Memorial
By Bryan Washington
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 9/10
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
(9/10)
303 pages
What’s it about?
Mike and Benson are a couple living together in Houston and trying to make their relationship work. Mike is a Japanese American working as a chef- and Benson is a Black, daycare teacher. Mike discovers that his estranged father is dying in Osaka, just as his mother arrives to visit from Japan. No one is happy when Mike decides to leave his mother with Benson (whom she has never met) and go care for his father. Mike’s decision to go leaves both men wondering what is happening to their relationship.
What did it make me think about?
This story is a slice of America. It is also about love, about family, and about redemption.
Should I read it?
This book has gotten so much hype that I hate to pile on- but this book was really good- so I am piling on! What a love story. Bryan Washington has a gift for dialogue. What isn’t said, is just as illuminating as the conversation itself. Be prepared for a gay love story and all the sex that comes with it. In the end you will be rooting for both Mike and Benson- no matter what the outcome.
Quote-
“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.”
What’s it about?
Mike and Benson are a couple living together in Houston and trying to make their relationship work. Mike is a Japanese American working as a chef- and Benson is a Black, daycare teacher. Mike discovers that his estranged father is dying in Osaka, just as his mother arrives to visit from Japan. No one is happy when Mike decides to leave his mother with Benson (whom she has never met) and go care for his father. Mike’s decision to go leaves both men wondering what is happening to their relationship.
Mike and Benson are a couple living together in Houston and trying to make their relationship work. Mike is a Japanese American working as a chef- and Benson is a Black, daycare teacher. Mike discovers that his estranged father is dying in Osaka, just as his mother arrives to visit from Japan. No one is happy when Mike decides to leave his mother with Benson (whom she has never met) and go care for his father. Mike’s decision to go leaves both men wondering what is happening to their relationship.
What did it make me think about?
This story is a slice of America. It is also about love, about family, and about redemption.
This story is a slice of America. It is also about love, about family, and about redemption.
Should I read it?
This book has gotten so much hype that I hate to pile on- but this book was really good- so I am piling on! What a love story. Bryan Washington has a gift for dialogue. What isn’t said, is just as illuminating as the conversation itself. Be prepared for a gay love story and all the sex that comes with it. In the end you will be rooting for both Mike and Benson- no matter what the outcome.
This book has gotten so much hype that I hate to pile on- but this book was really good- so I am piling on! What a love story. Bryan Washington has a gift for dialogue. What isn’t said, is just as illuminating as the conversation itself. Be prepared for a gay love story and all the sex that comes with it. In the end you will be rooting for both Mike and Benson- no matter what the outcome.
Quote-
“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.”
“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.”
