Life of Pi

I'm almost at the end of this book, and what a feast it is turning out to be. I can understand why the story generated so much excitement and won the Booker in 2002. I can also understand some of the criticism though, especially about the lack of a hook to get you into the heart of the matter.

The book, in my opinion, should have started at about Page 125. The first section is a kind of flashback sequence, before the real action, the childhood of the main character. It was well written and entertaining, but you did begin to wonder when the juicy action - evident in the blurb and on the cover - would start. Was there not an editor at Yann Martel's publishing house who suggested that maybe the childhood stuff could've been intertwined with the current action? This may have worked, and may have made this book even more luxurious.

Of course it stands as it is - a wonderful book - but I feel the diamond could have been shined even further. Just a thought, as I approach the final pages, and wonder how things are going to end up. Kind of a shame, as well, to know that it ends happily - unless there's an amazing twist at the end that I can't see coming.