Name: Abigail F's review of Memorial by Bryan Washington
Item: Memorial
Rating: 4.5
Author: Abigail F

Bryan Washington

'This feels like a vision for the 21st-century novel... It made me happy' Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous 'Brilliantly details the smallest moments that mean the absolute most, the heartbreakingly human limitations of how we love one another' Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age Benson and Mike are two young guys who have been together for a few years - good years - but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. There's the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other. But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past, while back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted... Funny and profound, Memorial is about family in all its strange forms, becoming who you're supposed to be and the outer limits of love. NAMED A BOOK TO WATCH IN 2021 BY: SUNDAY TIMES | THE TIMES | DAILY MAIL | THE TELEGRAPH | RADIO 4 | IRISH TIMES

Memorial

Storm

Everything changes, she says. Change isn't good or bad. It's just change.

And when I land on the tarmac, back on the ground, unbelievably, inconceivably, until the day I die, I am taking my dad home, I am taking him back, he will follow me wherever the fuck I end up next.

I sat in Eiju's apartment. I took all of him into my nose. I held him in my body, and I tried not to exhale, I tried not to push back out again. My father had left a second time. My father had tried to stay. My father hadn't tried to stay. It wasn't his fault. It was his fault. My father wasn't coming back. My father wasn't coming back.

You won't get this moment again, she said. Do you hear me? This is the last time you'll get to do this, and you'll wonder why you were thinking about so many other things. I'm telling you this because I know. Do you understand?

All of these were his gifts to me. The only ones he'd given me.

That loving a person means letting them change when they need to. And letting them go when they need to. And that doesn't make them any less of a home. Just maybe not one for you. Or only for a season or two. But that doesn't diminish the love. It just changes forms.

Maybe, I said. But people change. And then you're stuck in whatever your idea of home was.

You shouldn't make a home out of other people.

I didn't tell him that it was too little too late, that forgiveness isn't something you just hand out whenever you feel like it.

It isn't yours to spit out like I'm a fucking kid.

I didn't think it would work, there wasn't any way we'd fall asleep like that, but then I woke up the next morning with Ben snoring in my arms, and I realized I hadn't slept so comfortably in months.

He watched my hands when I spoke. His posture mimicked mine. He'd stare at my mouth, reading my lips, like he was looking for the meaning underlying my words.

You little fuck, said Eiju, in English. There it is, I said, in English. There's the man I remember.

I dreamt about my father back when I was a kid, snuggled beside Ma, when I couldn't sleep by myself for the first year after he left. 

I dreamt about my father while I slept beside who knows how many fuckers.

Mike's never promised me anything. Only delivered or didn't. He always said that promises were only words, and words only meant what you made them.

I promise, he says, and that's what I take to sleep with me.

And I start to thank her, but then the kids start yelling, and the dog starts barking, and my mother's husband calls her name, and everything on her end dissolves into noise.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Vanity Fair, O, the Oprah Magazine, Esquire, Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, Refinery29, Real Simple, Kirkus Reviews, Electric Literature, and Lit Hub "A masterpiece." --NPR "No other novel this year captures so gracefully the full palette of America." --The Washington Post "Wryly funny, gently devastating." --Entertainment Weekly A funny and profound story about family in all its strange forms, joyful and hard-won vulnerability, becoming who you're supposed to be, and the limits of love. Benson and Mike are two young guys who live together in Houston. Mike is a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant and Benson's a Black day care teacher, and they've been together for a few years--good years--but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. There's the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other. But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past. Back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted. Without Mike's immediate pull, Benson begins to push outwards, realizing he might just know what he wants out of life and have the goods to get it. Both men will change in ways that will either make them stronger together, or fracture everything they've ever known. And just maybe they'll all be okay in the end.

A Novel

Laura Wilson

Enrique Tárraga

I need to come back to this. I have too many feelings and not enough thoughts to coherently say anything besides fuck. 

Abigail F

Kate Hall

The representation is excellent! Everything else is pretty dire - the dialogue in particular is awful. Why does everyone talk in the exact same wise-cracking monotone? Really to grit my teeth to get to the end, such a shame.

Louise 

** spoiler alert **
           *2.75 ⭐ rounded up

This novel follows a couple who are at the tail end of their relationship. 

I loved the Queer representation and that they weren't white (one is black and the other Asian).

I found the food prep/descriptions really relaxing, I'm also a sucker for anything set in Japan which is why this got 3 stars instead of 2 🥴

But I wanted MORE from this story. 

