There is a link between Yann Martel's Beatrice and Virgil and Dante's Beatrice and Virgil from his famous poem The Divine Comedy.
From wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy
The poem is written in the first person, and tells of Dante's journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting from the night before Good Friday to the Wednesday after Easter in the spring of 1300.
The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory;
Beatrice,
Dante's ideal woman, guides him through Heaven. Beatrice was a
Florentine woman whom he had met in childhood and admired from afar in
the mode of the then-fashionable courtly love tradition, which is highlighted in Dante's earlier work La Vita Nuova.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Beatrice & Virgil discussion questions
1. What is Beatrice & Virgil about?
2. Discuss the main characters. What are Henry and the taxidermist like? How are they different from one another, and in what ways are they similar? What are Beatrice and Virgil like?
3. What do you think of Henry’s original idea for his book? Do you agree with him that the Holocaust needs to be remembered in different ways, beyond the confines of “historical realism”? Why, or why not?
4. What is the importance of self-reflexivity in the novel? For example, does Henry remind you of Yann Martel? How does Beatrice & Virgil relate to the book that Henry wanted to publish originally? Who writes the story?
5. How would you compare Beatrice & Virgil to Life of Pi? How do Yann Martel’s aims in the two novels differ, and how does he go about achieving them?
6. Close to the start of the book, Henry (the writer) says, “A book is a part of speech. At the heart of mine is an incredibly upsetting event that can survive only in dialogue” (p. 12). Why would this be the case? How does it influence the form of the book we are reading?
7. Describe the role Flaubert’s story “The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator” plays in the novel.
8. Why doesn’t the waiter at the cafe address the taxidermist?
9. How do you explain Henry’s wife’s reaction to the taxidermist and his workshop?
10. How do you feel about the play A 20th-Century Shirt? Could it be performed? Does it remind you of anything? What role does it play in the book?
11. Who are Beatrice and Virgil in literature? Which other books and writers do you find influencing this one, and with what effects?
12. What moral challenges does Beatrice & Virgil present the reader with? What does it leave you thinking about?
13. What are the different kinds of theatre, acting and performance in Beatrice & Virgil and what do they add to the book?
14. What is the significance of names in the novel, especially Henry’s full name?
15. How is writing like or unlike taxidermy in the book?
16. What role do Erasmus and Mendelssohn play in the novel, and why does it matter?
17. What is your favourite part of Beatrice & Virgil?
18. How do the two parts of the book relate? How do they connect to Henry’s original plan for his book? Or, to put it another way: why “Games for Gustav”?
19. What do Henry’s non-literary activities—music lessons, waiting tables—tell us about him as a character? What else do they add to the book?
20. How is Henry changed by the events of the novel? How does this relate to Beatrice and Virgil having “no reason to change” (p. 151) over the course of their play?
21. Beatrice & Virgil stresses compound words, new words, overvalued words, words that are “cold, muddy toads trying to understand sprites dancing in a field” (p. 88)—what are some of the key words in the book, and how are words important as a theme in the novel?
22. How do Henry and Henry help each other write?
23. What is the significance of 68 Nowolipki Street?
24. Does Beatrice & Virgil itself aim to “make the Holocaust portable” for modern memory? Does it succeed in doing so? How does the book’s ending change things?
25. What is the significance of the word “Aukitz” in the novel, and in the book design?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/1239-beatrice-and-virgil-martel?start=3
2. Discuss the main characters. What are Henry and the taxidermist like? How are they different from one another, and in what ways are they similar? What are Beatrice and Virgil like?
3. What do you think of Henry’s original idea for his book? Do you agree with him that the Holocaust needs to be remembered in different ways, beyond the confines of “historical realism”? Why, or why not?
4. What is the importance of self-reflexivity in the novel? For example, does Henry remind you of Yann Martel? How does Beatrice & Virgil relate to the book that Henry wanted to publish originally? Who writes the story?
5. How would you compare Beatrice & Virgil to Life of Pi? How do Yann Martel’s aims in the two novels differ, and how does he go about achieving them?
6. Close to the start of the book, Henry (the writer) says, “A book is a part of speech. At the heart of mine is an incredibly upsetting event that can survive only in dialogue” (p. 12). Why would this be the case? How does it influence the form of the book we are reading?
