The Soul Sustaining Power of Fiction

By comparison to the soul crushing power of academia, is pretty weak. I've been reading "The Life of Pi" and have found not a bit of spiritual elevation in it. Granted, I'm an atheist, and I haven't finished the book yet, but come on, I'm more than half way through and though an interesting read, it hasn't told me anything about the nature of the world or faith that I didn't already know. Ok, the kid loves God, he doesn't let denomination stand in the way of that. He had a really tough time at sea with a tiger. The problem isn't the suspension of disbelief in the events of the book, its the fact that I don't see the connection with spirituality. In the Author's note, he makes the claim that this story made him believe in God and that everyone who had heard the story before he terned it into a novel agreed. But its fiction, it's all fiction. It might have made him believe in God, but then a romp with a really hot french woman might have done the same for him. Some people, just believe too easily. Others of us will never believe.
One thing that pissed me off was the depiction of the only atheist in the book. The guy is an atheist because of great suffering in his life and it is so steryotypical that i almost want to puke.