“Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you Richard Parker!”

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a glorious book.

It is about humans, animals, life and spirituality. This is my favourite part:

"I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy."

The Plot:

An Indian family decide to sell their magnificent zoo and move to Canada .They, and their menagerie, board the Tsimtsum, a Japanese cargo ship.

The ship sinks.

Piscine Molitor Patel is the last, and welcome addition to his family. At sixteen years old he is the sole survivor of the sunken cargo ship and has lost his brother, mother and father forever.

Well, I shouldn't say that Pi is the sole survivor.

The lifeboat bobbing on the surface of the blue Pacific also contains a hyena, an orang-utan, a zebra and one 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger, Richard Parker.

Martel's novel is understated, ironic, and despite the dire circumstances of the main protagonist, completely hilarious.

Martel's surrealism carries hints of Marquez and Beckett.

The author claims that Life of Pi will make the reader believe in God.

I read this extraordinary book while travelling through Vietnam and Cambodia. Buddhism and the notion of spirituality are deeply embedded in each of these countries- in the landscape, ancient temples and of course the people. 

Life of Pi did not make me believe in God, or God in the Christian sense.

I don't understand why bad things happen. I don't understand suffering. But I have developed an understanding that there is an omnipotent entity. I don't know if this entity goes by the moniker of Jesus, Muhammad, Vishnu or Buddha.

Or I am maybe being fantastical, unrealistic and overly imaginative.

These are Diana F+ shots of Cambodia and Vietnam, taken from the lomography website.