7. Describe the role Flaubert’s story “The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator” plays in the novel.
8. Why doesn’t the waiter at the cafe address the taxidermist?
9. How do you explain Henry’s wife’s reaction to the taxidermist and his workshop?
10. How do you feel about the play A 20th-Century Shirt? Could it be performed? Does it remind you of anything? What role does it play in the book?
11. Who are Beatrice and Virgil in literature? Which other books and writers do you find influencing this one, and with what effects?
12. What moral challenges does Beatrice & Virgil present the reader with? What does it leave you thinking about?
13. What are the different kinds of theatre, acting and performance in Beatrice & Virgil and what do they add to the book?
14. What is the significance of names in the novel, especially Henry’s full name?
15. How is writing like or unlike taxidermy in the book?
16. What role do Erasmus and Mendelssohn play in the novel, and why does it matter?
17. What is your favourite part of Beatrice & Virgil?
18. How do the two parts of the book relate? How do they connect to Henry’s original plan for his book? Or, to put it another way: why “Games for Gustav”?
19. What do Henry’s non-literary activities—music lessons, waiting tables—tell us about him as a character? What else do they add to the book?
20. How is Henry changed by the events of the novel? How does this relate to Beatrice and Virgil having “no reason to change” (p. 151) over the course of their play?
21. Beatrice & Virgil stresses compound words, new words, overvalued words, words that are “cold, muddy toads trying to understand sprites dancing in a field” (p. 88)—what are some of the key words in the book, and how are words important as a theme in the novel?
22. How do Henry and Henry help each other write?
23. What is the significance of 68 Nowolipki Street?
24. Does Beatrice & Virgil itself aim to “make the Holocaust portable” for modern memory? Does it succeed in doing so? How does the book’s ending change things?
25. What is the significance of the word “Aukitz” in the novel, and in the book design?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/1239-beatrice-and-virgil-martel?start=3
Two opposite thoughts on Beatrice & Virgil
Beatrice and Virgil is so dull, so misguided, so pretentious
that only the prospect of those millions of "Pi" fans could secure the
interest of major publishers and a multimillion-dollar advance. This
short tale runs into trouble almost from its first precious page with an
autobiographical portrait of the thinly disguised author.
Ron Charles - Washington Post
Dark but divine.... This novel might just be a masterpiece about the Holocaust.... Martel brilliantly guides the reader from the too-sunny beginning into the terrifying darkness of the old man's shop and Europe's past. Everything comes into focus by the end, leaving the reader startled, astonished, and moved.
USA Today
Ron Charles - Washington Post
Dark but divine.... This novel might just be a masterpiece about the Holocaust.... Martel brilliantly guides the reader from the too-sunny beginning into the terrifying darkness of the old man's shop and Europe's past. Everything comes into focus by the end, leaving the reader startled, astonished, and moved.
USA Today
Oh, that's interesting...
I thought I'd share this piece from a bio about Yann Martel at http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/1239-beatrice-and-virgil-martel?start=1
Meanwhile, Martel managed to write and publish two books: a collection of short stories titled The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios in 1993 and a novel about gender confusion called Self in 1996. Both books sold only moderately well, further frustrating the writer. In an effort to collect his thoughts and refresh his creativity, he took a trip to India, first spending time in bustling Bombay. However, the overcrowded city only furthered Martel's feelings of alienation and dissolution. He then decided to move on to Matheran, a section near Bombay but without that city's dense population. In this peaceful hill station overlooking the city, Martel began revisiting an idea he had not considered in some time, the premise he had unwittingly created when reading Updike's review in the New York Times Review of Books. He developed the idea even further away from Max and the Cats. While Scliar's novel was an extended holocaust allegory, Martel envisioned his story as a witty, whimsical, and mysterious meditation on zoology and theology. Unlike Max Schmidt, Pi Patel would, indeed, be the son of a zookeeper. Martel would, however, retain the shipwrecked-with-beasts theme from Max and the Cats. During an ocean exodus from India to Canada, the ship sinks and Pi finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with such unlikely shipmates as a zebra, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
The resulting novel, Life of Pi, became the smash-hit for which Martel had been longing. Selling well over a million copies and receiving the accolades of Book Magazine, Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, and, yes, the New York Times Review of Books, Life of Pi has been published in over 40 countries and territories, in over 30 languages. It is currently in production by Fox Studios with a script by master-of-whimsy Jean-Pierre Jeunet (City of Lost Children; Amélie) and directorial duties to be handled by Alfonso Cuarón (Y tu mamá también; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).
