So I start reading this book: Booker prize winner, impressive reviews, Indian setting. I'm a hundred pages into it and all he talks about is religion and how this guy Pi loves God in many forms and how he gets a prayer rug and gets baptized and is chased away by Brahmin priests, etc. Where is the tiger that I heard so much about? Where is this boat that goes all the way to Canada?
There are inconsistencies galore. He talks about Kapil Dev and the story is set in 1975 or thereabouts. Kapil didn't make his debut till '78, if I'm not mistaken. He introduces a pious muslim character, one who prays five times a day and reads the Quran regularly. The guy's name? Satish Kumar!
I'll continue reading for a while more, but I'm not impressed. Pshaw!
I didn't enjoy it either. I removed it from the suggested curriculum of a course I was teaching. Not only because I didn't like it, but because I am among those who agree that Martel stole a Brazilian author's intellectual property. He read Scliar's book about a young Jewish boy in a boat with some animal and then stole the premise to tell his "own" story. Martel later went on to discredit Scliar by suggesting he wouldn't have read the book because it would have been of lesser quality than his own. So, how did he know about the story? Apparently he read it in a review -- that never existed.
ReplyDeleteFiction can be intellectual property, too!
Pshaw, indeed!
Satish Kumar? Hmm... could he be a brother of this guy?
ReplyDeleteOr maybe this guy?
ReplyDeleteHe also made a mistake regarding a story from the Ramayana/Mahabaratha.
ReplyDeleteSpot it, and lunch is on me the next time you come by the terminal.
lol!
ReplyDeleteRead on! more on its way.
It becomes more interesting after he is stuck in the boat with the animals. A little absurd at times, but interesting nevertheless.
ReplyDeleteI thought I was alone.
ReplyDeleteI read it fully, so that I could vent my anger against him completely. What a bookload of pretentious crock!
ReplyDeleteI somehow kept missing this book. A good thing, looks like.
ReplyDeleteI read it a couple of years back, and I did enjoy it. (But then, I tend to enjoy most books . . .)
ReplyDeleteDilip Kumar is regarded as arguably the greatest actor ever to grace the Indian silver screen
ReplyDeleteHo!
I kinda liked it, its timepass. Hey read Shantaram. I was supposed to get it for you, but someone has already run away with it.
ReplyDeleteactually they ALL are 'arguably' the greatest!!! and if u see how they argue, you'd agree. :)))
ReplyDelete>hic<
Or maybe this guy?
ReplyDeleteLOL. Read it a couple of years back. It gets better when he and the tiger start talking:)
ReplyDeleteCan't argue with that, anyway.
ReplyDeleteWe're reading this next month at my book club. I hope I like it better than you do.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like it either...gave up mid-way.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't get past the first few chapters.
ReplyDeleteyeah and the end is so strange ! I never could decide which of the 2 endings should I believe :)
ReplyDelete