Recently I told my pastor that I tend to get more spiritual insight out of narratives and fiction than I do the typical christian literature. To make matters worse, the fiction that seems to move me the most is stuff that many evangelicals frown upon. It is literature that questions easy answers. It is like a flashlight in a dark room. Sometimes you feel safer if you turn the light off.
Some of the stories that made an impact on me in the past include Geek Love, Heart of Darkness, Blue Like Jazz, Lord of the Flies and now Life of Pi. Stories like these provide me with an intimate peek into what it means to be alive, to be human.
Life of Pi is the best book that I have touched in over a year. It is the story of a deeply religious teenager from a small province in India that loses everything dear to him in a shipwreck somewhere in the Pacific. In the 277 days that he spends in the lifeboat he finds the strength to continue to survive in a unusual source, a dangerous, adult Bengal tiger that shares the boat with him.
Don't be fooled into thinking that this is just some simple story about a kid that is thirsty in the middle of a giant ocean. It is not. The narrator of the story says that this is a story that will make you believe in God. Maybe, but I already do. What I do know is this; if you read this story you will see our need for God maybe just because it is the better story.
1 comment:
I hadn't read your post before I wrote mine! That is prefect time I guess. I'm still going to read geek love one day if I ever get the time and actually find that book. I want to know why it had pi in the title. Any reference to math? I always love reading what you write. Thanks for humoring me and reading my random thoughts.
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