If you're too lazy to click 'About Me,' here's the lowdown: I'm a nonfiction writer who aspires to publish a novel, even a short story someday (soon, preferably). I de-stress by reading, playing computer games, dabbling in amateur photography, traveling, and annoying my cat.
So, hopefully, you'll see a fair amount of book reviews and recommendations on this site in the future. I'll start off by suggesting a book that may not be fresh off the press, but is certainly worth looking into.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Canadian author)
It generated a lot of positive noise when it came out around 2001, but I wasn't tempted to pick it up. To me, its rather solemn title hinted at a story that was probably too depressing and too high up in the literary stratosphere for my taste.
But while I was waiting for a friend at a bookshop, I gave in to curiosity and began reading the first pages. I was hooked! The story revolves around Pi (as in the mathematical pi), a 19th century Indian boy who, following a shipwreck, spends 227 days on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean. The other surviving passengers with him are a Bengal tiger, an orangutan, a hyena, and a zebra.
The opening premise is intriguing: the narrator Pi--older and wiser--says that he has a story that will convince the listener (and the reader) of the existence of God or a Higher Being. I'll tell you right now that his argument is not just the fact that he survived the harrowing event, but I'll leave it at that. Read and discover it yourself. The ending, with its dark undertones, hit me like a ton of bricks. The redeeming message took awhile to sink in, yet it stays with you.
Btw, I did a quick search and found out that the title won the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction (UK), and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in Best Adult Fiction.
Have you or will you read it?
Today's Catnip:
Of course I'm going with you. And don't forget my life vest.
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