This one was strange. I did not like it as much as the first.

Good points: empathy. Bits of humour. Insight into an aging population and their perspective

Bad points: I felt there was much more passive racism, homophobia, etc. In this one that I don't remember being in the first. Its wasn't a big part of the book, but enough that it left a bad taste. It was of the viewpoint of the main character, but as this is an epistolary it was included with not comments by the writer to negate them

I don't know if things were lost or changed in translation. But this was set in the Netherlands and having them talk using the imperial system was annoying. I felt like there was a conscious choice somewhere to dumb it down for an American audience and I didnt like being treated that way. It broke the barrier of being set in a different county.