beguiling boyhood in Pondicherry, India, as the son of a zookeeper. Growing up beside the wild beasts, Pi gathers an encyclopedic knowledge of the animal world. His curious mind also makes the leap from his native Hinduism to Christianity and Islam, all three of which he practices with joyous abandon. In his 16th year, Pi sets sail with his family and some of their menagerie to start a new life in Canada. Halfway to Midway Island, the ship sinks into the Pacific, leaving Pi stranded on a life raft with a hyena, an orangutan, an injured zebra and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. After the beast dispatches the others, Pi is left to survive for 227 days with his large feline companion on the 26-foot-long raft, using all his knowledge, wits and faith to keep himself alive. The scenes flow together effortlessly, and the sharp observations of the young narrator keep the tale brisk and engaging. Martel's potentially unbelievable plot line soon demolishes the reader's defenses, cleverly set up by events of young Pi's life that almost naturally lead to his biggest ordeal. This richly patterned work, Martel's second novel, won Canada's 2001 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. In it, Martel displays the clever voice and tremendous storytelling skills of an emerging master. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From AudioFile Adrift on the wide Pacific in a 26-foot lifeboat should prove challenge enough, but to survive with a royal Bengal tiger for sole companion stretches belief. Nonetheless, 16-year-old Pi Patel, son of a zookeeper from Pondicherry, India, manages it for 227 days by taming not only the tiger, but his own wild imagination and whipping both into service. Martel uses two narrators for his mad tale: Pi reading his journal and what appears to be an objective neighbor some years later. The neighbor's narrative, read by Alexander Marshall, is brief and wooden, but necessary to contrast with Pi's wildly implausible adventure. Jeff Woodman reads Pi's journal and the bulk of the story. His range is astounding. He is at once the salty French cook, two oddly paired Japanese investigators, a Catholic priest, a Muslim imam, and of course the irrepressible Pi, each with his own distinctive accent. Woodman reads with an almost childlike delicacy and simplicity that lend credibility to the wisdom implicit in this fanciful tale. Both story and reading delight on every level. P.E.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963 of Canadian parents. Life of Pi won the 2002 Man Booker Prize and has been translated into more than forty languages. A #1 New York Times bestseller, it spent eighty-seven weeks on the list and was adapted to the screen by Ang Lee. He is also the author of the novels Beatrice and Virgil and Self, the collection of stories The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, and a collection of letters to the prime minister of Canada, 101 Letters to a Prime Minister. He lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.

