This takes so long and is so incidental to the story and written in such a cutesy way that I started to pray the boat would sink, the tiger would get him … I would even have accepted God smiting him at this point as a valid plotting point, even if (or particularly because) it would bring the story to an abrupt end. The bit where he is opening his first can of water is a case in point. Parts of this were so badly over written that it was almost enough to make me stop reading. But the religious are generally terribly arrogant, so it is best not to feel insulted by their endless insults – they know not what they do. There is some fluff at the start in which atheism is ‘discussed’ (read, discarded) as something people inevitably give up on with their dying breath. The book is written by a member of that class of people who are my least favourite a religious person who cannot conceive of someone not being religious.

I was a little annoyed when I found out that the person the book is dedicated to had also written a story about a man in a boat with a wild cat and had considered suing for plagiarism. Apparently, when Yann Martel wrote this he was feeling a bit down and this was his way of plucking himself up. I’m going to have to assume you have read this book, as if I don’t I won’t be able to say anything about it at all. So, being told a book is a winner of the Booker tends to be a mark against it from the start, unfortunately.

The only Carey I haven’t liked won the Booker ( Oscar and Lucinda), I really didn’t like the little bit of Vernon God Little I read and I never finished The Sea despite really liking Banville’s writing.

I tend to avoid the winners of the Man / Booker – they make me a little depressed.

I’m going to have to assume you have read this book, as if I I found a lot of this book incredibly tedious. I found a lot of this book incredibly tedious.

Life of pi free online book