Milkman

I have no qualms admitting that most of my reading is via audio. Long walks , commutes, makes it an ideal format to absorb a good story. The form of distribution of the tale (eye vs ear) I usually feel is agnostic to the tale itself but every now and then it is important. In the case of Scalzi's Head On series it is fundamental in driving one of the main sub plots (Is the protagonist male or female?) But in other cases a good narrator can help or hinder a good/bad book. In The Milkman's case I am so happy I listened to it. It is now a cliche' to talk about Irish lyricism in writing but listening to Milkman just reinforces such beliefs in rhythm of repetition, with slight modification at each iteration, in the mixture of love and revulsion to a Belfast (or Derry I'm not that good) accent vs a South of the Border accent. The setting of the Troubles is a fascinating time for me which I have started to learn more about through Adrian McKinty Sean Duffy's series [b:The Cold Cold Ground 13008754 The Cold Cold Ground (Detective Sean Duffy, #1) Adrian McKinty https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355027843s/13008754.jpg 18170309]. The lack of proper nouns works well especially when I noticed that the only name mentioned is that of the family dog. The story, I think, takes second fiddle to the historical context of the tale, and how, tribalism can cause such misery in people's lives.