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Performance
Overall
Excellent, Unforgettable, Best of the nest
Very good, thoroughly enjoyed,
Good, Solid, Enjoyed many aspects
STAR RATINGS GUIDE
Simply Ex-squid-site, Gill-Splitting Brilliance.
THE BIRDICT
🧡 The ultimate ode to British understatement, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen owes much of its charm to its endearing characters, particularly the downtrodden Fred Jones and elegant Harriet Chetwode-Talbot. Their correspondence and interactions say so little and yet so much.
💚 Torday has a talent for making anyone an expert - or enthusiast at the very least - in even the most obscure subject. He is also the master of normalising the absurd. Then he toys with the comic possibilities. And maintains more than a semblance of reality. And so, not only did I understand how absurd it would be to fish for salmon in the Yemen, but I came to accept it was possible anyway.
💛 Between the "very drôle" humour and governmental themes, it's no surprise that it's been compared to the genius of Yes Prime Minister.
SQUAWKING THE TALK
🎧 A who's who cast of eminent narrators - this comes straight from the top - perform this audiobook and the result is just as dry, just as plummy and just as funny as it deserves. A 5-starfish affair if ever there was one. And all the better for delightful little touches like Andrew Marr portraying himself.
🎧 It's worth saying as well that the punctuation of occasional musical interludes to signal certain sections beginning or ending was executed subtly so as not to interfere with the content, but enough to help the listener.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER: SIMILAR AUDIOBOOKS
No spoilers for this one. Maybe next time!
Click For Spoilers
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
THE BLURB
Written as a "report into the circumstances surrounding the decision to introduce salmon into the Yemen", this is a novel that is made up of e-mails, letters, diary extracts, records of the prime minister's Question Time, interviews, and chapters from the memoirs of a fantastically weaselly Peter Mandelson-type figure.
The "Yes Minister" comparisons are justified (and there is some brilliant, hilarious political and bureaucratic satire here), but at its heart, this is the story of a hen-pecked, slightly pompous, middle-aged scientist who finds himself caught up in what seems like an impossible project, and of how this project changes his life. In the process, he becomes an unlikely and rather lovable hero, discovers true love for himself, finds himself both a pawn and then a victim of political spin, leaves his brilliantly horrible wife, and learns to believe in the impossible. And he takes the listener with him in the process.
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