Self

MY FAVORITE BOOK By YANN MARTEL. This book takes you on a first person account about a man that becomes a woman and then back to a man at the end of the novel. What would it be like to turn into a woman when you are a man mid-stream life? How do you cope? Where do you buy clothes, and most importantly whom do you love? A another man or a woman? What happens when you are a woman? Are you victimized? Are you raped? Are you dealing with terrible things that mainly women see up close and personal? And what happens when you fall in love with the love of your life when you are woman that used to be a man? What happens in the end of this novel? Does love when out? And which sex does the main character remain?Deeply felt and conveyed with prose that dance off the page, I am in love with this book. Why do more not know about this brilliant piece of literature??

I was hoping for a very different book. Based on all the reviews of how different and unique "self" was compared to "Life of Pi" and "Beatrice and Virgil" (both books which I truly loved) I was very excited to read yet a new, different and unique novel by Yann, but I was truly dissapointed.I do have a family member who is homosexual and is married (Canada is a great country) and I am very open-minded, but that is not it. The story was really all over the place. I was hoping to gain a deeper understanding of how some people "find themselves", their true "self" but this novel was just out of this world.** SPOILER ALERT **A boy that turns into a girl, that turns back into a boy after she is raped and loses her baby? I grew so close to each character to suddenly have he/she turned into a new character. By the end, I lost interest and wanted it to end ... just too much suffering.Interesting perspective and plot idea, but just didn't do it for me. I am still a huge fan of Yann Martel's work, but this one was a peculiar one. I've been left dazed and confused ....

While "Self" does not resemble "Life of Pi" on the surface, the two novels share mannerisms. Both novels in a different sense involve identity morphing, the hidden nature of the self and its survival. Both point out the casual ubiquity of cruelty and how it is intertwined with society.I understood "Self" as a novel about loss, what remains of one's identity after all else is stripped away, including one's idea of home, the thing that remains constant in the wilderness of a life. But the narrator is so open, guileless, without the instinct to reserve anything, that the eradication of the self is also suggested.All of the characters form part of the strange wilderness of this novel. The Promethean narrator emerges from the enchanted forest of childhood into the jungle of young adulthood, crossing the landscapes of Canada, Greece, Turkey. Here are intersections with the characters that people one's timeline, some who disappoint, others who do not: Ruth the motherly forty-something soul mate; Tom of the week-long lie-by-omission; Roger, an emotionally frigid worshiper of Conrad; the beautiful Hungarian letter carrier, Tito. But all of them are ultimately as indifferent as nature.There are striking metaphors: one's eyes being filled with fish when seeing a loved one; a certain entry that "...used to jump out at me when I flipped through my address book. Now it's an overgrown tombstone at the back of a garden." And the town of Roetown that "...had a slightly run-down aspect...but in a pleasing way, like a man you love who has buttoned his coat up wrong."Like "Life of Pi," "Self" is not for the faint-hearted. Abstract, violent and scatological, it is certainly less accessible and less polished than its more sought-after sister, but it's a meaningful piece of literature that will affect its readers in some unpredictable way and is definitely worth reading.

This is one of my favorite novels - ever. I have recommended it to lots of people and bought it to give away to friends. I think it is such a thoughtful, surprising, thought-provoking, delightful and under-celebrated work by Yann Martel!! Everyone should read it! I rue the fact that most people got caught up in Life of Pi and don't even know about this book; Self remains one of my all-time favourite novels, but it has been so overlooked.

I love this writer and came to this book last out if his others. If you've read life of pi...this isn't like that, it's very different. I liked this book but found it to be less lyrical in writing style than the other books...but the idea/metaphor and the content are him all the way. It's hard to talk about it without giving away the plot but I would recommend this book for people who know his work and like it for the deeper messages not just the story. I guess that if you read Life of Pi and watched the movie and you still thinki it's about a boy and his tiger then this isn't for you.

Martel is a great writer, there is no doubt in it, nevertheless this book has a very weird story, it's funny, it comes from the heart but still is weird. if you are looking for something different, this is the book for you.

book for school

Title: SELF by Yann MartelI love his vocabulary and expressions.... and reality !Impressive how he can become so many different people.

Yann Martel's books are always interesting

Very good novel, I needed it for an academic paper.

I like the book but sometimes in terms of content it was irrelevant. The structure is good but a bit tedious. This is an usual trend with Martel's books. But keeping the top parts aside I think it is a great book.

Die Idee, dass einem Fische in den Augen schwimmen, wenn man verliebt ist, ist ja ganz nett, trägt allerdings keinen Roman.Da muss mehr kommen. Der Autor wechselt auf wundersame Weise 2 mal sein Geschlecht und hat in beiden Erscheinungsformen homo- sowie auch heterosexuellen Sex und reist in der Welt herum. Aber auch das macht das Buch nicht wirklich interessant.Natürlich fragt man sich manchmal, "hey, war das jetzt biographisch oder fiktiv?", so wie es der Autor auch offensichtlich gewollt hat.Inhaltlich fand ich das ganze lieblos aufbereitet, langweilig geschrieben, ich habe mich streckenweise hindurchgequält.Aus dem Thema hätte man mehr machen können.

such a joy to read & re-read