Reviews and Comments

I really tried liking this book. I tried 2 times. I don't know if it's badly translated (I am reading it in german) or if it's always like this. But to me personally it's just waaay to slow and boring. I just don't understand why the book is written this way. Why is so much time spend on the past of the woman? Why is no character interesting?

Listened to as an audio book during my long runs. It's informative but often waaaaay too deep into her childhood...

I stopped the book after a few pages because the main male character in his 40s started talking about sex with his wife's 14 year old sister. I don't read about paedophiles.

I stopped the book after a few pages because the main male character in his 40s started talking about sex with his wife's 14 year old sister. I don't read about paedophiles.

Ok... so. I like the world itself, I like the story with the aliens, the setting with the you-dont-know-where-you-go-spaceships and so on. But the main character is a white cis-hetero asshole who only has sex on his mind. Later in the book, homosexual desire is justified by the fact that mum's thermometer in her son's anus was the only physical sign of love (so obv. that makes you want d*** in there aswell). There are also discussions about whether he, as a heterosexual man, can stand to be on a spaceship with 3 homosexual men. If a person is black this is always explicitly mentioned, not so with non-black people. Yes the book was published in 1977 but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it if you are concerned with equality, LGBTQIA+ and anti-racism. It can be off-putting.