Salmon sacrificed to the political angle

FictionA man has a wish, he wants to see salmon leaping - and being caught. Admittedly, his wish is slightly complicated in that he wants to see this activity taking place in the Yemen, a place not usually associated with salmon-fishing.

The man, for all his virtues, is not quite the average God-fearing, fishing-mad guy in the street. Sheikh Muhammad is modest and God-fearing but fantastically wealthy. So wealthy that he can afford to fund a project initially denounced by Dr Alfred Jones, a scientist at the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence, as "quite frankly, risible."

Dull, sensible Dr Jones makes good sense. His objections are scientifically based. However, the government, at least the more media-driven aspects of it, sees this as an exciting public relations stunt, showcasing British-Yemeni relations at a time when events in Iraq have become more than merely awkward. Dr Jones soon realises that he had better co-operate - or lose his job.

Paul Torday's bizarrely moral debut offers whimsy, sitcom humour, numerous swipes at the two-faced carry on of egocentric politicians - including a joke, Blair-like prime minister - and more than a love song to the noble art of angling as practised by dreamers and romantics. It also suggests that anything can be attempted, providing someone is willing to pay. The sheikh is more than willing; he is determined. Dr Jones, civil servant and scientist, has other problems as well. His 20-year marriage to Mary, a career-obsessed cold fish, is a loveless alliance sustained by her bossiness and his apparent inability to function without her.

Torday has fun with e-mail as the new form of communication, challenged only by the text message, which thankfully has no part in a narrative driven by e-mails, letters, diary entries, an unpublished autobiography written by one of the more unsavoury characters, and exchanges offered during question time in the House of Commons.

Jones, the forty something scientist, is a dreamer, or at least appears to be one if only in comparison with his monster of a wife. As expected, he quickly falls prey to the more human charms of Harriet, a young land agent who is acting for the sheikh. Much of this episodic novel is told from the viewpoint of Alfred Jones, who sees in the sheikh something of a visionary, albeit a rich one. Despite all the money, the private jet, the estate in Scotland, the sheikh considers fishing man's last salvation. "High and low, rich and poor, they [fishermen of all descriptions] forget themselves in the contemplation of one of God's mysteries: the salmon, and why sometimes it will take the fly in its mouth and sometimes, it will not."

In the character of Sheikh Muhammad, Torday has created a likeable presence whose absolute dedication to his dream serves to elevate the book above the more routine selfishness of most of the other players. Alfred Jones, though far from exciting, and predictable in his emotions, succeeds in remaining on the plausible side of literary. Torday ensures that Jones continues in his many journal entries to sound like a scientist and confused husband instead of a novelist.

IF THE PROJECT itself seems crazy, the double-dealings and opportunism which surrounds it are not. Much of the satire is, as expected, milked from the double-act of the prime minister, Jay Vent, and his creepy communications advisor, Peter Maxwell. Events in Iraq loom large throughout and for all the arch comedy, it is a topical book with a sufficiently dark underbelly to grant it substance.

In an age of global terrorism, it says something for a novelist that he can win sympathy for the plight of innocent salmon being transported out to the desert to face certain death.

Interestingly, death at the end of a fishing rod in Scotland or elsewhere does not seem to carry comparable pathos. There is also the spectacle of hypocrisy run riot as the selfcongratulatory Vent pontificates about the joy of bringing salmon-fishing to the Yemen, not forgetting the increased sales of British-manufactured fishing gear.

Just in case the reader hasn't smirked enough at the government, events in Iraq and various cover-ups are included.

The best writing in the book is in the passages featuring the salmon. This is where the narrative really lives. Miracles are often difficult to deal with convincingly and just when it seems that Torday is facing certain failure he makes two very clever choices and consolidates them by concluding in a mood of sombre realism.

By avoiding the obvious, his eccentric, contrived but always readable fable avoids easy polemic and instead conveys moral intent.

Eileen Battersby is Literary Correspondent of The Irish Times

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen By Paul Torday Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 323pp. £10.99