Martel is now working on his third novel, a bizarrely allegorical adventure about a donkey and a monkey that travel through a fantastical world...on a shirt. Well, at least no one will ever accuse him of borrowing that premise from any other writer.
PLUS
Extras
From a 2002 Barnes & Noble interview:
• Life of Pi is not Yann Martel's first work to be adapted for the screen. His short story "Manners of Dying" was made into a motion picture by fellow Canadian resident Jeremy Peter Allen in 2004.
• When he isn't penning modern masterpieces, Martel spends much of his time volunteering in a palliative care unit.
• When asked what book was most influential to his career as a writer, here's what he said:
Meanwhile, Martel managed to write and publish two books: a collection of short stories titled The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios in 1993 and a novel about gender confusion called Self in 1996. Both books sold only moderately well, further frustrating the writer. In an effort to collect his thoughts and refresh his creativity, he took a trip to India, first spending time in bustling Bombay. However, the overcrowded city only furthered Martel's feelings of alienation and dissolution. He then decided to move on to Matheran, a section near Bombay but without that city's dense population. In this peaceful hill station overlooking the city, Martel began revisiting an idea he had not considered in some time, the premise he had unwittingly created when reading Updike's review in the New York Times Review of Books. He developed the idea even further away from Max and the Cats. While Scliar's novel was an extended holocaust allegory, Martel envisioned his story as a witty, whimsical, and mysterious meditation on zoology and theology. Unlike Max Schmidt, Pi Patel would, indeed, be the son of a zookeeper. Martel would, however, retain the shipwrecked-with-beasts theme from Max and the Cats. During an ocean exodus from India to Canada, the ship sinks and Pi finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with such unlikely shipmates as a zebra, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
The resulting novel, Life of Pi, became the smash-hit for which Martel had been longing. Selling well over a million copies and receiving the accolades of Book Magazine, Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, and, yes, the New York Times Review of Books, Life of Pi has been published in over 40 countries and territories, in over 30 languages. It is currently in production by Fox Studios with a script by master-of-whimsy Jean-Pierre Jeunet (City of Lost Children; Amélie) and directorial duties to be handled by Alfonso Cuarón (Y tu mamá también; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).
Martel is now working on his third novel, a bizarrely allegorical adventure about a donkey and a monkey that travel through a fantastical world...on a shirt. Well, at least no one will ever accuse him of borrowing that premise from any other writer.
PLUS
Extras
From a 2002 Barnes & Noble interview:
• Life of Pi is not Yann Martel's first work to be adapted for the screen. His short story "Manners of Dying" was made into a motion picture by fellow Canadian resident Jeremy Peter Allen in 2004.
• When he isn't penning modern masterpieces, Martel spends much of his time volunteering in a palliative care unit.
• When asked what book was most influential to his career as a writer, here's what he said:
I would say Le Petit Chose, by
the French writer Alphonse Daudet. It was the first book to make me cry.
I was around ten years old. It made me see how powerful words could be,
how much we could see and feel through mere black jottings on a page. (Author bio and interview from Barnes & Noble.)
Friday, August 23, 2013
October 2013 book: Fat Profits
"Fat Profits" by Bruce Bradley will be our October 2013 book pick. I waffled between it and the adults books by J.K. Rowling -- but I think those I will save for another day when there aren't so many requests at the library for them!
I can't wait to read "Fat Profits"! I've been following the author's blogs and Facebook posts for awhile. He is a former insider at General Mills and offers quite the look at how our "food" is made these days. This is a novel that is built off his inside knowledge. Should fit right into our food theme :)
ABOUT THE BOOK
Ready for a real page-turning thriller that's sure to keep you up all night?
