Books: Memorial By Bryan Washington (2020)

 

“Memorial centers on the relationship between Japanese American Mike and his Black boyfriend, Ben (short for Benson). Mike flies to Osaka to care for his terminally ill father, who abandoned his family when Mike was a boy. The timing of the father’s sickness couldn’t be worse: Mike’s mother, Mitsuko, is on her way from Tokyo to Houston to see him. Instead she’ll have to spend her visit with Ben, a stranger. After four years together, Mike and Ben’s relationship is already shaky, nearing the breaking point, and they will now have to figure out where they stand from opposite sides of the planet.”

Bryan Washington’s debut novel is very self-assured. It’s about race, nationality, sexual orientation, and family. I got a sense as a white reader, Washington was trying to not to pander to me, rather I would read this book about POC and just get a glimpse into a lives white readers never really, or want, to see. The first person narrative works so well here, with the first part focusing on Ben, the second on Mike, and finally the third on consequences of those first two parts. It’s clear that the readers loyalty is supposed to be on Ben, a charming middle-class adult who has is own family issues. But then the focus shifts to Mike, who's family dysfunction has made him the man he is, a bit of dick who wants to be self-assured but mostly comes off as lost. But you can’t help but feel sorry for him at times. His dad, Eiju, is a hoot, but also a bastard. Despite his ways, despite him still having issues with a gay son, he is never truly mean. Like many parents of gay children, I think Eiju is just bewildered.

It’s clear, though; Washington has a love for Houston (where the novel is based, as well as the writer) but seems more comfortable in Japan. So I think Japan wins out in many ways, especially in the description of food (another theme of Memorial). Mike is a cook at a Mexican restaurant, but makes a lot of the same stuff his mother made as he grew up for Ben (don't we all?). But Mitsuko teaches Ben a lot through Japanese food. She seems more supportive, in a sometimes opaque way, that Ben is good for her wayward son. Ben, however is never too sure where and what his feelings are for Mike -and that gets more complicated when a gentleman named Omar enters his life.

It’s a brutal and yet tender novel, an embarrassment of riches for the reader. I highly recommend this book.