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Memorial
February 2021: Family Drama
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Memorial/Washington - 3 stars
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Ugh-just 3 stars? I am waiting in the hold line at the library for it. I try to avoid 3 star books, just not enough time-;) I am going to keep in line and decide after I see a few more review.
I liked this more than you and part I think was reading something easy to read after reading Wolf Hall.They truly were miserable people, however I saw signs of redemption and quite a bit of insight.
I liked the writing in vernacular and have no problem with foul language.
I really like the idea of the mother's role and that is what hooked me on the idea of reading the book in the first place. Washington calls his book a dramedy and I wish it were a bit more comedic with the mother and Benson and the mother was fleshed out a bit more.
I noticed as well that Mike and Benson's styles were very similar and is probably attributable to Washington at 27 doesn't have the writing chops to flesh them out and distinguish them a bit more. (view spoiler)
As I see it this book deals with a complexity of issues, is easy to read but may be a bit sloppy in its presentation and could have been sanded and polished a bit more and perhaps its lack of polish is not a complete negative.
A couple of interesting articles about Bryan Washington
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/bo...
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/brya...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I am going to focus on what I enjoyed despite these issues (with which I wholeheartedly agree, hence the three stars). The basic plot is that Mike and Benson are in a relationship that seems somewhat fraught. Mike's mother comes to visit from Japan and stay with them, and Mike turns around almost immediately and flies to Japan to reconcile with his estranged, but terminally ill, father. So his lover is left to tend to his mother on his own. I think this setup is supposed to be humorous while also heartrending, but for me, it was mostly unbelievable. But despite that, there were definitely aspects of the book I really liked.
First, the voice. While I do think the characters could have been a bit better differentiated, overall I found this novel to be very readable and engaging because the characters relate their stories in a way that sounds real and alive. There's a lot of dialogue, slang, wit, sarcasm, etc. The book isn't trying to be a literary masterwork, and it's accessible.
Another aspect of this novel that I appreciated is that it pulls strongly from the author's short story writing experience. In a short story, the reader is often expected to do at least some of the heavy lifting. Every thought and feeling and implication is not spelled out in excruciating detail. Some readers find this frustrating, but it's actually something I appreciate. In real life, I don't always know what someone means when they are speaking . . .I'm left to either ask or infer, and I like trying to figure it out a bit.
That being said, the novel is short chapters and paragraphs, and I wasn't quite sure why Benson's sections are written in chapters and Mike's was not.
Finally, Mike's story is emotionally satisfying on many levels. It's the story of family dysfunction and the attempts at reconciliation. I think the author may have been mistaken to write part of the story from Mike's lover's point of view. It really didn't add all that much to the narrative and felt like a subplot even though the book opens and closes with that POV and Mike's is in the middle.