این جلد رو بیشتر از سه جلد قبلی دوست داشتم (به این‌دلیل که داستانش زمینی تر و قابل دنبال کردن تر! بود و اتفاقات انسجام بیشتری داشتن؟؟)
بله خلاصه؛ جلد بعد "mostly harmless" که قراره با عنوان "بیشترش چیز خاصی نیست" چاپ بشه هنوز منتشر نشده و اگر بود میرفتم سراغش ولی فعلا I'm done with all this postmodern nonsense...
میدونم که نباید انقدر بی‌سواد باشم و بگم که خیلی خفن بود (از سه چهار سال پیش، با قضاوت جلد و عنوان باحالی که داره فکر میکردم قراره یکی از بهترین خوانش های عمرم باشه)، ولی حقیقت اینه که اونقدر هام دیگه نبود!
(شاید در آینده نظرم عوض بشه؟!)

This book seems to be different from the earlier books in the series. It is no longer sci-fi since Arthur Dent has come back from space travel to Earth and a good part of the story is his love story. Had I not read the first books, I would have liked this as a romantic comedy story. So, I guess I was affected by my wrong expectation.

The plot is tighter than the earlier books. There are still those funny moments and my favorite is the biscuit eating scene. I had a bittersweet feeling about the disappearance of the dolphin. However, my favorite is that part with the sign "Sorry for the Inconvenience." Of course, the title of this book is so catchy and smart-sounding. I even had a first-hand experience of a British office mate who used this sentence in his adieu to us when he was promoted to a new position several years back.

The plot was tight but the telling is not as engaging as the earlier books particularly the second one. Or maybe I just had enough of Adams humor as I should not have read these in close succession. I mean if you are reading, alongside with this book, the wonderful prose of Alan Hollinghurst or the funny yet strange characters of Anne Tyler, then you'll know what I mean. It's like reading Shakespeare and upon getting tired, you close it and try Nicholas Sparks.

However, overall, this is still an okay book. Nicholas Sparks (he knows how to write and his books sell well!) and all. I still in awe how Adams was able to extend his trilogy to this fourth book without showing that he was tired. Not corny at all. From Earth (Book 1), to Space (Book 2) to Prehistoric Earth (Book 3) then back to our Earth (Book 4). I was like cheering Arthur Dent and Fernchurch, welcome back to earth! It just broke my heart that she was not Trillian. Oh.

I have to hunt for the other books in this trilogy.

۵/۵
این کتاب احتمالا چارمینگ ترین کتاب این مجموعه‌ست و احتمالا بریتیش‌ترین چیزی که می‌خونید و احتمالا بهترین علمی تخیلی دنیا نیست ولی اون گونه‌ی نادر از علمی تخیلیه که وقتی حالتون خوش نیست برای تلطیف‌ و روان برید سراغش و توی سوراخ سمبه‌هاش گم بشید.

سه جلد پیش رو خیلی دوست داشتم ولی این ناامیدم کرد. امیدوارم جلد آخر مثل این جلد نباشه.

An unseen spaceship lands on Earth (England) in the rain, never knew about all the precipitation there , a "man " leaves the craft and waves , thanking the crew for the ride, but first going back he forgot his bag, essential towels inside ... Slogs through the mud and muck, in the cold windy darkness slipping and sliding going up a hill, climbs over a fence and is almost killed, when a speeding automobile (a Porsche), nearly crushes the stranger on the road. The heavy rain pours down, lightning flashes in the nearby gloomy hills, illuminating for a brief moment the cheerless surroundings, the miserable, soaked man, tries to hitchhike but nobody will stop in this weather. This is no alien but a nostalgic Mr. Arthur Dent, coming back home after eight lengthy years, crossing the galaxy. Only five months have passed here, his planet has not vanished, the mystery goes unexplained, this is a science- fiction book after all . At last the shivering Dent, gets into a car, with an unconscious woman in the back seat and her brother driving. She falls on the professional hitchhiker, who can't see her face and immediately becomes infatuated. The lady is named Fenny ( Fenchurch, don't ask), so says her rather unsympathetic brother Russell, with mental problems, too many hospital visits... hallucinations, she also saw the world destroyed, silly idea, however will become the expatriate's great love. Meanwhile back on a real alien world, Mr.Ford Prefect is in deep, deep, trouble, the kind that can get you dead permanently. Having spent not wisely, in the unsavory " Old Pink Dog Bar", and no money, except an American Express Card, and they don't accept plastic from a nonexistent planet, that no one has ever heard of . The murderous bartender, is impatient, lucky The Hitchhiker's Guide is very prestigious and Ford does write for them, publicity can do wonders ... Returning to the third planet from the Sun (Sol) Mr.Prefect finally reunites with Arthur, after an extended search, Dent, doesn't answer his home phone, yes he got back , because his friend was too busy teaching Fenny, how to fly ... In an unlighted alley, floating above the ground, the pair grab each other, acrobatic looping, twisting and turning, doing things which are not well described here, she almost hits the pavement, too fast for a long life, Arthur saves the day. Later, scaring passengers in a plane, high over an English town, its people see a real UFO indeed. Visiting, the couple meet a rather weird , make that eccentric man, who knows a very important secret so he claims, something about dolphins. On a beach in California, Mr. John Watson, has a genuine strange house, he gives him a fish bowl, Arthur already has one so does Fenny. In the sunshine, casting a beautiful rainbow on the sand , writing appears on the surface of the dish, they read . Another very entertaining novel, in the funny series. It amused me...

