Letter to The Author

TALK TO THE AUTHOR



Dear Yann Martel,


      I’ve read your book and enjoyed it very much and now I’ve been given the opportunity to write a letter to you explaining why I think you wrote the book and how it has affected me. After reading your author’s note in which you described how, after two less than successful books, you traveled to India to find some inspiration, I think I now understand how the premise of this book came to you. After falling into despondency and the usual lamentations of a life unlived, you sought one thing: adventure. I am a strong believer that for a writer, during the writing process, it is not just a man and a computer or a man and a pencil. The writing process is a journey of it’s own and whether you’re writing something based on true events or it is completely fiction, much like reading a story, it does change you. I believe that the adventure and struggle Pi went on gave you the adventure you needed to spark your creativity again. Your arrival in India spoke to you, much like it did for Pi. Pi’s spiritual and philosophical musings were, assuming that a book is to some extent the intellectual biography of it’s author, in essence your own. 

    In writing this you were trying to show several things: that sometimes life takes you on a path you haven’t planned for and that when that happens, it helps to have a bit of faith and maybe, a lifeboat. I think that your story’s description of the nature of religious beliefs parallels with your narrative strategy of writing a story that was progressively harder to believe in that in the midst of Pi’s struggle on the boat, it was hard for me not to wonder “What could faith possibly do for him now?” or “Does he still believe?” And then by the time I’d gotten to the end I wasn’t even sure of what I believed. I also noticed that the inclusion of faith as the theme had a lot to do with part three in which the story was told again except in a way that others would believe. I recognize that this was probably your way of trying to show that there are some things in life that may not be explainable or seem plausible but the most meaningful things in life are unseen, and essentially the definition of faith is believing in what you cannot see so I think this part spoke to me the most (confused me the most, too). Life of Pi is an amazing piece of literature and I, coming from a very religious background, have learned a lot about faith and animals, hard work, and the unreliability of ships during a bad storm.

                                                                        Sincerely,
                                                                                      Your Most Loyal Reader