This is not the sort of story I usually gravitate to. In fact, I had been actively avoiding reading this book for some time. But then my favorite book review podcast (Literary Disco) read it, and in the same week, a neighbor bought me a copy. So read it I did.
I took me almost 200 pages to begin to see a reason to keep reading. Once Pi is on the boat, however, I started to find the story compelling. Still, I didn't see anything particularly special about this book. Then comes the end. I won't spoil it for you, but the end changes everything. "Oh," I thought, "maybe this book is worth a damn." I hadn't completely thought out the ramifications of the ending when I listened to Literary Disco's episode about the book. They took me the rest of the way. While I am not in love with this book, I finally came around in the end: it is quite a well-wrought work of fiction. About story telling, about animals, about humans. So, in the end, I was surprised to find I had almost enjoyed it.