Memorial

Starred review from June 15, 2020
In Washington’s debut novel (after the collection Lot), the fractures in a couple’s relationship span from Houston, Tex., to Osaka, Japan. Ben, a day care teacher, lives with his cook boyfriend, Mike, in Houston’s slowly gentrifying Third Ward. When Mike’s mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Houston from Japan with plans to stay at Ben and Mike’s place, awkwardness ensues. Mike has just left for Osaka, to reconnect with his absent and now terminally ill father, and put Ben in charge of entertaining Mitsuko until he gets back. Ben eventually adjusts to having her around, just as he must navigate his changing relationship with his black middle-class family, who have always shied away from Ben’s HIV-positive status and talked around his father’s drinking. Meanwhile, in Osaka, Mike has found his father, Eiju, at the bar he owns, where Eiju has a dedicated assistant and crowd of regulars who have no idea Eiju’s dying or that he has a son. Mike starts working at the bar so he can spend Eiju’s final days with him. Though Mike still grapples with how to feel about Eiju, who made his biggest impact on Mike’s life by abandoning the family, father and son are able to build a tentative relationship. Tender, funny, and heartbreaking, this tale of family, food (Mike cooks for their Venezuelan neighbors; Mitsuko makes Ben congee), and growing apart feels intimate and expansive at the same time. Washington shows readers more of the unforgettable Houston he introduced in his stories, and comfortably expands his range into the setting of Osaka, applying nuance in equal measure to his characters and the places they’re tied to.

Author Bryan Washington takes the lead in narrating his second audiobook, ably complemented by Akie Kotabe's winning performance. With careful phrasing and a relaxed pace, Washington conveys the first-person perspective of Benson, who must entertain his long-term boyfriend Mike's mother, Mitsuko, who is staying in their Houston home while Mike reconnects with his estranged father, who is dying in Japan. Washington's subtle emotional intensity and clear engagement with the story come through in his performance. His character portrayals, however, are indistinct and offer little variation between males and females. On the other hand, Kotabe's vibrant characterizations and expressive tone direct the listener's full attention to Mike's fractured relationship with his father and complicated relationship with Benson. M.J. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine