Memorial
Ratings43
Average rating3.5
A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'This feels like a vision for the 21st-century novel... It made me happy' Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Benson and Mike are two young guys who have 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 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, while 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... Funny and profound, Memorial is about family in all its strange forms, becoming who you're supposed to be and the outer limits of love. NAMED A BOOK TO WATCH IN 2021 BY: SUNDAY TIMES | THE TIMES | DAILY MAIL | THE TELEGRAPH | RADIO 4 | IRISH TIMES
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A hard book to describe and categorize. Benson (Black) and Mike (Japanese) are the main characters in a homosexual relationship in Texas. The dramatic story revolves around the two of them and their families and their issues with them and effected by them. This story is about the two of them and, ultimately, their decision to remain a couple or not. It takes place in a period of a month or two and each man tells his own story and lets us into his head. What's interesting is that for most of the book Ben is living with Mike's mother who is visiting from Japan and Mike is in Japan to confront his father who abandoned the family years ago and is now dying. Yet their connection is palpable, even in their physical absence from each other. The author sucked me in from the start. So much drama and feeling displayed by not just those two but by their other family members. I kept thinking this is not my type of read but I kept reading, riveted to the pages.
When you spend your time getting invested in the lives of imaginary people, it's completely unsatisfying when you're left with nothing being resolved. It's not that the dynamic here wasn't interesting, but there ended up being no resolutions or connections or decisions with any of the relationships. It was all just angst and ambivalence throughout.
Not a lot really happens in this, per se - the big argument/conflict between Mike and Ben is before the novel starts, and is only referenced in flashback. Even Mike's section in Japan is still pretty slow/meditative. This isn't bad, it's just a change for me, since I don't read a lot of literary fiction. I did have quite a bit of feeling “oh my god, you two, just break up,” but this is so much more about character than plot, and I enjoyed the time spent really getting into each character's head. I also liked how this was about two working-class gay men of color in Houston, instead of my (kind of mean) impression of literary fiction all being about white male lit professors in New York who want to sleep with their students. I'd like to read this again to get a clearer opinion of it, and also because the writing is just beautiful.
