The Salmon of Doubt Mass Market Paperback – April 26, 2005

Douglas Noel Adams (D.N.A) probably stands as the successor to P. G. Wodehouse as the creator of a complete world with a delightfully tenuous connection to reality, a unique comic narrative voice, and an appreciation of the artifice of fiction that makes Nabokov look like a stodgy duffer.This book collects fugitive pieces, interviews, and the remnants of his final, incomplete novel, The Salmon of Doubt. All the pieces are wonderful, and the Salmon of Doubt has a certain poignance.Adams, a world-class procrastinator (worse even than Duke Ellington), worked for years to produce roughly 70-80 pages of a Dirk Gently novel. Before his early death in a gym during his regular workout at age 49 (an irony he might have appreciated), he wasn't sure that the novel was right for Dirk Gently and entertained the idea of revising it as a sixth Hitchiker's book, adding several more years that he didn't have to the project. The fragment, however, is wonderful in its own right and includes a Siamese cat that is half-missing (reminds me a bit of Schrödinger's cat, there and not-there simultaneously), and a mysterious client whom Dirk has never met, seen, or consulted with, and whose existence is revealed only by Dirk's bank balance. There are other absurdities, all presumably connected, but we'll never know how. Nevertheless, Adams masterfully plants the sense that the wildly disparate events are indeed connected. The novel ends, necessarily, abruptly, in the middle of confusion, and I felt as if yanked back from an abyss, as well as disappointed at never knowing how the plot would have resolved (or not), and sad that Adams died way too early, not only for his friends and family, but for me and perhaps you.

Hearing about Douglas Adams' untimely death was certainly a shock to all of his fans, myself included. I had been a big follower of his HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE series, I had greatly enjoyed his DOCTOR WHO scripts, and his DIRK GENTLY novels simply get better and better on every read-through. The thought of a world with nothing more forthcoming from Douglas Adams is simply not a happy one. However, upon hearing about the release of what existed of his final novel, I'll admit that I was slightly skeptical. From all reports, Adams was quite a perfectionist, and it seemed clear that whatever was pieced together from his hard-drive would be nothing like what he would have eventually completed. But now, having read the book, I'm glad that I did so, despite its fragmented style and incomplete status. It's given us a last look, and for that alone we should be grateful.The book with the words "The Salmon Of Doubt" on the cover is actually a hodgepodge of various articles, essays, introductions, speeches, odd thoughts and other writings of which the incomplete novel, THE SALMON OF DOUBT, is only a small part. The non-fiction portion (which accounts for most of the pages) reveals a very witty and intelligent author, who was quite outspoken about those topics close to his heart, and who put those views forward in a thought-provoking and amusing way. The editor has gamely attempted to organize this collection into groups of similar topics, but to be honest it doesn't feel organized at all. This is basically just a random compilation of different writings all thrown together into a single volume. Douglas Adams had far-ranging tastes and interests, and while you will see some recurring topics (his love of the Beatles is omnipresent), you won't find any real sense of coherence. But you will find a lot of intelligently argued and hilarious essays on subjects as diverse as technology, the environment, P. G. Wodehouse, atheism, and other people's dogs.Reviewing what exists of THE SALMON OF DOUBT is a very difficult task. There are a lot of plot points and threads that obviously aren't wrapped up or even properly started. What is here is great, but would that level of quality be maintained? Would the plot be continued in a satisfying manner, or would all the clever hints that were dropped be discarded? It's impossible to determine how the rest of the story would have gone. The editors give us as much information as they could, but even Douglas Adams apparently hadn't decided whether it would continue to be a Dirk Gently book, or if he would switch it over to his Hitchhikers universe. The only real way I have of reviewing the tiny (80 pages) block of THE SALMON OF DOUBT is to say that I did enjoy reading it, I'm heartbroken that there isn't any more of it, and I'll certainly reread this in the future. If only it wasn't so short.If you had any misgivings about reading an incomplete work, then I can only try to persuade you to go ahead and devour this anyway. A tantalizing fraction of a Douglas Adams book is still better than no Douglas Adams book at all. The non-fiction writings are provocative and the Hitchhiker humor is displayed on every page. Take a final stroll through the last words of Douglas Adams; you'll be very sorry that the ride is over, but you'll be glad that you got on board.So long, Doug, and thanks for all the wit.

He made hitchhiking a universal thing.Literally.Douglas Adams, author of the five books in the vastly popular comic-space saga "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy (you did indeed read that correctly), plus an assortment of other novels, died in May 2001.Now comes a posthumous collection of his writings, called "The Salmon of Doubt," which allows his fans one last, gentle look at a revolutionary voice in literature and science-fiction."Salmon" is very much a toast to Adams, a eulogy to him.The assembled writings are fabulous, culled from a massive selection of writings, letters, essays, various introductions and other things from Adams' computer.The title refers to an included unfinished Dirk Gently book which, had he lived, might have turned into the sixth "Hitchhiker" book.Other points of interest:The first published work of twelve-year-old Douglas Adams, a letter to the editor to "The Eagle," a popular boys' magazine."Y," in which Adams helpfully points out that the question "Why?" is the only one important enough to have had a letter named after it."Riding the Rays," in which Adams gets the idea to compare riding a new technological submarine, the "Sub Bug," to riding manta rays off the coast of Manta Ray Bay near Australia, the rejection of his proposal when it comes to riding the rays and, upon discovering a manta in said bay, his ease with giving up the pursuit of a ride. Quite possibly the best entry in the whole book."Is There an Artificial God?" is an interesting speech from Adams on his aetheism, as he breaks downb his non-belief into steps and explores the contrasts between science and religion."Cookies," in which Adams finds himself plagued by the most horrid of human entities: The cookie thief. Or does he?A letter to Disney's unresponsive David Vogel leaving a chart of numbers at which Adams can possibly be reached."The Private Life of Genghis Khan": A woman whose village has just been pillaged and burnt to the ground by the Mongol now finds herself right next to him, with one of his warriors forcing her to ask the mighty Khan how his day was...It is almost spooky how, in a review/essay of P.G. Wodehouse's unfinished novel "Sunset at Blandings," Adams laments the fact that Wodehouse's final work is "unfinished not just in the sense that it suddenly, heartbreakingly for those of us who love this man and his work, stops in midflow, but in the more important sense that the text up to that point is also unfinished."Heartbreakingly stopped in midflow, unfinished? The same can be said of Adams himself.

Ripeto, è in inglese ma è davvero una storia divertente,quindi se il vostro inglese non si è fermato nei banchi di scuola è una bella lettura

Made me laugh - especially the train station biscuit story

Look good.

Item as expected. Good purchase, fast delivery

GOOD