Memorial by Bryan Washington

Memorial

By

star4 from 186 ratings

Description

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 masterpiece. —NPR

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

“Wryly funny, gently devastating.” —Entertainment Weekly

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 goodbye. 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.

More Bryan Washington Books

  • Memorial

    Memorial

    Bryan Washington

    Fiction & Literature

  • Lot

    Lot

    Bryan Washington

    Black Literature

  • Family Meal

    Family Meal

    Bryan Washington

    Fiction & Literature

  • An einem Tisch

    An einem Tisch

    Werner Löcher-Lawrence & Bryan Washington

    Fiction & Literature

  • Spomienky

    Spomienky

    Bryan Washington

    Fiction & Literature

  • Memorial

    Memorial

    Bryan Washington

    Fiction & Literature

  • Pranzo di famiglia

    Pranzo di famiglia

    Bryan Washington

    Fiction & Literature

  • Memorial

    Memorial

    Lucía Barahona & Bryan Washington

    Fiction & Literature

  • Memorial

    Memorial

    Bryan Washington

    Fiction & Literature

  • Houston-Osaka

    Houston-Osaka

    Bryan Washington

    Literary Fiction

  • Parking

    Parking

    Maciej Świerkocki & Bryan Washington

    Fiction & Literature

  • Upamiętnienie

    Upamiętnienie

    Bryan Washington

    Romance

  • Parking

    Parking

    Bryan Washington

    Literary Fiction

  • Promesse

    Promesse

    Bryan Washington

    Literary Fiction