COMMENT Would the unflattering comparison irk Chinese readers? I reflected on this as the idea for the article bobbed about in my head like a lifeboat drifting in the Pacific Ocean.

I blame Yann Martel, the author of the book for this predicament. For it was he, despite the abundance of more dignified predators in the animal kingdom, who chose a hyena.

I nevertheless press ahead but not without first expressing sincere regret to those who might feel slighted by the hyena-Chinese reference.

If you thought director Ang Lee’s Oscar winning celluloid adaptation of ‘Life of Pi’ was brilliant, then you should read the book, which I did over the past week. It is, in one word, magnificent.

For those not acquainted with this fantasy tale either in its cinematic or literary manifestations, allow me to recount the plot in brief.

A sixteen-year-old boy is sailing in a cargo ship with his family from India to Canada. On board with them is a host of animals, given that his father owned a zoo. The ship sinks, and the boy finds himself in a lifeboat with an injured zebra, a famished hyena, a 450-pound tiger and a seasick orang utan.

The hyena kills the zebra and orang utan. Later, the tiger butchers the hyena. And the boy spends the next several months on the lifeboat with the tiger...