Life of Pi by Yann Martal

AUTHOR NOTE. This book was born as I was hungry. Let me explain. In the spring of 1996,my second book,a novel,came out in Canada. It didn't fare well. Reviewers were puzzled,or damned it with faint praise. Then readers ignored it.Despite my best efforts at plying the clown or trapeze artiest,the media circus made no difference.The book did not move. Books lined the shelves of bookstores like kids standing in a row to play baseball or soccer,and mine was the gangly, unaesthetic kid that no one wanted on their team. It vanished quickly and quietly The fiasco did not affect me too much. I had already moved on to another story,a novel set in Portugal in 1930. Only I was I was feeling restless. And I had little money. So I flew to Bombay.This is not so illogical if realize three things: that a stint in India will beat the restlessness out of any living creature;that a little money can go along way there:and that a novel set in Portugal in 1939 may have very little to do with Portugal in 1939. Altogether too many people are defeated by the everyday problems of life.You can permit obstacles to control your mind to the point where they are uppermost and thus become the dominating factors in your thought pattern.By learning how to cast them from the mind, by refusing to become mentally subservient to them, and by channeling spiritual power through your thoughts you can rise above obstacles.You need be defeated only if you are willing to be. This book teaches you how to"will"not to be. This is simply a practical,direct-ation, personal improvement manual.