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1-Page Summary of Life of Pi

Overall Summary

Author’s Note

Yann Martel has written two other books, which were not very successful. He went to Bombay to find a quiet place and write his next novel, which is about Portugal in 1939.

The author’s next book, about Portugal, didn’t do very well. The author felt depressed and wondered what to write next. He left Bombay and traveled south to the French-speaking town of Pondicherry in India.

An author met an old man in a coffee shop who offered to tell him a story that would make the author believe in God. The author accepted the challenge and took notes on what Mr. Adirubasamy told him. He then returned to Canada and found someone named Patel, who turned out to be the protagonist of Mr. Adirubasamy’s story.

Mr. Patel showed the author old newspaper clippings about the events of the story, and also let him read his diary. Many months later, the author received a tape and report from the Japanese Ministry of Transport, confirming Mr. Patel’s tale. The author agrees that it is “a story to make you believe in God.” He says that he has written this novel in first person as though Mr. Patel were speaking because he wanted to be true to his voice and experience as much as possible while still keeping some distance between himself and Mr. Patel’s character so that readers can relate more easily with both characters equally rather than only one or two main characters. He ends with some acknowledgements, including thanks for inspiration from Maocyr Scliar, a Brazilian novelist who wrote “The Carnival of the Animals.”

It was an honor to have been able to translate such a fantastic work into English!

Chapter 1

After Pi’s traumatic experience, he became sad and gloomy. He continued his religious practices, studied zoology at the University of Toronto and eventually became happy again. His thesis was about three-toed sloths.

Pi found studying sloths to be comforting because they are very slow animals. Sloths are able to blend into the background and avoid predators by moving slowly, so Pi felt safe around them. He also noticed a similarity between his two majors: he thought that God was like a sloth because of their calmness and ability to blend in with the environment. Because Pi is such an intelligent student, he won many awards and scholarships at school. Now he works somewhere but doesn’t say where exactly; however, when asked about it, he says that Canada is home for him now. When asked about India (his birthplace), though, Pi said that he misses it every day.

After the events of the story, Pi was treated well at a hospital in Mexico. He had anemia and dark urine, but he could walk again after a while. The first time he turned on a faucet after his ordeal on the boat, he fainted from shock because there was so much clean water available to him. When he made it to Canada, Pi went to an Indian restaurant for dinner with his family and friends. But when the waiter criticized him for eating with his fingers instead of cutlery like everyone else did, Pi felt offended by what seemed like cultural insensitivity from someone who wasn’t even Indian himself or familiar with their customs.

Chapter 2

The author describes the adult Pi as a small, gray-haired man who wears a winter coat in the fall and speaks quickly and expressively.

Chapter 3

The story continues in Pi’s voice. He reflects on his name, which is Piscine Molitor Patel. His parents named him after a swimming pool that they liked because it was clear and pristine. They knew someone who used to swim there and he told them about it, so they decided to name their son after the pool. That man was Francis Adirubasamy but Pi called him Mamaji, which means uncle in Hindi. Mamaji taught Pi how to swim and became one of his closest friends as well as a mentor for life. The two shared an interest in water and learned from each other how to be more comfortable with the water; this led them both to become good swimmers themselves. Mamaji also loved the Piscine Molitor in Paris because it was such a beautiful place where people could enjoy swimming freely without fear of being attacked by sharks or anything else dangerous like that; this made him feel safe enough to relax completely while swimming at the pool (which is what he liked best). Because of all these things, Pi’s parents chose the name “Piscine” for their son when he was born because they wanted him grow up feeling free like the fish do in clean waters—and thus inspired by nature—he would learn not only how much fun swimming can be but also learn how rewarding it can be if you give your heart into something you love doing…