"What amazes me is the gratuity of it. As you would know, there is a large measure of calculation in what public figures do. But here, what does he gain? I’m not a US citizen. In no way can I be of help to President Obama. Clearly he did it for personal reasons, as a reader and as a father. And in two lines, what an insightful analysis of Life of Pi. Bless him, bless him."Transcript follows.
Transcript
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Mr. Martel —
My daughter and I just finished reading Life of Pi together. Both of us agreed we prefer the story with animals.
It is a lovely book — an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling.
Thank you.
(Signed, 'Barack Obama')
12 comments:
This is odd and I bet he wrote it with his daughter. There can't be any political motivation -- at least not in any way to better relations with the current Canadian government. It is well known in Canada that Yann Martel is not in favour of our current Prime Minister. PM Harper made a comment early on that he had better things to do with his time than read, and Martel took it upon himself to begin a campaign to publicly chastise the PM by sending him a book a month and documenting it here: http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca/
BTW, Life of Pi is a fabulous book. Several years ago, best turn out ever in my book club.
CBS had a good article about the fact that President Obama has a policy of reading 10 constituent letters per day, (selected by a very large staff from the thousands he receives) and, if the urge strikes him, responds on one of those 3x5 cards. He writes 5-15 responses per week.
It's a good article.
"She opened the envelope to find two pieces of cardboard taped together. Protected in between was another envelope, much smaller, and inside that envelope was a notecard adorned with the presidential seal. "
http://bit.ly/ahR3ai
wygit: thanks for sharing that link, it's a great article :-)
And now I need to read Life of Pi as well; thanks for sharing this letter.
How funny Barack Obama read and written about one of his books while Harper is the one he's sending books for almost two years, without answers.
Guess he needs something to do to occupy his time in the White House. And attend daytime talk shows. And make NCAA basketball brackets.
I'm sure you were the very person who asked people to give Bush a break when he did the same sort of "slacking" you accuse Obama of. Like when bush was going hunting. And staying on his ranch. And doing nothing.
What did he mean they liked the version "with animals" better? The illustrated version?
This book is a proof of a supernatural being?
Wow, must be a hell of a book!
Anon 1 August 2010 23:10
In the novel there are two parts.. the main part is with animals, the second part is not.
I would explain more, but it would give away the plot.
Read it! It's an excellent book.
Clearly, the writer of this letter (Obama) does not have a clue of what a proof is.
(As a side remark, I personally did not like the Life of Pi--but this is my opinion.)
So fun! Thanks for sharing. I loved LIFE OF PI as well.
Isn't he just setting a good example to his daughter? Telling her.... 'let people know when you've enjoyed their work.' Simple as that.
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