Book review: MEMORIAL by Bryan Washington

Everything happened so spontaneously!



                                             Image courtesy: Goodreads

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and I was enjoying that week's The New Yorker fiction issue. I came across and enjoyed reading a fiction piece called "Arrivals" by Bryan Washington. Finding a sudden liking for the writer's style and close to real life characters, I was instantaneously looking for more works by the author. I suddenly found myself driving to the public library and picking up a copy of his novel "Memorial".

Having read and enjoyed "Call me by your name" by André Aciman, before reading the Memorial, the latter felt like the former's stark contrast (definitely not in a bad way). While CMBYN seemed almost too dreamy, Memorial seemed more rough and real. While the scenes of CMBYN had a poetic nuance embedded in them, Memorial gave a more raw, humanly touch to its scenes.

The novel excels in outlining the true emotions and feelings, we imperfect and flawed humans go through each day. The trials and tribulations that are to be dealt with, because of a person and or their loved one's actions are portrayed so well in the novel.

Sometimes circumstances make unlikely people come in contact with each other and sometimes even make them coexist under the same roof. This theme can be seen all throughout the plot. This can be seen with Eiju and Mitsuko, Benson's father and mother, and later Benson and Mitsuko, and definitely with Mike and Eiju. Even with the oddity and awkwardness, they somehow learn to coexist. I feel like this applies to life in general and how despite being ill prepared, we often survive the unexpected storms and turmoil, coming out okay.

The author brings in a breath of fresh air by portraying the lives of often marginalized and underrepresented minority and colored queer community. We don't get to hear more about these people or perhaps they aren't being represented more for us to be able to hear about them.

As a closing remark, I would like to emphasize that the ambiguous ending of the novel further affirms the fact that life is often open ended with many twists and turns. We might never be ready for them but that doesn't mean we wouldn't survive it. As Mitsuko says, "You'll be fine. You'll figure this out. It's not a waste, is what I'm saying. There are no wastes. Either nothing is a waste, or everything is a waste."


-Rithin

@hues.and.dews.poetry

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