I'm often fascinated by stories of survival. Who isn't really? An a few years ago when I read Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken about Louis Zamperini I couldn't get over the amount of time he had lived upon a life raft only to be washed ashore in enemy territory and kept as a prisoner of war. Wow, 46 days on a life raft I thought, that's unbelievable. So when I saw the title for Jonathan Franklin's book, 438 Days, I wasn't quite sure this was a work of nonfiction. But, well... human beings are pretty amazing. 438 Days is how long Jose Salvador Alvarenga survived while his disabled fishing boat drifted from Costa Azul Mexico all the way to the Marshall Islands. This staggering distance is so large as to be so unbelievable, it's no wonder people initially thought him the creator of an elaborate hoax. Alvarenga had always been a bit of a wild spirit and so his survival on raw fish, turtle and sea bird meat is not completely strange (but still a bit stomach churning). Also at his disposal was the numerous dregs of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean. A sad commentary of our current waste practices and pollution of the world's oceans. Alvarenga's crew mate was not so lucky, Ezekial Cordova survived far longer than I would have in similar circumstances, but he mentally gave up and died from sickness and starvation. Alvarenga's physical needs aside, it is the endurance of his spirit I find the most impressive. It reminded me a lot of the discussions in Andy Weir's The Martian (you can read that review here) in which they examine why Mark Watney had the ideal personality to survive so much time alone. Alvarenga had some of that creativity and curiosity as well. I'm curious as to where Alvarenga goes from here. To survive such a tortuous experience and then try to put your life back together is an arduous task and I hope he continues to succeed. He'll face certain challenges, but if he can survive on a boat for 438 days adrift at sea, perhaps a few more decades on land are manageable.
4/5 Stars.
Okay, I oscillated through
this book. When I first started, I wanted to give the book 2-3 stars.
And then a shipwreck happens and the book gets infinitely more
interesting and I was going to give it 4 stars at least. Then the
castaway(s) journey goes on for quite a long time and I started to lose
my interest except I was so close to finishing I just powered through.
And at that point I was back to 3 stars and the ending I really liked so
I wanted to go with 4, but given the inconsistencies, I wound up here,
at a 3 which is probably more accurately a 3.5.
So here is the best breakdown I can give:
2-3
stars - The book starts slow and I really disliked the change in
narrative voice that occurs in the first section of the book. It keeps
you from fully identifying with the main character Pi Patel.
Additionally, the author's point of view that is told in short snippets
at the beginning has an odd voice and doesn't flow well. It also repeats
a lot of what is in the author's note at the beginning of the book.
Martel is right, Mr. Patel's story is extraordinary, he just doesn't
need to tell me so many times. Let me read the story and decide for
myself. By the time Pi gets to the Island, I kind of started to lose
interest though. This section ran a little long.
4 stars - The
actual story of the shipwreck and survival. The story of the animals. I
did just read Unbroken, and I didn't plan on reading another lost at sea
book so soon, it happened totally by accident I swear, but this part of
the book may also have benefited from the love I have left over from
Unbroken. I also love the switcheroo at the end of the book. It makes
you look back on the entire story and reevaluate all the events that
happened. It takes away the spectacle of the books prior chapters and
makes Pi's suffering so human and so horrifying, it adds a level of debt
to the book that wouldn't have existed otherwise.
Bottom line is
I am glad I read the book and found it very good. But I'm not sure if I
agree that the story was one to "make me believe in god." I also don't
like stories that are sort of ambiguous about whether they are really
based on a true story, or try hard to make you believe they are, only to
not be. And Life of Pi, from what I can tell is a complete work of
fiction. I don't think Martel wants the reader to be sure of this and I
think that kind of cheapens the story telling. It doesn't have to be
real to be a good story.
3/5 Stars.