At a crossroads in his life after a bitter divorce, Andrew Hastings fights to prove he can be a great father while trying to climb the corporate ladder. Desperate to prove himself to his latest boss, Andrew works tirelessly to launch International Food & Milling’s revolutionary, new weight-loss product. However, when a colleague leaves him a cryptic voicemail minutes before her tragic death, Andrew starts asking questions that lead him down a deadly trail of corporate deceit. As the death count rises, Andrew realizes he’s the latest target, and he goes on the run to uncover the truth and save his family.
Showcasing an extraordinary blend of action and suspense with an insider's firsthand expertise of the food industry, Bruce Bradley’s debut novel is a heart-pounding thrill ride reminiscent of Michael Crichton’s finest work. Wrapped in a story of corporate misdeeds that’s all too common in today’s headlines, FAT PROFITS will have you glued to your seat until the very last page.
I can't wait to read "Fat Profits"! I've been following the author's blogs and Facebook posts for awhile. He is a former insider at General Mills and offers quite the look at how our "food" is made these days. This is a novel that is built off his inside knowledge. Should fit right into our food theme :)
ABOUT THE BOOK
Ready for a real page-turning thriller that's sure to keep you up all night?
At a crossroads in his life after a bitter divorce, Andrew Hastings fights to prove he can be a great father while trying to climb the corporate ladder. Desperate to prove himself to his latest boss, Andrew works tirelessly to launch International Food & Milling’s revolutionary, new weight-loss product. However, when a colleague leaves him a cryptic voicemail minutes before her tragic death, Andrew starts asking questions that lead him down a deadly trail of corporate deceit. As the death count rises, Andrew realizes he’s the latest target, and he goes on the run to uncover the truth and save his family.
Showcasing an extraordinary blend of action and suspense with an insider's firsthand expertise of the food industry, Bruce Bradley’s debut novel is a heart-pounding thrill ride reminiscent of Michael Crichton’s finest work. Wrapped in a story of corporate misdeeds that’s all too common in today’s headlines, FAT PROFITS will have you glued to your seat until the very last page.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Gone Girl Discussion Questions
- Questions about the Book:
- In the first third of the book, did you think Nick was guilty? Why or why not?
- In the second part of the book, once you know the truth, what did you think was going to happen with Nick and Amy?
- Do you think someone could actually plan every detail of a set up or murder as perfectly as Amy did?
- What did you expect to happen after Amy returned? Were you surprised by her "final precaution?" Do you think that would truly be enough to get Nick to stay?
- Early on in the book, Amy writes in her diary: "Because isn't that the point of every relationship: to be known by someone else, to be understood?" (29).
Toward the end of the book, on the night of Amy's return, when she is
making the case for going forward together, here is what she says and
Nick thinks:
"'Think about it, Nick, we know each other. Better than anyone in the world now.'
It was true that I'd had this feeling too, in the past month, when I wasn't wishing Amy harm. It would come to me at strange moments--in the middle of the night, up to take a piss, or in the morning pouring a bowl of cereal--I'd detect a nib of admiration, and more than that, fondness for my wife, right in the middle of me, right in the gut. To know exactly what I wanted to hear in those notes, to woo me back to her, even to predict all my wrong moves...the woman knew me cold...All this time I'd thought we were strangers, and it turned out we knew each other intuitively, in our bones, in our blood" (385).
To what extent do you think the desire to be understood drives relationships? Do you understand how this could be appealing to Nick despite everything else? - Nick stops strangling Amy and thinks, "Who would I be without Amy to react to? Because she was right: As a man, I had been my most impressive when I loved her -- and I was my next best self when I hated her...I couldn't return to an average life" (396). Is this believable? Is it possible for Nick to be more fulfilled in an extraordinary relationship where he is understood even if it is manipulative an dangerous? Questions about Life & Marriage Raised by the Book:
- Nick once muses, "It seemed to me that there was nothing new to be discovered ever again...We were the first human beings who would never see anything for the first time. We stare at the wonders of the world, dull-eyed, underwhelmed. Mona Lisa, the Pyramids, the Empire State Building. Jungle animals on attack, ancient icebergs collapsing, volcanoes erupting. I can't recall a single amazing thing I have seen firsthand that I didn't immediately reference to a movie or TV show...I've literally seen it all, and the worst thing, the thing that makes me want to blow my brains out, is: The secondhand experience is always better. The image is crisper, the view keener, the camera angle and soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality can't anymore" (72). Do you think this observation is true about our generation? How do you think this affects relationships? How does it affect the way we live?
