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A work of magic realism
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A satisfying book with a meditative twist on storytelling ... MUKUND PADMANABHAN on the Life of Pi that won the Man Booker Prize.
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WHEN it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Yann Martel's Life of Pi was regarded in many quarters as a quirky choice, typical of the notoriously unpredictable judges who make the decisions on this literary award. It didn't impress the bookmakers much either, who seemed to favour William Trevor's The Story of Lucy Gault. Of course everything changed the moment the official website of the Booker Prize ("inadvertently") declared Life of Pi as the winner. Repeated explanations that it was a gaffe — the unintended posting of a pre-prepared press release in the event that Yann Martel won — failed to convince many (the bookmakers anyway). The odds on Life of Pi considerably shortened, there was a surge of interest in the novel and when the award was finally made the inadvertent posting seemed like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So if Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters failed to win, then should we, as someone suggested, be pleased that at least another "India novel" did? India novel is a misleading way of describing Life Of Pi, which, for the most part, is located in a lifeboat that bobs aimlessly in the Pacific Ocean. Martel's story of survival and spiritualism though begins in Pondicherry and revolves around the young and indiscriminately religious Piscine Molitor Patel, who is named after a Parisian swimming pool and wants to be Hindu, Christian and Muslim all at once. ("So Swami Jesus, will you go to the hajj this year?" mocks his elder brother.)
When his zookeeper father decides to emigrate to Canada, Piscine or Pi boards a ship along with a number of wild animals, which are headed for new zoos in North America. When the ship sinks, Pi finds himself alive and on a lifeboat. Also on it are an injured zebra, a hungry hyena, a confused orangutan and a huge Bengal tiger called Richard Parker. Cast in this strange and remarkable situation, Pi clings to religion. But as the days wear on it becomes clear that, in this lifeboat in the middle of nowhere, the only things that survives are the brutal laws of nature.
Life Of Pi has been described time and again as a typical work of magic realism. But despite the fabulist nature of the novel, there is very little that links Martel to that loose association of writers that includes Marquez, Rushdie and Grass. The characteristics that are paradigmatic of this genre — historical sweep, breadth of purpose, extravagance and exaggeration — are absent in Life Of Pi. Martel's triumph lies not so much in the fabulist overlay of his novel, but in the small and arresting details, in the gripping manner in which he tackles the physical and logistical details as Pi struggles to keep himself and Richard Parker alive. Martel does not tap the unusual to evoke a sense of wonder but to test our credulity; to show us that bizarre can also be real. At the end of the day, it is Martel's gritty realism, which lends Life of Pi its true magic.
The narrative flags here and there. For instance, there is a section on a meerkat-ridden floating island of algae, which is a touch tiresome and much too infused with symbolism for the book's own good. But otherwise the Life Of Pi is tight and satisfying and ends with a lovely meditative twist on storytelling itself, one that seems to suggest that by merely looking at the world, we also invent it.
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