A compilation of assorted pieces from throughout the career of Douglas Adams that ultimately comes across as a mixed bag. Stretching back from his youth through to the end of his sadly shortened life, some pieces feel introspective and biographical while others are forgettable rants.
The problem with gathering together a selection of these writings and interviews is that inevitably the book ends up covering the same few topics ad nauseum. Atheism, Apple computers, evolution and the environment are subjects that pop up in most pieces.
The saving grace of this book is undoubtedly the incomplete third Dirk Gently novel which feels as though it would have sat comfortably next to the rest of his work and as such is so unfortunate that it will never be finished.
For the Dirk Gently parts and a short story about Zaphod from Hitchhiker's I'm giving this 2 stars. The rest can be skimmed and/or skipped.

As a side note at the end of the book there's an extract from the memorial for Douglas which seems odd as 1) it was held in a church and 2) it featured prayers and religious songs. That really seems unusual for someone who was such a vehement atheist. Or maybe that's just the paradox that was Douglas Adams..!

I’ve been putting off reading this book for a while, because I knew the Dirk Gently story was unfinished and I knew not having a conclusion would bother me. And I was correct. But I’m still very very happy I read it, because it was very very funny. I like reading stories about Dirk.

Even though the 11 chapters of The Salmon of Doubt was at the end of this anthology-type book, it’s what I read first because it’s what I was most excited about, I still really enjoyed the rest of it when I read it. I wasn’t actually expecting myself to, but Douglas Adams was an incredibly funny man with some seriously hot takes and questionable opinions that I sometimes agree with and sometimes don’t. A lot of the content in this is utterly ridiculous, and some of it really thought provoking.

Anyway, I have laughed out loud reading this book, and if you are a fan of Dirk Gently and/or Douglas Adams this is definitely worth reading.

brief synopsis:
Dirk continues his detecting adventures.

setting:
DaveLand
Primrose Hill (London)
Los Angeles, California
Chicago
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Sante Fe

named personalities:
Dave - presumably a real-estate agent
Clive - the patron saint of real-estate agents
Kermit the Frog - a Muppet character
Sam - maybe a lawyer
Dirk Gently aka D Jenttry - an English private detective
Melinda - Dirk's prospective client
Gusty Winds - a four-year-old male siamese cat
Thor - the ancient Norse God of Thunder; a polytheistic thug from Norway
Kate Schechter - an American girl of Dirk's acquaintance
Josh, Jude, Julian, Julio, Justin, Karl, Karel, Keir, Keith, Kelvin, Kendall, Kendrick, Kennedy, Kenneth, Kenny, Kentigern, Kermit, Kevin, Kieran, Kimberly, Kirby, Kirk - names Dirk had a computer read to ascertain a batty, old woman's dog's forgotten name
Judge Dredd - a fictional law enforcement and judicial officer in the dystopian future city of Mega-City One
Kierkegaard - a batty, old woman's dog
Christ - Jesus Christ, a first-century Jewish preacher and religious leader
Frank - Dirk's supposed employer
The Great Zaganza 'GZ' - Dirk's disreputable friend who writes horoscopes
Desmond - a three-ton rhinoceros
John Selwyn Gummer - a British Conservative Party politician
Henry VIII - a king of England
John Ranting - a courtly scumbag
Percy Ranting - a Victorian rubber magnate
Roy Harrison - Desmond's keeper from Chatsfield
Joe - a large, fat, sweaty man
Bruce Willis - an American actor

Now I can leave the earth in peace.

Douglas Adams has a pleasant writing style and this was a very fun little read.

Just reread this and wanted to register my reaction. Douglas Adams was very funny in a way that was intelligent and insightful. I'm so sorry he's gone. This book is sort of a tribute to him, and is fitting, as such, but the part of a novel that is contained therein is about as disappointing as you'd expect from an unfinished draft version. His books are really all about the wonderful hilarious ideas he has, I think. The plot, characters, pacing, and settings, if any, are quite haphazard and scattered all over the place. He has a delightful sort of philosophy of life that comes through it all, and I think that's what it is I love about him. He brings the wonder of everything back, the bizarreness, and the beauty.

We live, he says, at the bottom of a gravity well on a gas-covered planet orbiting a nuclear explosion 93 million miles away, and the fact that we think this is normal shows how skewed our perspective really is.

I think I'll try reading P. G. Wodehouse because of one essay in here in which DNA lauds him in a way that makes him sound really good. I might try Ruth Rendell, as well, on his recommendation, though I really don't enjoy mystery books very much as a rule. It sounds like she's one of those excellent writers for whom the mystery is a pretext to tell us all the other cool stuff she thinks about, and her perceptions of the world.

