First of all I have to say I still like Life of Pi better than this book, mainly because of the way the story arc progresses. However, Beatrice and Virgil does a great job of writing style imitating action. At times the flow seems a little muddled or drawn out when the main character is struggling with expression, waiting for the Taxidermist to do something, waiting for the action to really start. The narrative moves swiftly in the last few sections when the major climax occurs. The characters of Beatrice and Virgil remind me a lot of the characters Rosencrantz and Gildenstern in Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are dead, the way they attempt to parse out reality and their role in light of a certain event. I definitely recommend this book to fans of Yann Martel's work.