April 25, 2007

  • This was a very witty and enjoyable book from beginning to the end. It's about a shiek's hairbrained scheme to bring salmon fishing to Yemen in order to increase tourism opportunities in the region but more importantly because he thinks the calming activity will unite people within the country. The book pieces together journal entries, interviews, magazine articles, letters, court proceedings, etc. in order to tell the story.  There was not enough variation in tone between the several mediums to convince you that there were by different authors but that is one of my only gripes and it really didn't even bother me that much.  I especially liked Alfred's (the main character) journal entries since they were so honest. You only get that sort of honesty within one's own journal entries.  This novel has a little bit of everything: humor, satire, love, relationships, emotional development, faith - and all in a very unique storyline.