Life of Pi by Yann Martel

I really enjoyed this book. The problem that I had with it was the same as I had with The Kite Runner in that I was going along loving the story and enjoying it until I got (near) to the end, where suddenly there was a horribly depressing ending. This isn't exactly a requirement for an enjoyable read, but it's probably necessary for "really good literature." Nevertheless, it's something that jars me from my enjoyment of the book as a nice escape and draws me back to merely enjoying the book as an excellently written piece of fiction. While that is fine in and of itself, I have a feeling that that need for something that is simply enjoyable as an escape is probably a big part of why I read more "pulp" type fiction that has little muscle behind it; lots of sci fi etc. I dislike conflict in my real life, and unpleasant things, and tend to enjoy far more movies and books and television where the conflict and tension is so stylized and/or fantastic that I can separate myself from it basically in the same act as the suspension of disbelief -- sci fi works well for this.

At any rate, this was an enjoyable read and even with the knowledge in the back of my head that something like the ending unpleasantness was coming, it still will be fairly fondly remembered as a fun, fantastic read.