Yann Martel's Life of Pi is a single-idea novel. What can happen when a Bengal tiger is on a lifeboat with a boy somewhere in the middle of the unforgiving Atlantic ocean. It is an interesting premise and Martel certainly has the authority on the topics his book deals with. However, it is just too long and a bit contrived. It has a young-adult fiction feel to it. It was quite a bummer because I had heard so much about it and was looking forward to it. Unlike movies, well-known books disappoint far less.

While the book is entertaining once the story moves to the boat, off it - it is full of cliches and boring, simplistic anecdotes about religion and science and the inherent tension between the two. Even after the arduous journey is over for the protagonist, Pi Patel, our journey as a reader continues through a short but crushingly boring Japanese inquisition.

I think this book, like most books, would've been really great had it been about 30% shorter.

I am interested in watching the Ang Lee film. I am curious if he has been able to make the movie more entertaining than the book, which seems like a tough ask.