I heard a lot about the book Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by this author but never got around to reading it. What a strange title, I thought, and not altogether appealing. However, I’ll be seeking it out now as this new book with a similarly strange title made quite an impression. How refreshing, too, at this time of year to start a book where the main character drinks five bottles of wine a day and doesn’t think he has a problem.
We meet Wilberforce at the involuntary end of his love affair with expensive wine. He is in a restaurant ordering his second bottle of $7600 Bordeaux when what remains of his life comes crashing down around him, or rather he crashes down. By going back in time, year by year, Wilberforce’s sad story is revealed.
Adopted by a pleasant but far from loving couple, he has grown up seeking refuge in computer programmes and almost accidentally ends up owning a very successful IT company. A chance meeting with some “hooray Henrys” (loud upper-class fools) sets Wilberforce on the road to ruin, however. So, he finally has some friends, some adventure, and even thanks to the beautiful Catherine some love in his life.
But as he develops a taste for the finer things, especially the wine, he loses sight of all else. Wilberforce is not the most sympathetic character you will come across definitely a bloke who needs a good kick in the seat of his pants. But the story is very craftily pieced together and bits of it lingered in my mind long after the final page had been turned.
By the way, it’s not often I can recommend a book to the Ginger – the last one was probably Engleby by Sebastian Faulks, which he enjoyed, but he’s loving Wilberforce.
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