- Nick writes,"I got secretly furious, spent ten minutes just winding myself up -- because at this point of our marriage, I was so used to being angry with her, it felt almost enjoyable, like gnawing on a cuticle: You know you should stop, that it doesn't really feel as good as you think, but you can't quit grinding away" (107). Have you experienced this dynamic? Why do you think it feels good to be angry sometimes?
- At one point, Amy quotes the advice "Fake it until you make it." Later, Nick writes, "We pretend to be in love, and we do the things we like to do when we're in love, and it feels almost like love sometimes, because we are so perfectly putting ourselves through the paces" (404). Generally speaking, do you think this is good marriage advice? Do Nick and Amy disprove this advice?
- Rate Gone Girl on a scale of 1 to 5.
1. Consider Amy and Nick Dunne as characters. Do you find them sympathetic...at first? Talk about the ways each reveals him/herself over the course of the novel. At what point do your sympathies begin to change (if they do)?
2. Nick insists from the beginning he had nothing to do with Amy's disappearance. Did you believe him, initially? When did you begin to suspect that he might have something to do with it? At what point did you begin to think he might not?
3. How would you describe the couple's marriage? What does it look like from the outside...and what does it look like from the inside? Where do the stress lines fall in their relationship?
4. On their fifth anniversary, Nick wonders, "What have we done to each other? What will we do?" Is that the kind of question that might present itself in any marriage? Yours? In other words, does this novel make you wonder about your own relationship? And can you ever truly know the other person?
5. Amy and Nick lie. When did you begin to suspect that the two were lying to one another...and to you, the reader? Why do they lie...what do they gain by it?
6. Do you find the Gillian Flynn's technique of alternating first-person narrations compelling...or irritating. Would you have preferred a single, straightforward narrator? What does the author gain by using two different voices?
7. A skillful mystery writer knows which details to reveal and when to reveal them. How much do you know...and when do you know it? In other words, how good is Flynn at burying her clues in plain sight? Now that you know how the story plays out, go back and pick out the clues she left behind for you.
8. Flynn divides her narrative into two parts. Why? What are the difference between the two sections?
9. In what way does Amy's background—her parents' books about her perfection—affect her as an adult?
10. The Dunnes move to North Carthage, near Hannibal, the home of Mark Twain. How has Tom Sawyer been worked into Gone Girl...and why? What does that extra-textual detail add to the story?
11. Did you suspect Nick's big secret? Were you surprised—shocked—by it? Or did you have an inkling?
12. Does Amy try hard enough to like North Carthage? Or is she truly a duck out of water, too urbane to ever fit into a small, Midwestern town?
13. What are Amy's treasure hunts all about? Why does she initiate them for Nick?
14. Critics, to a one, talk about the book's dark humor and author's wit. What passages of the book do you find particularly funny?
15. Movie time: who would you like to see play what part?
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/8836-gone-girl-flynn?start=3
1. Do you like Nick or Amy? Did you find yourself picking a side? Do you think the author intends for us to like them? Why or why not?
2. Does the author intend for us to think of Nick or Amy as the stronger writer? Do you perceive one or the other as a stronger writer, based on their narration/journal entries? Why?
3. Do you think Amy and Nick both believe in their marriage at the outset?
4. Nick, ever conscious of the way he is being perceived, reflects on the images that people choose to portray in the world—constructed, sometimes plagiarized roles that we present as our personalities. Discuss the ways in which the characters—and their opinions of each other—are influenced by our culture’s avid consumption of TV shows, movies, and websites, and our need to fit each other into these roles.
5. Discuss Amy’s false diary, both as a narrative strategy by the author and as a device used by the character. How does the author use it to best effect? How does Amy use it?
6. What do you make of Nick’s seeming paranoia on the day of his fifth anniversary, when he wakes with a start and reports feeling, You have been seen?
