This isn’t the sort of book I normally go for but I loved the cover and was intrigued by the premise so I requested it on netgalley.

Well, I suspect I should be reading more of this type of book! I was absolutely hooked by Memorial from the beginning and read it in 2 days. The characters are honest and interesting, multi-faceted and flawed, but somehow also very likeable. I enjoyed watching the story play out, but the real star here is the writing, which is just beyond beautiful. Memorial made me think and at the end it made me cry.

I know it will stay with me for a long time. It’s an absolutely brilliant book and I would recommend it to anyone.

I’m so grateful for my free copy. Thank you.

PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION:

“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. Memorial is 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.”

NO SPOILERS

I have not read Bryan Washington before so I came to this with no expectations but now I expect his previous work to be excellent.

Memorial is a tale of a relationship breaking down while others strengthen, of learning to understand, of acceptance, of regret, of forgiveness…and that to me makes it sound as dull as ditchwater. But it is far from dull.

The tale itself was enough to keep me reading but it was the style which had me read it in a couple of days (in the garden, in the sun…so maybe that helped!)

It is written in the first person, a perspective I always enjoy, beginning with Ben, switching to Mike then back to Ben, so no hopping between both, which can be distracting and confusing. The narrative is in the past and present tense, which takes us back and forth with ease. The style changes with the narrator and I liked both. Both are quick, easy and punchy. Both are very intimate and I felt like a trusted confidant and totally involved. The whole book is believable and the characters very real. Washington gives us just enough about each so we understand their roles and their importance to Ben and Mike. There is no waffling, no filler, no struggling for word count (yes, it happens) and every sentence is crucial to the whole; I really, really like it.

Unless recommended by a respected source, I rarely pick up contemporary fiction as so much of it seems to be formulaic, churned out thriller or romance, as whilst I don’t mind either if well written, they seldom are and it is hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. Memorial is more a memoir and it is very well written. It is not “wordy” but it is definitely crafted, even visually.

If I am not familiar with an author, I do not research them until I have read the book; I was surprised Bryan Washington is only 27...he writes with the wisdom of many more years.

And does that relationship really breakdown or simply become more honest, something else, something better?

“Everything looks different in context. All of it.”

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic for the Advanced Reader Copy of the book, which I have voluntarily reviewed.

Memorial by Bryan Washington is a distinctive and intimate novel about the breakdown of relationships, family dysfunction, grief, race. It’s told from two points of view and I preferred the sections from Benson’s perspective.

Memorial is a novel about a relationship breakdown, family, and the path that life takes. Benson, a Black daycare teacher, and Mike, a Japanese-American chef, have been together for a few years, but things between them haven't been going so well. When Mike's mother comes over from Japan to visit their Houston apartment just as Mike flies out to Japan to visit his estranged father who is dying, their relationship becomes even more strained, with Benson suddenly living with Mike's mother. Their relationship with each other and with their families starts to change, and it seems that maybe love isn't everything.

This is a complex novel that delves into different emotions and looks at a relationship where the characters still love each other, but also don't seem to be getting along. The narrative balances this with their respective relationships with their families, and the different ways they interact with people in their lives, to give a detailed picture of the two protagonists. A notable element of the novel is the fact that Benson is HIV positive but it isn't a big deal; rather, it has strained his connection with his family, but doesn't restrict his life. All of the characters are flawed and often selfish and self-absorbed, and this works well with the structure of telling the story from the POV of Benson, then Mike, then Benson again to show their complex emotions and lack of sympathy a lot of the time.

Memorial is a bittersweet look at a relationship that isn't working out, and at slowly rebuilding familial relationships. It gives the protagonists space to potentially move on and change, or to not really change, and was emotional and powerful (though not one if you want a book where everything works out unambiguously).

DNF at 60%

I gave up on this one. I didn’t like any of the characters, let alone their relationship woes and problems. Most of them were terrible people I had no sympathy for.

The writing was basic. It didn’t have an effect on me at all.

I could not connect with anything from this story, and was a slog to get through.

Not for me.