Finished this last night and thought it was very good. A few people had been mentioning to me that it had left them underwhelmed - perhaps because of all the hype with the film coming out. Speaking of which, I am very excited that I managed to finish it before the film goes out of the cinemas, so I can still see it on the big screen, even though I must be the last person in the land to have read it.
I was a bit confused at the end - I gather most people were - about how much was true (within the story) and which version of events to believe. Of course there was a lot of unbelievable stuff in the book, but essentially it was a survival story, which is right up my street.
For some reason these types of apocalyptic (either in terms of the entire world, or a single individual) story really fascinate me - it makes me consider how I would react in such a situation.
The addition of the tiger was a nice touch as well, to show how important another life is to maintain any stretch of sanity, even if they belong to a different species. Having another sentient being to share such a terrible experience would certainly make it easier, at least to have a reason not to give up.
Surprisingly, I also found the book light-hearted in places, which made me laugh out loud at a number of points. Any book that can combine such tragedy with comedy is evidence of a great writer.
Hi Kate, always nice to find a fellow blogger.
ReplyDeleteI read The Life of Pi & couple of years ago & loved it. Smart, quirky & very claustrophobic. I'd like to try the film but not sure it's the sort of story that would work on the big screen.
Interesting to see how much they change though.
Hey Rich :) The film was very good! Visually stunning of course, but followed the book quite well - I don't think there were any major changes. I'd definitely recommend it.
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