The relationship is very dysfunctional and abusive and both characters have deep flaws that neither of them are addressing or working on. I was wishing, hoping, praying for some type of character growth by the end which you never get! I did not care for the relationship at ALL. *Spoiler* They both cheat on each other and I honestly didn't care one bit, I wanted to know more about the 2 people that they cheated with than our main characters because they seemed more interesting 🥲

This novel had several points where it could have and should have evoked a deep emotional response from me and just..didn't, this is probably due to me not caring about our two MC's and the writing.
The writing style was quite frustrating! The overuse of the word "fuck" and "said" really bothered me. If you eliminated those words out of this book I swear it would be about 25% shorter..
 The dialogue was lacking; I was hoping by the end they could just have ONE(1) proper, real conversation!! 😮‍💨

This relies very heavily on the miscommunication trope so if you're not a fan of that I would definitely AVOID.

Sara 

"A rom-com novel about two young people at a crossroads in their relationship"--

Stefanie  Uwah

2.5 rounded up. It took many tries for me to finish this. It wasn’t horrible, just okay.

Jordan /

DNF.. I wanted to like this but man it was so boring and I’m not sure why these 2 characters were together

Fraser Simons

Simple yet surprisingly complex. It’s got a strong verisimilitude quality, without being too granular. I also really liked how intersectional messy it is, as well as the overall tone. The characters are rendered very vividly primarily through dialogue, which was really interesting. 

I think this could have been a 5 star read had I consumed it in text format because, while the narrators were good, it also exposed some problems with the text when read aloud. Now,I am not saying every text should be able to be read aloud, I do not believe that to be the case. But the problem I had in this particular case is that stylistic choices authors sometimes page for pagination - in this case, specifically adding dialogue tags that are invisible while reading - do not translate well to audio. You know when says/said is not invisible? When it’s spoken out loud. It is so grating and it actually tilts the narrators voice into a simplistic monotone that can’t really be avoided. I also just don’t think you need any dialogue tags whatsoever in most of these scenes because usually it’s only two people speaking. When body language enters the equation, and dialogue has purpose, you really just have no need of tags. But it does have an anesthetic purpose when looking at a page of text. 

Long story short: I definitely recommend reading this rather than listening to it. As a straight white dude, I really can’t speak to the queerness of the text, but felt it contributed to the verisimilitude, so rather enjoyed it, even if it didn’t feel tonally innovative to queer stories I’ve consumed previously (a short coming I’ve read in other reviews). So, if you’re looking for thoughts on that aspect of the text, please look at other reviews~

KADY BURNS

I heard so many good things about this book and saw it on so many lists I was pumped to read it. While I appreciate the overall story and the main characters, I was constantly thrown by the dialog that felt very stilted (and no quotation marks). The last 50 or so pages felt like a chore.

Brian Walborn

Exceptional storyteller with relatable characters and timeless messages about love and acceptance, both of self and of others. Grounded prose, naked and raw. Definitely an author to follow.

Steffi

3.5 - a solid and fast read! loved the storytelling although something felt missing and i'm not sure if that was intended or not. i wish we got more in information on how benson and mike felt about each other, but i understand sometimes your emotions don't have a way of being described.

Rebecca White

4.5 stars. 

“But I guess that's the thing: we take our memories wherever we go, and what's left are the ones that stick around, and that's how we make a life.” —

Beautiful, honest and raw. 
The book follows Mike and Benson as they unravel their lives, and their silted relationship through grief, anger and pain seep in each chapter. Also, the realistic relationship, of falling in and out of love. 

Mike deals with his father, as his life is slowly coming to an end, while Mike also deals with the pain he has from his leaving. 

Benson works through his inner turmoil over his relationship with Mike while Mike’s mother visits and lives with him. 

It is a beautiful book about a real relationship and real everyday people. I love the diverse characters within this book, especially the two main characters being gay people of colour. 

My only complaint about the book is that I don’t love the ambiguity of the ending. However, I love the character delivery and the development of said characters as they lead two different and separate lives but exist together.

Benson and Mike are two young guys who have been together for a few years - good years - but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. There's the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other. But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past, while back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted. Funny and profound, Memorial is about family in all its strange forms, becoming who you're supposed to be and the outer limits of love.

Maytal

Was disappointed with this. Found the depth of characters and their motivations and connections to each other lacking.

Kimberly Diaz

This book messed me up in the best way possible. It made me laugh. It made me cry. It made me angry, happy and sad all at the same time. Washington made it feel like we grew up with his main characters. It felt like watching your friends fall in and out of love, but also watch them grow as people. Brilliant! The way it ended is why it didn't get a 5 but everyone should read this novel. ❤❤

Rachel


      Thank you NetGalley and Riverhead Books for the arc in return for an honest review!<br/><br/>I&apos;ve had my eye on Memorial ever since I first heard about it a few months ago because I enjoyed Bryan Washington&apos;s book, Lot. This is literary fiction at its finest because it is so different than anything else being
  

Enrique Tárraga &
Memorial by Bryan Washington

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Memorial by Bryan Washington