"The God who Comforts but does not Command"...

A review of Yann Martel's book, Life of Pi.

Review by Kara Martin...

The Life of Pi is about two journeys: a journey through three great religions: Hinduism, Christianity and Islam; and a journey on a boat for 227 days through shark-infested waters, with a very large tiger. Maybe those two journeys are the same...
Yann Martel says in the intro (or is he using the voice of a character?) that this is a book that will make you believe in God. One of the major issues of the book is: which God? Whose God?
The Pi of the title is Piscene, an Indian boy, son of a zoo-keeper, born a Hindu, converted to Christianity, who then becomes entranced by Islam. His pandit, priest and imam are horrified when they discover that he is actually still following three religions. When they challenge him to choose, he tells them that his intention is to love God, which satisfies each.
The next journey is forced upon Pi. His father decides to start a new life in Canada, and they set sail on a Japanese cargo ship, with some of their animals which have been sold to zoos in the US. Unfortunately, they go through the storm, and the ship sinks... The only survivor is Pi, who is trapped on a 9-metre lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orang-utan, and a huge Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. As you can imagine, the animals begin sorting themselves out, and Pi struggles to survive. In the end it’s just him and the tiger and Pi realises that he must maintain the zoo-keeper/captive animal relationship if he is going to avoid being eaten. This means the tiger must feel as if he is dependent on Pi. Then follows an amazing story of survival.
The beauty of the writing is that Martel is able to sustain the narrative when there are essentially two characters, a simple plot, and a fixed context. This is done with a mixture of detail, such as how to catch and strip a sea turtle and drink its blood, and ritual, such as the pattern of prayer that Pi adopts, and simply poetic descriptive passages.
Martel obviously did a lot of research for this book. He visited zoos in India, he read the foundational texts of the three faiths he describes, and he made the survival information as accurate and realistic as possible. Essentially he wanted to create a fantastical story that could be believed.
That is because this book is essentially about story. Right at the end of the book we find out that Pi is describing his story of survival to two incredulous Japanese officials researching the shipwreck of the cargo ship. In the face of their suspicion he tells them an alternative story, and then suggests they choose the story they would prefer to believe, for this is what it is like with God. The suggestion is that we can choose the God that tells the better story that helps us cope with the joys and struggles of life.
I think the thing that moved me in this book is Pi’s relationship with God. He believes that “so long God is with me, I will not die.” He lives in gratitude to God for every new thing. But it’s not easy to keep loving God in face of such suffering. He describes the struggle to believe as “an opening up and a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love, but sometimes it was so hard to love.” But then “the blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light” in Pi’s heart.
However, Pi’s ability to believe in every religion and no religion suggests that this is a God that suits his own needs and desires. His closeness to God and dependence on Him is the sort of relationship I believe the Christian God especially desires to have with us, but the context, details and disciplines of the Christ story have been removed.
I was very moved and challenged by this book. There are references to familiar Bible stories such as Jonah and Daniel, cleverly woven in. Life of Pi has the capacity to encourage the faith of everyone, while being inoffensive. Some have seen the suffering and rising (survival) of Pi as a parable for Jesus; and if nothing else this book puts God on the agenda, and will start a conversation.
Life of Pi has been re-released in a new format; including a new version with beautiful pictures. It is a book that should be in every home as an inspiration for story and exploration of God, even if the conclusions are ambiguous.

KARA MARTIN is a lecturer with School of Christian Studies (www.socs.org.au), and is an avid reader and book group attendee. Kara does book reviews for Heart 1032’s Open House (www.theopenhouse.net.au).