Only read "beware of the dog" but it was pretty good.

I for one did enjoy When We Were Orphans, especially once I started to glompse beyond the narrators perception of things. Although I agree with some of your negative points about it. >!His mother's fate, seriously?!<.

In fact, I enjoyed it more than Buried giant, but that may be because I read that one translated and my complaints are mostly about language.

Glad to hear that the rest of his books are good though, will read them, eventually!

Oh, the backwards storytelling through asides annoyed me at times too. I still liked the book overall and think it may have been necessary at times for the delivery of the story and perspective. But yes, sometimes I wanted to tell the narrator to get to the point!

Yet the, amazon owned, goodreads rating guide translates, 2 as ok, 3 as good, 4 as very good, and 5 as amazing.

But, yeah - a 3 feels a bit luke warm when you're looking for 4-5s typically.

Never thought that quote, or any quote from hitchhiker guide to the galaxy would make me emotional.

In the city watch series by Terry Pratchett there is a big troll named Detritus. He is part of many books and different narrators give him a very different personality. Some narrators make him sound like a bumbling oaf, others like a mean drill sergeant.

I tend to pop in a classic or a Nobel prize winner sometimes when I feel I have read a lot of fantasy/sci-fi in a row to mix things up.

You touched on most authors being white men and that this was due to resource allocation and history.

There is something to that of course, but should said white men be the ones writing the stories for perspectives they know little of?

There are more and more poc authors making their mark on the genre and their works keep getting more recognition and awards. Even old ones like Le Guin and Butler get more attention nowadays. I think with time there will be more diversity in the genre.

I found that it was easier and more pleasant to read the long stream of consciousness sentences in Virginia Woolfs books when read aloud.