Sorry for the Inconvenience
16 November 2016

tWhen I first read this book I loved it namely because I happened to be a hopeless romantic and our protagonist, Arthur Dent, finally gets a girlfriend. Well, finally is probably not the best way to describe it because Adams does raise the possibility that Arthur may have had a relationship with Trillian (and when the question is metaphorically asked the reply is basically 'none of your business'), and also suggests that there is a rather long gap between books two and three where we end with Arthur together with a Gulgafringan and then beginning again years later with Arthur by himself in a cave (having discovered that all the Gulgafringans has died off, just because).

tAnyway, more time has passed since the end of book three and the beginning of book four and we once again meet up with Arthur, who happens to be standing in the rain at the side of the road on a planet that looks remarkably like Earth, and in fact happens to be Earth. Okay, there are a couple of minor differences, though I would hardly call not having been blown up by the Vogon Constructor Fleet as being a minor difference (though Arthur's house still standing, in the grand scheme of things, is). However there is also the fact that the dolphins have still vanished, and everybody happens to have a fish bowl with the inscription 'so long and thanks for all the fish' upon it.

tThe thing about this particular book is that it is more of a romance than the other books in the series, which sort of gives it a different feel. The other thing is that for a bulk of the book the story is set not only on Earth, but both Arthur and Ford are going their separate ways – it isn't until we get close to the end that the two once again come together, but it is only for a short while as Arthur and his girlfriend (Fenchurch, so called because she was conceived in the ticket line at Fenchurch Street station, though my only experience of Fenchurch Street station is having a meal at a pub underneath it) head off to try and find God's final message to humanity (or the Universe to be precise).

tIt also goes back into the old style where there is little to no plot and the main characters just seem to stumble around trying to work out what is going on, only to discover that the answer that they were looking for, in this case God's final message, is a piece of absurdity. Actually, there is sort of a plot, but not in the same sense that Life, The Universe, and Everything had a plot. Rather it involves the main characters continuing their search for meaning, and when they finally discover this meaning, as I mentioned, and as is the case in the other books, the answer that they were looking for turns out to be absurd. In a way it even seems as if God's message to the world is not so much an answer to the reason why we are here, namely because there doesn't seem to be any real reason at all, at least in Adam's mind.

tIn a way I guess this is where our secular society is heading, even though many people in the Western realms still seem to consider themselves connected to some form of religion. Mind you, when you head out of the cities you do tend to discover a much more religious, and conservative, culture, but that has a lot to do with the country being very conservative, and new ideas filter in much more slowly (if ever). In a way, with their religious outlook, people in the country still seem to have a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging, and a sense of identity. However, once you head into the cities, and into the realms of the intellectuals, this traditional purpose and reasoning suddenly seems to get thrown out the door. In a way it is this rejection of religion that leads to these rather absurd views of the universe, and meaningless understanding of life.

tHowever, we aren't necessarily the first, or only, people in the history of the world because many other civilisations, particularly those who eventually freed themselves of the tyranny of a king, because in a such a system the purpose and meaning of life is to serve the king, but then one wonders whether the king, who seems to exist in this world to be served, would eventually suffer an existentialist crisis. I'm not sure, particularly is the king never really gave it that much thought – it is only the intellectuals that would start thinking along those lines since most of the kings would probably just be incredibly self-absorbed.

tAs for this book, well it is much shorter, and a lot different, than the other entries in this series, and while I may have gushed over Arthur's romance when I was younger, these days it is a lot different as I am somewhat (or a lot) over that hopeless romantic streak that I used to have. As for the story, it is okay, and the message is interesting, but in the end the first two were much, much better (and this one was quite a lot less funnier as well). Oh, and the fact that Arthur, and to an extent Fenchurch, can fly really doesn't appeal to me all that much.

The Fourth Book of the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy!
That was the big joke when So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish was first published back in 1985. Of course, the joke no longer worked so well after the publication of the fifth book, Mostly Harmless. (I’m pretty sure they came up with a clever tag line for that one, but by that time the diminishing returns on cleverness stretched too far were becoming obvious.) I read it when it came out. I liked it well enough. But…

But then I’ve read through the first three books of the series three times, yet this is my first reread of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish in almost forty years. It just doesn’t quite fit right with the rest. The tone is different, somehow more mature. The pace is different — far less frantic — like the difference between a rapid-fire stand up comic (say, Sam Kinison) and a humorously clever performance artist doing monologues (think Spalding Gray). It almost seems like Douglas Adams grew up somewhere between Life, the Universe, and Everything and the writing of this book.