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Review PRAISE FOR LIFE OF PI "Life of Pi could renew your faith in the ability of novelists to invest even the most outrageous scenario with plausible life."— The New York Times Book Review "A story to make you believe in the soul-sustaining power of fiction."— Los Angeles Times Book Review "A gripping adventure story . . . Laced with wit, spiced with terror, it's a book by an extraordinary talent."— St. Paul Pioneer-Press "A terrific book . . . Fresh, original, smart, devious, and crammed with absorbing lore."— Margaret Atwood "An impassioned defense of zoos, a death-defying trans-Pacific sea adventure a la Kon-Tiki, and a hilarious shaggy-dog story . . . : This audacious novel manages to be all of these." — The New Yorker "Readers familiar with Margaret Atwood, Mavis Gallant, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje and Carol Shields should learn to make room on the map of contemporary Canadian fiction for the formidable Yann Martel." — Chicago Tribune From the Inside Flap The Jungle Book meets Not Wanted On the Voyage in a triumph of storytelling and originality: a novel, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God. Piscine Molitor Patel, nicknamed Pi, lives in Pondicherry, India, where his family runs a zoo. Little Pi is a great reader. He devours books on Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, and to the surprise of his secular parents, becomes devoted to all three religions. When the parents decide to emigrate to Canada, the family boards a cargo ship with many of the animals that are going to new zoological homes in North America, and bravely sets sail for the New World. Alas, the ship sinks. A solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the surface of the wild blue Pacific. In it are five survivors: Pi, a hyena, a zebra, an orang-utan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. With intelligence, daring and inexpressible fear, Pi manages to keep his wits about him as the animals begin to assert their places in the foodchain; it is the tiger, Richard Parker, with whom he must develop an inviolable understanding. Yann Martel?s Life of Pi is a transformative novel: a book to delight in, to talk about and treasure. It will convince the most jaded among us ? and remind the rest ? that something grander is afoot in our lives than we may have realized. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From the Back Cover "Yann Martel's Life of Pi (Canongate) is another reminder of the largely unsung excellence of the Canongate list. The fiercely independent Scottish outfit remains an outpost of rare quality and distinction, and this exceptional understated novel is certainly a worthy addition to its output.... It would not be out of place on a Booker shortlist." -- From The Bookseller “In the end, Life of Pi may not, as its teller promises, persuade readers to believe in God, but it makes a fine argument for the divinity of good art.” -- Noel Rieder, The Gazette (Montreal) “Martel’s latest literary offering, Life of Pi, is an exquisitely crafted tale that could be described as a castaway adventure story cum allegory.” -- The Gazette (Montreal) “Life of Pi…is about many things — religion, zoology, fear — but most of all, it’s about sheer tenacity. Martel has created a funny, wise and highliy original look at what it means to be human.” -- Chatelaine “In many ways, Life of Pi is a good old-fashioned boy’s book full of survival, cannibalism, horror, math and zoology. An impressive marriage of The Jungle Book with Lord of the Flies, it’s the harrowing coming of age tale of a boy who survives for over a year in a lifeboat with a zebra, an organgutan, an hyena and a Bengal tiger.” -- The Montreal Mirror “A good story can make you see, understand and believe, and Martel is a very good storyteller. Martel displays an impresive knowledge of language, history, religion and literature, and his writing is filled with details and insights.” -- The Canadian Press “[Life of Pi] has a buoyant, exotic, insistence reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe’s most Gothic fiction…Oddities abound and the storytelling is first-rate. Yann Martel has written a novel full of grisly reality, outlandish plot, inventive setting and thought-provoking questions about the value and purpose of fiction. This novel should float.” -- The Edmonton Journal “I guarantee that you will not be able to put this book down. It is a realistic, gripping story of survival at sea. On one level, the book is a suspenseful adventure story, a demonstration of how extreme need alters a man’s character…. On another level, this is a profound meditation on the role of religion in human life and the nature of animals, wild and human. His language…is vivid and striking. His imagination if powerful, his range enormous, his capacity for persuasion almost limitless. I predict that Yann Martel will develop into one of Canada’s great writers." -- The Hamilton Spectator “[M]artel’s writing is so original you might think he wants you to read as if, like a perfect snowflake, no other book had ever had this form…. In Pi one gleans that faith — one of the most ephemeral emotions, yet crucial whenever life is one the line — is rooted in the will to live. In any event, when Pi does come to the end of his journey, he has it.” -- National Post “[A]stounding and beautiful…The book is a pleasure not only for the subtleties of its philosophy but also for its ingenious and surprising story. Martel is a confident, heartfelt artist, and his imagination is cared for in a writing style that is both unmistakable and marvelously reserved. The ending of Life of Pi…is a show of such sophisticated genius that I could scarcely keep my eyes in my head as I read it.” -- The Vancouver Sun "A fabulous romp through an imagination by turns ecstatic, cunning, despairing and resilient, this novel is an impressive achievement -- "a story that will make you believe in God," as one character says.... This richly patterned work, Martel's second novel, won Canada's 2001 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction . In it, Martel displays the clever voice and tremendous storytelling skills of an emerging master. FYI: Booksellers would be wise to advise readers to browse through Martel's introductory note. His captivating honesty about the genesis of his story is almost worth the price of the book itself." -- Publisher's Weekly --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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lotusleaf