I think the deadlines whooshing by were mentioned 5 times at least, in different introductions, forewords, essays, etc. and I thought it needed a rest. The computer and gaming things were quite out of date now, a decade after DNA's death, but still were interesting just to see the sort of vision he had. All in all this book is recommended for DNA fans but not for those who aren't already. Try H2G2 or Dirk Gently instead, if you're new to him.

I liked the Dirk Gently story and some of the correspondence was as charming as your would expect from Adams. The pop-science and pop-atheism stuff in the middle was a bit boring and unsophisticated to me though.

Eulogies, interviews, and some unfinished pieces from Adams. It does make you sad about the loss of a brilliant mind.

Douglas Adams er den absolut sjoveste forfatter, jeg nogensinde har læst noget af. Jeg er endnu ikke kommet i gennem en eneste af hans bøger uden at sidde helt alene og grine højlydt. Man er aldrig ensom, når man læser Adams.
Det skyldes hans enorme empati og forståelse for den menneskelige situation. Det kommer blandt andet til udtryk i et interview om hans ateisme. Hvor fremtrædende ateister ofte kan virke nedladende eller decideret ondskabsfulde overfor troende, er Adams mere tilgivende. Han siger: "De troende tager fejl." Kort og koncist. Hårdt og afvisende. Men så tilføjer han: "Det er menneskeligt at fejle." Adams ser på sig selv og menneskeheden med et let undskyldende smil. Vi er en tosset art, der bumler lidt rundt på en planet og ødelægger det hele for os selv. Mennesket er tåbeligt og tragisk, men alligevel elskværdigt. Det er det smukke ved Douglas Adams' tekster.

The Salmon of Doubt er en essaysamling med en særlig stemning, da den er udgivet relativ kort tid efter forfatterens pludselige død. Det er en udgivelse, der er præget af det chok, der er gået gennem hans familie og venner. Bogen er fyldt med introduktioner og mindeskrifter, samt programmet for hans mindehøjtidelighed. Det er personlige tekster formet af et dybt savn. Det skaber en bog, der både af præget af Adams' egen varme i teksterne, men også den varme og kærlighed hans nærmeste har næret til ham.
Det er en bog, der føles som at kramme for sidste gang.

I am glad that I finally listened to this audiobook which I purchased several years ago. I knew that this book was unfinished but hadn't realized that the majority of it wasn't Adams' unfinished manuscript at all but instead a collection of interviews, articles, speeches and other short works of his. I found these very pleasant listening but due to the nature of the collection, there was a fair amount of repetition of some of Adams' favorite analogies/stories/anecdotes.

I was pleased though not surprised to learn that Adams was a fan of P.G. Wodehouse (as am I)!

So sad that this unique writer is lost of us. Douglas Adams was the author of the hilarious Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe series, are there is no one like him. Include interviews and essays, very rich. Listened to the audiobook. It's purely a pleasure.

While reading this, I've had one thought running in my head the whole way through: I wish I could've met Douglas Adams.
Whether he's telling about the time he walked around Africa in a rhino suit for charity, teaching Americans how to make a proper cup of tea or giving a speech about the possibility of an artificial God, Adams was able to make almost anything a pleasure to read. A wonderful insight into the mind of a man I'll never get to meet.
I'm only taking off points here because the unfinished version of the third Dirk Gently novel given here didn't quite work, but then again Adams knew that too. Shame we never got to see how this project would have ended up.
So long Douglas Adams, and thanks for all the fish.

This work is unpolished, unfinished, and it's totally obvious. It cuts off as abruptly as the final piece of Bach (BWV 1080), leaving a vague disappointment and a void that won't ever be filled. I never met Douglas Adams, and I'll never have a chance to, but perhaps one day I'll visit his grave.

Douglas Adams was unique in his ability for existential satire. From his portrayal of transgalactic airports to the way Norse gods would act in modern London, all his work shows a delightful talent for combining the surreal and the mundane. He mixes them, like a fancy drink, garnishes it, and offers you one of the most pleasingly different word cocktails that you'll ever taste.

The Salmon of Doubt didn't contain this in the same density as his other novels, and perhaps if I were reading it without the necessary context of his writings I would be left confused and underwhelmed. But knowing Adams' oeuvre makes it almost-make-sense, in the way the first cut-off half of an absurdly complicated mystery novel might. I'm rating this five stars regardless of the unpolished writing because of the emotions it instills in me- the guaranteed sadness, the sense that I lost someone important to me before I'd ever even met him.