I saw the trailer last week for the upcoming movie The Life of Pi based on the book by Yann Martel. Directed by Ang Lee, it premiered in September at the New York Film Festival. The trailer was dramatic, showing a young Indian boy on a raft with a fierce tiger for company, in the middle of the ocean. It made me curious about the book and of course about the movie.Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, the book is expected to be a good film, with Ang Lee and his history of cinematic successes such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Eat Drink Man Woman.
Publisher's book description: "Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. 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 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? Life of Pi is a realistic adventure tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction."
Author Yan Martel calls the movie version "sumptious," in his comments. I am slowly reading this book at the library, hoping to finish before the film arrives here next month.
Loved the audio version of this one but somehow can't imagine it as a movie - I will be looking forward to seeing the movie though.
ReplyDeleteI think this could/will be a good movie--I really enjoyed the book and hope that movie captures the ambiguity about what really happened versus what Pi originally told.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for this!! I love the book and can't wait to see how they adapt it. I think it's going to be our family's Thanksgiving movie!
ReplyDeleteNow this is a book I haven't read, although I did read the author's subsequent book, Beatrice And Virgil. I'd read Life of Pi, and/or see the movie.
ReplyDeleteHappy reading. I remember The Life of Pi getting so much attention. I have to read it someday.
ReplyDeleteI've heard alot about this book, but I haven't read it. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteI'm seriously looking forward to the movie adaptation, the trailer looked promising!
ReplyDeleteThis also means I've got to finally read the book ;)
I didn't really love the book but I am interested to see how they transform it to the big screen.
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