This month's book is "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" by Paul Torday.
It is a wonderful story, written in a very clever style, as diary entries, e-mails, newspaper excerpts etc, giving the reader a picture of the story from many aspects - and showing the politics behind the most simple of stories.
Book Club at Home notes:
This book is written using a very clever device - each chapter is presented as a different medium - ie: a group of e-mails, a diary entry, a newspaper report or an interview.
This allows the reader to get a perfect understanding of the story as it unfolds, but also the ability to see the opinions and motivations of different characters within the story. This method allows the reader to gain a deeper insight into the evolution of the events than can be gained from a normal narrative from one view - ie: a book where the story is written from one persons view and so unexpected things happen to the main character - and is more interesting than many books that narrate from several points and jump about between characters.
Salmon fishing in the Yemen is the story of a very staid man who has had a very protected life. He is obviously highly intelligent - but has no drive at all. He is pushed around by people and events, including the woman who decided to marry him, and he follows the line of least resistance.
He feel secure in this role and doesn't really recognise that he could live in a more exciting or risky life outside of his civil service existence.
However events happen to him.
Initially he turns down the opportunity of being involved in the project to introduce Salmon to the Yemen - but forces beyond his control force his hand. Once forced, he samples a life that he has no experience of. His unsupportive, but absent, wife is a wonderful measure by which the reader can judge how he develops through the book.
Not surprisingly, the change in his life and circumstances of his work opens his eyes to all that is missing in his life. He falls in love with the project - as well as one of his close colleagues on the project - and the scene is set for a great triumph or an unmitigated disaster ....
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a wonderful book in many aspects - it has a very clever narrative style and device - and it shows the pressures on a middle aged man living without passion or excitement in his life, who suddenly has both thrust upon him.
Please feels free to add your comments or points for further discussion.
