Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday was a political satire on New Labour spin in Britain. And about an attempt to bring salmon to the Yemen so the people could enjoy the wonderful effects of fishing.

Tropes used in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen include:
  • All Love Is Unrequited: And how. We've got Fred for Harriet and Peter for Jay, although the latter is more implicit. None of the requited relationships work out too well either.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Bodering on Downer Ending. The project succeeds but just about everything else goes down in flames - Jay and the Sheikh die in a flood, along with the funding for the project, Harriet and Fred part while he stays married to Mary and Peter turns into a train wreck. The only real bright spot is that Fred finds a decent job and the Yemeni government are considering rebooting the project in the distant future.
  • Exactly What it Says on the Tin: The title, presumably.
  • Did Not Get the Girl: Fred.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Peter, by the end.
  • Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: Attempted, but the Bittersweet Ending makes it a little difficult to take to heart, even when it makes sense - the project worked because the people involved actually believed in it, but Fred never really believed things would work between him and Harriet and therefore they didn't and everyone seemed to think that both the Sheikh and Jay so great that they were invulnerable, or at least less vulnerable than anybody else when they clearly weren't.
  • Things We Have Learnt From Media: If there's frankinscence burning while you sleep, you'll have a sex dream.
  • Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Somewhat implied by British troops having been called in to protect Saudi oil fields.