7. As experienced consumers of true crime and tragedy, modern “audiences” tend to expect each crime to fit a specific mold: a story, a villain, a heroine. How does this phenomenon influence the way we judge news stories? Does it have an impact on the criminal justice system? Consider the example of the North Carthage police, and also Tanner Bolt’s ongoing advice to Nick.
8. What is Go’s role in the book? Why do you think the author wrote her as Nick’s twin? Is she a likable character?
9. Discuss Amy’s description of the enduring myth of the “cool girl”—and her conviction that a male counterpart (seemingly flawless to women) does not exist. Do you agree? Why does she assume the role if she seems to despise it? What benefit do you think she derives from the act?
10. Is there some truth to Amy’s description of the “dancing monkeys”—her friends’ hapless partners who are forced to make sacrifices and perform “sweet” gestures to prove their love? How is this a counterpoint to the “cool girl”?
11. What do you think of Marybeth and Rand Elliott? Is the image they present sincere? What do you think they believe about Amy?
12. How does the book deal with the divide between perception and reality, or between public image and private lives? Which characters are most skillful at navigating this divide, and how?
13. How does the book capture the feel of the recession—the ending of jobs and contraction of whole industries; economic and geographical shifts; real estate losses and abandoned communities. Are some of Nick and Amy’s struggles emblematic of the time period? Are there any parts of the story that feel unique to this time period?
14. While in hiding, Amy begins to explore what the “real” Amy likes and dislikes. Do you think this is a true exploration of her feelings, or is she acting out yet another role? In these passages, what does she mean when she refers to herself as “I” in quotes?
15. What do you think of Amy’s quizzes—and “correct” answers—that appear throughout the book? As a consistent thread between her Amazing Amy childhood and her adult career, what does her quiz-writing style reveal about Amy’s true personality and her understanding of the world?
16. Do Nick and Amy have friends? Consider Nick’s assurance that Noelle was deluded in her claims of friendship with Amy, and also the friends described in Amy’s journal. How “real” are these friendships? What do you think friendship means to each of them?
17. What was the relationship between Amy and Nick’s father? Do you think the reader is meant to imagine conversations between the two of them? Why does Nick’s father come to Nick and Amy’s home?
18. Amy publicly denounces the local police and criticizes their investigation. Do you think they did a good job of investigating her disappearance? Were there real missteps, or was their failing due to Amy’s machinations?
19. Do you believe Amy truly would have committed suicide? Why does she return?
20. Were you satisfied with the book’s ending? What do you think the future holds for Nick, Amy, and their baby boy?
September 2013 Book: Beatrice & Virgil
For September 2013, Cass has picked "Beatrice and Virgil" for our reading pleasure.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Beatrice and Virgil is Canadian writer Yann Martel's third novel. First published in April 2010, it contains an allegorical tale about representations of the Holocaust. It tells the story of Henry, a novelist, who receives the manuscript of a play in a letter from a reader. Intrigued, Henry traces the letter to a taxidermist, who introduces him to the play's protagonists, two taxidermy animals—Beatrice, a donkey, and Virgil, a monkey.
The Globe and Mail reported that Martel received a $2 million advance from Random House for U.S. rights alone, and that the total advance for worldwide rights was around $3 million, probably the highest ever advance for a single Canadian novel.[1] Martel's earlier novel, Life of Pi, won the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and sold seven million copies worldwide.
The title is an allusion to two of the main characters in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_and_Virgil
ABOUT THE BOOK
Beatrice and Virgil is Canadian writer Yann Martel's third novel. First published in April 2010, it contains an allegorical tale about representations of the Holocaust. It tells the story of Henry, a novelist, who receives the manuscript of a play in a letter from a reader. Intrigued, Henry traces the letter to a taxidermist, who introduces him to the play's protagonists, two taxidermy animals—Beatrice, a donkey, and Virgil, a monkey.
The Globe and Mail reported that Martel received a $2 million advance from Random House for U.S. rights alone, and that the total advance for worldwide rights was around $3 million, probably the highest ever advance for a single Canadian novel.[1] Martel's earlier novel, Life of Pi, won the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and sold seven million copies worldwide.
The title is an allusion to two of the main characters in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_and_Virgil
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