Salmon Fishing in the Yemen |
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Paul Torday
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Pages: 320 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0297851586
Pub: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Pub date: 2007-02-08
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 101379
Reader Reviews:
Unusual Book, Unusual Story (0/0 people found this helpful)
Intriguing titles seem to be the order of the day. This one comes into the same category on that front as A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. Overall it was a much more satisfying read, however.
Salmon Fishing has a satirical feel to it and in parts is very clever and sharp in its observations. It is an enjoyable read and the messages within it are subtle. The idea of a scientist whose previous claim to fame is writing a paper on cadis flies being thrust into the limelight to work a miracle in the Yemeni desert is pure irony.
The only disappointment is the ending, which I think the author felt brought a clever twist. Unfortunately it tends to let the book down in being slightly silly and rather unedifying compared to what has gone before.
Nevertheless the book does work on several levels. It's a story of redemption, of unrequited love, of faith in both the sacred and secular forms. It is also a wonderful comment on government spin and political correctness - something that has been dragging our country down for the past few years. Anyone who has worked in a large organisation will be able to understand the politics involved here and the way people are thrown to the wolves on the whim of a government.
Setting up salmon fisheries in the Yemeni desert may sound both dull and implausible. But the subject matter is just the outer shell of a variety of strands within the book and the catylist for some very sharp writing.
In government communications officer Peter Maxwell, Torday has invented an entirely odious character. It isn't too difficult to see parallels between him and the New Labour spin doctors that we were subjected to under the Tony Blair regime. Overall it's an original novel with bags of charm and wit.
Light, clever, satirical (0/0 people found this helpful)
Bloated bureaucracy, faith, personal conflicts are the theme of this book. It tells the story of a wealthy sheikh's ludicrous plan to introduce salmons to the wadis of Yemen, a number of characters involved in the project, their personal lives, conflicts and of all the ridiculous nature of the bureaucrats.
The story is told in the form of a series of diary entries (Dr.Jones, the central character), e-mail conversations, letters, extracts from interviews etc. It is somewhat odd, but add to the comical nature of the book.
Overall, a funny, entertaining read.
Lovely! (0/0 people found this helpful)
An intelligent novel, cleverly presented with a dash of romance and some hilarious one-liners.
Well worth a read.
A quick, mildly entertaining read (1/1 people found this helpful)
I was intrigued by the title of this book. A series of emails, diary snippets, letters, interrogation transcripts, even Hansard entries reveal the sequence of events surrounding an initiative to bring salmon to the dry river-beds of the Middle East.
Relationships as varied as man and wife, science and faith, politics and war are explored through the perspectives of a government fisheries scientist, the well-heeled estate agent fiancee of an officer serving in Iraq, and the spin doctor of the current government.
It's quite readable, though the writing excels the most around the description of the project and the technical details of fishing. It becomes a little less sure of itself around the more personal or "romantic" scenes in the book.
The ending is so surprising - it comes across as a desperate measure to end a story that the author wouldn't know what to do with otherwise. It feels a bit bolted on.
None of the characters are particularly sympathetic, and the transformation of Alfred Jones from strait-laced scientist to supposed romantic visionary is unconvincing. Nevertheless, this book has moments of competence, though for me it was really the title that "hooked" me and made me want to read on.
Not convinced (0/0 people found this helpful)
Looking at the blurb and press write ups I bought this as a bit of light entertainment.
However, while the main plot line of underlying story is good, amusing and uplifting, the style of the telling is not. I wasn't convinced by the constant jumping between memo's, emails, the records of slightly sinister official interviews and the main protagonist's diary entries. I also felt that the sub-plots were far-fetched and the ending was, quite frankly, ridiculous.
So all in all, it didn't really do it for me.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> General
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Hardcover