Memorial

A Novel

By: Bryan Washington

Narrated by: Bryan Washington, Akie Kotabe

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's Summary

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 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 good-bye. 

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 masterpiece.” (NPR)

“No other novel this year captures so gracefully the full palette of America.” (The Washington Post) 

“Wryly funny, gently devastating.” (Entertainment Weekly)

©2020 Bryan Washington (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

“Wryly funny, gently devastating... Washington’s hand is effortless - smooth dialogue, a love for good food, and his vibrant, sprawling, gradually gentrifying hometown - in inviting you into a nuanced love story that sticks to you like the Texas heat.” (Entertainment Weekly)

“A fresh, vibrant love story that interweaves race, queerness, nationality, family, and intimacy with narrative ease.” (Vogue)

“A beautiful, unusual examination of the difference between love and care, and what happens when they merge.” (The Washington Post)

I just couldn’t connect.

Did I hate this? No. I was interested in the story the whole time, but the characters are just so flat. Bryan Washington did his work a disservice because he sooooo painfully monotone on top of it. I am a queer man myself and I am in an interracial relationship so I thought I may be able to relate, but not very much. The constant f bombs were weird. It just didn’t seem real. If it was a characteristic of one person maybe, but from every main character. It just was awkward. I was mostly interested in both Tan and Omar rather than any of the other characters.

A bit bland

The narrator's voice was so monotoned I really struggled to enjoy the book. There were too many he said she said.

If a shrug were a book, only more bleak

If you’re longing to read a book peopled by laconic, depressed assholes that make living life seem like the most excruciatingly pointless endeavor, this is the one for you. Every character is actually same character, with only varying degrees of the same personality traits. Plus the narrator/author’s reading voice sounds like he barely cares about the words he’s speaking. Like he’s bored out of his mind reading his own book.

Painful

"I say...whatever...he says...OK...and then" was the primary conversation for almost all the interactions between the two main characters....
Flat monotone by Bryan Washington did nothing to enhance or develop his character, and you end up knowing more about the child he takes care of than Benson. Mike is more interesting but is also so bottled up that it is very difficult to find any emotional connection with either of them. Wanted to like this - loved Less by Andrew Greer to which this has been compared, but this left me wanting.

Some poignant moments

Bryan Washington is a gifted writer but his narration lacks emotion. This book contained too much dialogue and not enough movement too keep me completely engaged.

one narrator great, the other not so great

narrator for the first and last sections isn't great, every sentence ends with the tone shifting downward and it's pretty grating. middle narrator is much much better. the first part of the novel is a little too aimless, the second part is much stronger, and the third part doesn't resolve anything. I think that's the point, that the story is just a series of things that happen. but I read stories to get away from life, not mimic it.

Great Read

Fresh story line showing a rarely shown dynamic between families, couple, children and parents set in Houston and Japan!

Boring

This book was different than I thought it would be from the description I had read. I just wanted to say “what was the point “ of this book. The narration was so boring. No feeling whatsoever in the narration. So monotone. I finished it because I paid for the book and I wondered if it would get better. I found myself making fun of the boring narration. I don’t write reviews this bad but I just couldn’t help myself.

Thoughtful, without being intense or dramatic

This isn’t a book that will hit the reader over the head. It’s more subtle than that. Mostly it’s about rejection, survival, doing the best we can, slow forgiveness for being such a mess. The narration is realistic. I could taste the food. Again, subtle. But it added something.

Stream of consciousness

I didn’t appreciate the book particularly as an audible

The frequent he said she said was distracting

I am not sure why this book was so highly rated

Interesting to blend the Asian and Black culture but ultimately these two guys came from disfunctional families regardless of skin color