SOURCE: Hamelin, Christine. “Self and Other.” Canadian Forum 75, no. 854 (November 1996): 43-4.

In the following review of Self, Hamelin asserts that Martel's narrative combines good storytelling with a genuinely experimental approach, but that the book has a tendency to keep the reader at a distance.

Self is a Künstlerroman—an artist's novel—whose challenging of conventions generates much vitality. Although it is a fictional autobiography, its unnamed protagonist is, like the author, a writer in his early 30s with diplomat parents. Yet Yann Martel would likely disapprove of any quibbling about genre: Self embraces diversity, shattering all categories.

As a child, the protagonist absorbs the world with openness: “I treated the vacuum cleaner—a distant cousin of the elephant—and the washing machine—a relative of the racoon—with the greatest respect.” Sensitive and intelligent like St-Exupery's Petit Prince, he expounds complex theories about the universe.

Shocked to...