Life of Pi sort of with a capital 'S' – something that would direct my life." He spoke of being lonely and needing direction in his life, and found that writing the novel met this need. The name of Martel's tiger, Richard Parker, was inspired by a character in Edgar Allan Poe's nautical adventure novel "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" (1838). In this book, Richard Parker is a mutineer who is stranded and eventually cannibalized on the hull of an overturned ship (and there is a dog aboard who is named Tiger). The author also had in mind another occurrence
The Teeth of the Tiger Like "Red Rabbit", Clancy's "The Teeth of the Tiger" was poorly received by critics and reviews for "The Teeth of the Tiger" were "tepid at best." "The Washington Post" described it as a "bloated, boring, silly novel" with "inane dialogue, gossamer characterizations, endless repetition and bumper-sticker politics." The "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" panned it as well, saying that the most positive thing about the book was that it was "mercifully briefer than its chronological predecessor in the Jack Ryan series.". The "San Antonio Express-News" described the novel as "an acceptable thriller" that is "an obvious attempt to reinvent the franchise [Clancy]