How different is it? For starters, Arthur Dent spends most of the book happy. Yep, the guy who spent the first three books being the dim witted twit for so many punchlines and insults, whose sole purpose appeared to be clueless before the universe, is mostly happy all through this one. Why? Well, he’s back home on Earth, which has inexplicably reappeared fully populated after its incineration by the Vogon fleet (the locals remembered the incident as a mass hallucination induced by a CIA plot) and he’s in love. Happily so. Adams actually wrote a charming, funny romance here. It just doesn’t feel like it fits the rest of the series.

As for the rest, Zaphod Beeblebrox doesn’t appear at all. Ford Prefect has a small role, but is off stage far more than on. Marvin the paranoid android makes a brief cameo at the end, when God’s final message to his creation is revealed (one of the book’s better bits). This is Arthur’s story. It’s a solidly written book, an easy 3.5 star rating, but I’m rounding down because it fits the series like a bad shoe.

This is the fourth book in the series and I was a little disappointed with this one. There was a lot of romance involving Arthur which i maybe just wasn’t in the mood for and seemed central to the plot. Unfortunately there weren’t many other characters present. Some highlights to note were the Rain God and brief appearances by Ford.
Martin Freeman does an excellent job and I expect was blushing on a few occasions. Wonder how many takes went into the semi-steamy sections..

Even by the tired standard of the first three Hitchhiker's Guide novels, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish comes off as a tired, threadbare effort by a writer who simply did not have enough gas in the tank at this point and really should have waited the 10 years or so that it would have taken him to recharge fully and put together something with the creative density of his first or second installment in this series. I have not liked any of the book in this series, but at least there seemed to be a certain genuine energy to the first novel. By the fourth installment, any misgivings I had with the nature of the story and Adams' humor have been well underscored by a frustration at such a cynical attempt by the author to produce something for the sake of producing it. There is an interesting love story nestled in the middle of this one that remains nice if and only if one can overlook the fact that Adams, like so many other times in this series, went back to the first novel, strip mined a throwaway line for a high concept and decided to weave an entire story around it. It was a throwaway line for a reason. That Adams forgot that shows how far off the rails he'd gotten by this fourth installment.

Out of the "trilogy of five," this one was actually my favorite. I understand that for many people it's the least popular, because almost the whole thing takes place on earth and it focuses mainly just on Arthur Dent and not the other characters. However, that's why I liked it. After the somewhat overwhelming third book, it was a relief to have a novel that didn't keep jumping around between characters and plot, and just focus on one thing at a time.

Plus, this story had a much more human element to it that the others did not. In the others, we never got to know the characters and they never exhibited any emotions in any depth that we could relate to. And I suppose that was okay, because it wasn't really about emotions, it was just about the humor and the science fiction aspect. But it was kind of nice to see a different side of Arthur Dent in this one. He actually finds a romantic interest in the fascinating character of Fenchurch. Yes, there was less action, but that was okay for me.

Also, we occasionally got some glimpses of what Ford was up to, but he didn't really become pertinent to the plot until the very end. It seemed like the book ended on a really exciting note, with the newly formed emotional bond between Arthur and Fenchurch intersecting with the exciting space travel that had been involved in the other books. From here, the fifth book seemed like it could be quite promising.

This is the fourth book in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker Trilogy (no, that’s not a typo) starting with The Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. Douglas Adams originally only meant to write two sequels to his original classic, and I’m sorry to say, this book shows it. In all of Douglas’s books, the plot is convoluted at best, with frequent asides and authorial interpretations (which works perfectly in the context of sci-fi comedy) but the plot in this story was so ambiguous, it just didn’t have the same effect as the others. Ford has gone back to doing research for the guide, as he was doing before. Arthur is back on earth, courting a new young woman he met recently (who’s got a long list of psychological problems) and through a couple of random events, the two meet up again. Along with Arthur’s new love interest, they travel to the edge of the universe (for a reason not explained), in order to find the last message God left to his people before he disappeared from existence (I shall save you the trouble now, and just tell you that the message is “sorry for the inconvenience”). It’s clear that this is a book Adams never meant to publish, and it just seems like a random smattering of ideas and anecdotes he wanted to use in his other books, but never got the chance to. You’re really better off just sticking with the original three, or just the first book, which is a good stand-alone story.

Il titolo potrebbe sembrare senza senso, ma, come quasi tutti i libri di Douglas Adams, ha la sua spiegazione logica, un viaggio nell'irrazionale dove ogni cosa è quello che non sembra o sembra quello che non è. Un libro piacevole e divertente ma con nascosti tra le righe anche contenuti profondi.