看过李安拍的电影，挺不错的

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Amazon.com Customer Review: 2,109 of 2,183 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars I Once Caught a Bengal Tiger This-s-s-s Big February 9, 2005 By Steve Koss VINE™ VOICE Formataperback With over 1250 reviews already registered for LIFE OF PI, I first thought there could be nothing more to say about this marvelous novel. But after scanning the most recent 100 reviews, I began to wonder what book many of those reviewers had read. Had I relied on 98 of those reviews, I would have expected a far different book than the one I actually read. Let's begin with what LIFE OF PI isn't. It's not a Man against Nature survival story. It's not a story about zoos or wild animals or animal husbandry. It's not ROBINSON CRUSOE or SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON. It's not a literary version of CASTAWAY or OPEN WATER, and it's not a "triumph against all odds, happily ever after" rescue story. To classify it as such would be like classifying THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA as a story about a poor fisherman or MOBY DICK as a sea story. Or THE TRIAL as a courtroom drama, THE PLAGUE as a story of an epidemic, HEART OF DARKNESS as a story about slavery, or ANIMAL FARM as an animal adventure. Martel's story line is already well-known: a fifteen-year-old boy, the son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry, India survives a shipwreck several days out of Manila. He is the lone human survivor, but his lifeboat is occupied by a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, an injured zebra, a hyena, and an orangutan. In relatively short order and true Darwinian fashion, their numbers are reduced to just two: the boy Piscene Molitor Patel, and the tiger, Richard Parker. By dint of his zoo exposure and a fortuitously positioned tarpaulin, Pi (as he is called) manages to establish his own territory on the lifeboat and even gains alpha dominance over Richard Parker. At various points in their 227-day ordeal, Pi and the tiger miss being rescued by an oil tanker, meet up with another shipwreck survivor, and discover an extraordinary algae island before finally reaching safety. When Pi retells the entire story to two representatives of the Japanese Ministry of Transport searching for the cause of the sinking, they express deep disbelief, so he offers them a second, far more mundane but believable story that parallels the first one. They can choose to believe the more fantastical first one despite its seeming irrationality (Pi is, after all, an irrational number) and its necessary leap of faith, or they can accept the second, far more rational version, more heavily grounded in our everyday experiences. LIFE OF PI is an allegory, the symbolic expression of a deeper meaning through a tale acted out by humans, animals, and in this case, even plant life. Yann Martel has crafted a magnificently unlikely tale involving zoology and botany, religious experience, and ocean survival skills to explore the meaning of stories in our lives, whether they are inspired by religion to explain the purpose of life or generated by our own psyches as a way to understand and interpret the world around us. Martel employs a number of religious themes and devices to introduce religion as one of mankind's primary filters for interpreting reality. Pi's active adoption and participation in Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity establish him as a character able to relate his story through the lens of the world's three major religions. Prayer and religious references abound, and his adventures bring to mind such Old Testament scenes as the Garden of Eden, Daniel and the lion's den, the trials of Job, and even Jonah and the whale. Accepting Pi's survival story as true, without supporting evidence, is little different than accepting New Testament stories about Jesus. They are matters of faith, not empiricism. In the end, however, LIFE OF PI takes a broader view. All people are storytellers, casting their experiences and even their own life events in story form. Martel's message is that all humans use stories to process the reality around them, from the stories that comprise history to those that explain the actions and behaviors of our families and friends. We could never process the chaotic stream of events from everyday life without stories to help us categorize and compartmentalize them. Yet we all choose our own stories to accomplish this - some based on faith and religion, some based on empiricism and science. The approach we choose dictates our interpretation of the world around us. LIFE OF PI bears a faint resemblance to the movie BIG FISH, also a story about storytelling and how we understand and rationalize our own lives through tales both mundane and tall. Martel's book is structured as a story within a story within a story, planned and executed in precisely 100 chapters as a mathematical counterpoint to the endlessly irrational and nonrepeating value of pi. The book is alternately harrowing and amusing, deeply rational and scientific but wildly mystical and improbable. It is also hugely entertaining and highly readable, as fluid as the water in which Pi floats. Anyone who enjoys literature as a vehicle for contemplating the human condition should find in LIFE OF PI a delicious treat. ..

