Book Review: Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

If you read Life of Pi and loved it like I did, then do yourself a favor and:

1.  Buy this book;

2.  Read nothing about it online- none of the critic reviews and especially none of the plot summaries;

3.  Get a box of tissues and keep an open mind; and

4.  Enjoy another Yann Martel animal allegory, as painful as this one may be.

And those are both my review and recommendation bundled into four tidy directions.  I don't want to hint at themes or touch upon turning points; I want you to experience them on your own.  I had a hint of what was to come and I found myself waiting for it the entire read, which is no way to wander through Martel's carefully crafted mix of reality and fantasy.

"It's so hard to talk about it. It hurt, it was painful -- that's all there is to say about it, really. But to feel it! We recoil from he flame of a single match, and here I was in the middle of a blaze. And still it wasn't over." ~ Yann Martel, Beatrice and Virgil