I choose to read this book “Life of Pi“ is because it has been mentioned by another book “Letter To Sam” which I have read some time ago, thus has gone to the library to search for this book (published 8 years ago).
“We all have tigers under our tarpaulins, tigers that we feel could destroy us. We think we want to get rid of our tigers, but the truth is, we would feel a great loss if they ran away, because ultimately each tiger is a part of us.”
This is absolutely a very imaginative yet thoughts provoking novel. Really give you some serious food of thoughts and see how the indomitable nature of the human spirit at work.
Basically the novel can be divided into three sections.
First section covers the life of Piscine Patel (aka "Pi") as a child growing up at the zoo his father owns’ in Pondicherry, India. Pi talks about his life living as the son of a zookeeper, knowing all about animal behaviour. I like the part mentioning about his religion -- Pi practices Islam, Hinduism and Christianity, at the same time, and having seen merits in all three religions. He says "I just want to love God."
Second section is his struggle (at the age of sixteen) for survival trapped in a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger after the ship his family was migrating to Canada on sinks. Talking about how he is joined by a zebra that jumps into the boat and breaks its leg, how he helps a dangerous tiger board the lifeboat and other animals including a hyena, an orang-utan (named Orange Juice). how the hyena begins to feed on the zebra, kills the orang-utan and how the tiger kills and eats the hyena. Left with Pi and the tiger, Richard Parker, in the lifeboat, making their way to Mexico, whereupon the tiger abruptly leaves Pi to go live in the wild, never to return, causing him to feel at a loss for losing his only constant companion on his journey so unceremoniously. It might be a bit boring and monotonous at some points, and full of self-pity.
Final section tells how Pi is found by some people and is taken to a hospital to recuperate. He narrates his story of animals and spending seven months at sea with a tiger to the 2 Japanese officials from the shipping company, who do not believe his tale. Thus Pi says he will tell another story to let them choose. In the other story, there are four occupants in the lifeboat, Pi, a sailor, Pi's mother, and the French cook. The sailor breaks his leg when jumping into the lifeboat, and the cook cuts the leg off. The sailor dies and the cook butchers and eats him. Eventually the cook kills Pi’s mother. Soon after, Pi kills the cook. Then, as Pi says, “Solitude began. I turned to God. I survived.”. At end, the officials agree the story with the animals is a “better” story, that they can write the report.
这张专辑演绎七十，八十年代流行歌曲。如ABBA - Dancing Queen，Madonna-Crazy For You，The bangles – Eternal，等十多首经典歌曲，及林一峰亲自创作的 I Don't Want to Say Goodbye, Let's Go Camping.
虽然他唱得中规中矩，但我还是比较喜欢听他的国语与粤语歌曲。很可惜有几首我喜欢的歌曲都没再次收录在这张专辑里面，如Stories，Vincent，和他的创作 By My Side （“遇见”的英语版）。
专辑歌曲列表： .01. (Prologue) You Can’t Hurry Love .02. Dancing Queen .03. I Don’t Want To Say Goodbye .04. The Boy From Ipanenia (Original Version：Astrud Gilberto) .05. When He Sings (New Song by Chet Lam) .06. Crazy For You .07. Let’s Go Camping (New Song by Chet Lam) .08. A Waltz For A Night .09 .Rent (Original Version：The Pet Shop Boys) .10. You’ve Got To Learn (Original Version by Nina Simone) .11. Cool (Original Version：Gwen Stefani) .12. Eternal Flame .13. (Epilogue) Happy Ending
喜欢的歌曲：The Other Side Of The Sun，Paris In Your Eyes，离开古城，重回布拉格
专辑歌曲列表： .01. 离开，是为了回来 .02. Buffering 1 - Airport .03. The Other Side Of The Sun .04. 应该拍下照片 .05. 离开古城 （国语） .06. 未完舞曲 .07. Buffering 2 - Train Station .08. Vancouver Skyline .09. Paris In Your Eyes .10. 微凉 .11. Buffering 3 – Streets .12. 重回布拉格 .13. Could We Ever Meet ?
专辑歌曲列表： Disc 1 .01. Let's Start From Here .02. Lost In Paradise .03. As Love Begins To Mend .04. Bada Bada .05. Lost Taipei .06. The Best Mistake I've Ever Made .07. I Love You .08. For No Reason .09. Stages Of Flying .10. Now .11. True .12. New York State Of Mind
Disc 2 .01. 迷宫 .02. 有你的快乐 .03. Now .04. 因为你爱我 .05. For No Reason