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《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》（英语：Life of Pi），简称《奇幻漂流》，是2001年一部描述一名印度男孩“Pi”（音译“派”）在太平洋上与成年孟加拉虎同船而撑过二百二十七天的生存故事，作者为加拿大作家杨·马泰尔。2012年由李安所执导的同名电影上映。老虎的名字理察‧帕克是女王诉杜德利与斯蒂芬案中，被同船船员杀害为食物的水手男孩的名字。 少年Pi的奇幻漂流分为三部分。 第一部分 成人的主角Pi回忆他的童年。为了纪念一个在法国名称皮辛‧墨利多‧帕拓尔（Piscine Molitor Pator） 的游泳池，父母给他取名为皮辛‧帕帖尔（Piscine Patel）。由于Piscine发音听起来接近英文发音的“尿尿（Pissing）”，同学们取笑他，给他取了一个“尿尿”Patel的绰号。由于他受不了同学取笑，在中学起改称自己为Pi（即圆周率）。他的父亲在 Pondicherry 拥有一间动物园，在童年期间，Pi了解一些动物行为，而他的父亲也提供了Pi富裕、舒适的生活。 Pi从小在印度教中洗涤，但是在14岁时，因缘巧合之下，他接触了基督教和伊斯兰教；他单纯地只想要爱神，也因此开始了同时依附、追随着三种宗教。他尝试着从这三种不同的宗教信仰来了解神──也发觉了这三种不同的宗教不同的优点。 第二部分 后来，由于当时印度政治上的纷扰，Pi的家人决定卖掉他们的动物，然后搬到加拿大。在小说里头的第二部分，Pi的家人带着一些他们动物园的动物，搭著一艘日本货船，远渡重洋──从印度到加拿大的旅程。但是出海才不到几天，货船遇到了暴风雨而沉船了，他的家人也在船难中死去。暴风雨过后，恢复意识后的Pi发现自己跟一条斑点鬣狗、一头受伤的斑马、跟一只猩猩和一头成年孟加拉虎在一艘小救生艇里。 在与动物共存的环境里，Pi亲眼目睹了动物的原始野性。斑点鬣狗咬死了已经受伤的斑马，后来鬣狗也咬死了猩猩。一头藏在帆布下，名叫理察‧帕克（Richard Parker）的孟加拉虎跳出来咬死并吃了斑点鬣狗。惊慌的Pi利用了一些能够漂浮的器具，制造了一个小的漂浮筏，用绳子把漂浮筏跟小救生艇系在一起，然后逃到小漂浮筏上。在人与动物里共存、想活下去、精神紧绷的压力下，Pi给理察‧帕克他所捕捉到的鱼跟收集到的淡水，他也同时试图用一边吹哨子、一边摇晃船让理察‧帕克晕船来制约它。最后，理察‧帕克习惯了Pi的存在，他们也从此在船上共同生存。 有一次，Pi因为卫生不好又营养不良而失明。于是他认为他快要死了，甚至听到理查帕克和他说话。原来，不是理查˙帕克在和他说话，是太平洋上另一艘救生艇上的法国人。那个人说他也瞎了，他还说他吃了和他同船的一男一女。最后Pi和法国人的救生艇相碰在一起，他和法国人互相拥抱。Pi遇到同伴很高兴，于是Pi说他的心与他同在。但是法国人却说Pi的肝和肉与他同在，结果法国人失足跌入船底，被理察‧帕克吃下肚。 Pi回忆起、述说著在海上漂流时所遇到的不同的场景，其中包括了发现一个岛屿，岛屿上住了许多狐獴，但是岛上所覆盖著的藻类其实是有肉食性的。227天后，救生艇被冲上了墨西哥海岸。理察‧帕克立即逃遁入附近的丛林。227天的涵义是圆周率的略估值, 即22/7。 第三部分 两位从日本交通部来的官方人员来调查沉船的原因，当Pi告诉他们，他与动物共存的故事，他们觉得这个故事是不可能发生的，所以Pi告诉了他们另外一个版本──Pi跟着另外三个幸存者在救生艇上。另外三个幸存者包括轮船的厨师、断了一只腿的船员、和Pi的母亲。货船的厨师杀了船员跟Pi的母亲，把他们俩切成一块一块来当做食物跟当饵。这时，从日本交通部来的两位官方人员想要知道的是船难发生的原因，既无法找出船难发生的原因，无再追问。 斑点鬣狗是厨师、受伤的斑马是船员、猩猩是Pi的母亲、而那只名叫理察‧帕克的孟加拉成虎则是Pi他本人。法国人说他杀了一男一女在人类故事版本是指Pi的母亲和台湾水手。最后，Pi问了那两位日本官方人员，问他们会选择哪一个版本。日本官方人员想要知道的是船难发生的原因，然而既无法找出船难发生的原因，Pi给的两种故事版本也无人能证实，最后那两位日本官方人员选择了船上有老虎存在的版本。 电影版本差异 在故事版本，Pi问了那两位日本官方人员，问他们会选择哪一个版本。而在电影版本，Pi是向作家（Pi的好友）提问此问题。作家则是选择了Pi的动物版本。 电影版多了阿南蒂一角，还有Pi学习打鼓一事。电影中少了遇见盲眼法国人桥段，电影中没有书中巨细靡遗描述乌龟的部分。 奖项 2002年 英国布克奖 2004年 德国图书奖 2001年 加拿大魁北克作家联盟麦克伦小说奖 2002年 加拿大优质平装书俱乐部最佳小说新人奖 2003年 南非波克奖 2003年 加拿大蒙特利尔书展大奖

helenminliang

这本书很喜欢，除了故事，开头的动物园那部分，说动物呆在习惯的环境才安心，这个很有意思，我们有时候不安，或者直觉有问题，也是因为某个细节不是以前的样子，只是下意识的感觉，脑子里的理性思维其实是顾不上的。

好妮

记得当时看的是3D的，效果很不错

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好妮 发表于 2013-7-15 18:36 记得当时看的是3D的，效果很不错

谢谢回复，能说说对这部戏的感觉吗？之前看过书吗？