'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel - Discussion thread.

I am beginning a discussion thread if anyone cares to join in. You are more than welcome to add your thoughts or questions that have arisen with the reading of the novel. I will only chose to write about chapters that I find relevant and while ever time allows. Please feel free to write about what interests you regarding the novel.

The Author's Note & Chapter One:

Yann Martel begins his story of Pi with an author's note and from the beginning, sets up intrigue and interest. I wonder if this note is part of the fiction, or is this the way he wants to draw us fictitiously into the story? At any rate, it helps to set the scene in order to introduce the main protagonist in the first chapter.

His opening sentence begins: 'My suffering left me sad and gloomy.' From that first moment I want to find out what and why.

I personally feel that without the author's note, I'd be lost as to who the main protagonist is in the first chapter. We learn about his 'interesting' studies of three-toed sloths and we also find out that religion plays a strong part in the life of this particular character. Without the author's note, it would be hard to determine how old the character is, and whether they are male or female.

Three-toed sloths (specifically), in my opinion, are interesting in themselves as comparisons to God. What did others think?

The first chapter is full of reflective and  philosophical thoughts about life and I get a real sense of someone with a heavy heart with phrases such as: 'Death is in love with life - a jealous possessive love that grabs what it can.' and 'Gloom - passing shadow of a cloud.' These statements build a profile of someone who has gone through hell, perhaps.

'Richard Parker has stayed with me. I've never forgotten him. Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart. I still cannot understand how he could abandon me so unceremoniously, without any sort of goodbye, without looking back even once. That pain is like an axe that chops at my heart.' This paragraph is very powerful and I yearn to know who Richard Parker is? Why did he just leave and not look back and why is he so important to the main protagonist, who we still haven't learnt their name yet, only through the author's note.

And the last points I wonder about in this first chapter are his time in the Mexican hospital and, after his recovery, his bad experience in the Indian restaurant. He seems rather traumatised and this builds nicely for the reader and drives the story along.

What are your ideas?
Happy reading...

'Life of Pi' - Discussion Points and Reading Group Guide

If you are currently reading and haven't yet finished, 'Life of Pi' and missed the December meeting, then you might find these notes and questions helpful and thought provoking.

You are most welcome to discuss via the comments section of this post.

'Since its original publication in 2002, Life of Pi has become established as a reading group favourite. With its unique combination of religion, survival and a Royal Bengal tiger, the novel offers ample themes for discussion. You may find some of the following suggested questions helpful in stimulating thoughts and discussion.'

1. In the author's note, Mr Adirubasamy claims that this story 'will make you believe in God'. After researching and writing the story, the 'author' agrees. Did Pi's story affect your religious beliefs?

2. The young Pi insists that he cannot accept an exclusively Hindu, Christian or Muslim faith; he can only be content with all three. What is Pi seeking that can only be attained by this apparent contradiction? Is there something common to all religions? How do faith and belief differ?

3. Chapters 21 and 22 are very short, yet the author has said that they are the core of the novel. In what ways do these chapters affect your reading of Pi's story?

4. Pi's name, in its shortened form, refers to the irrational number π, a number that goes on forever without a discernible pattern, and it is used in calculations of a circle's radius and diameter. What do you think the significance of Pi's name is to the novel?

5. Discussing zoo animals, Pi tells us, "All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive." How could this idea relate to Pi's actions in the immediate aftermath of the shipwreck?

6. Pi imagines that his brother would have teasingly called him Noah. How does Pi's voyage compare to the biblical story of Noah, whom God spared from the flood he sent to destroy the rest of civilisation?

7. "If I still had the will to live, it was thanks to Richard Parker. He kept me from thinking too much about my family and my tragic circumstances. He pushed me to go on living. I hated him for it, yet at the same time I was grateful. I am grateful. It's the plain truth: without Richard Parker, I wouldn't be alive today to tell you my story." Can the relationship between Pi and Richard Parker be seen as an allegory of the challenges we face in our own lives?

8. The novel begins with an author's note, and we frequently hear the authorial voice through the book. Do you think the 'author' of this note is indeed Yann Martel? How do the different layers of narration within Life of Pi influence your thoughts about the story?

9. "I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must give things a meaningful shape. For example - I wonder - could you tell my jumbled story in exactly one hundred chapters, not one more, not one less?" What is the effect of giving such a precise structure, of exactly one hundred chapters, to Life of Pi? How does this regularity contrast with Pi's name, an irrational and infinite number?

10. "That's what fiction is about, isn't it? The selective transforming of reality? How does this question, from the author's note, affect your interpretation of the events in the novel? And what about the question Pi asks of his Japanese inquisitors: "Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?" What do you think is the truth of Pi's story?'                                  

(Reading guide attached to 'Life of Pi' 2002 edition)