Memorial
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Memorial
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Narrated by:
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Bryan Washington
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Kotabe Akie
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By:
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Bryan Washington
About this listen
What happens when a love story collides with the limits of love - and everyone has an opinion?
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, realising 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. Memorial is 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.
©2020 Bryan Washington (P)2020 Penguin Random HouseListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Memorial
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- avagardro
- 19-02-24
a story of love and life
relatable. true lives and true family depictions. I felt all the emotions, especially the held back ones. the things not said are palpable. a great listen.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 23-01-21
ok. not likeable characters or writing style
I found this book disappointing. the characters were not likeable the story was boring and I didn't like his writing style.
I prefer books with more elegant prose.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Ecaterina Forij
- 02-12-21
bland
struggled to finish it honestly. the narrators for both protagonists sound very bored most of the time.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 24-08-23
Slice of lives
Double narrative in two countries with parallels. I much preferred the Japanese section and wasn’t so keen on the narrators
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Cliente Amazon
- 09-10-21
Really tender
It delivered a complex queer relationship in a very messy situation in a very interesting way, seeing both views so far apart gave it time to contrast the different opinions of the main characters. While it was slow and a bit subdued, the sporadic moments of real affection between them feel more meaningful (and romantic). And they certainly felt relatable for me.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Waggy From Derby
- 25-07-21
OK ish
sometime I liked it, sometimes I struggled to carry on listening. I wanted to see how it resolved but disappointed really. too much dialogue , not enough description.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Nonny Mouse
- 15-01-21
Tedious, boring, monotonous
Having read positive reviews about this novel, and being intrigued by the plot I had high hopes. However I found this so boring I abandoned it less than halfway through: the narration is monotonous , the characterisation bland an unappealing, and its themes are hammered home unskillfully. I found the writing insipid and one-dimensional.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- mr d e turner
- 11-02-21
Utterly banal
This book seems to waddle through its pages with almost nothing to say. The central characters and their relationship are so dull that it is difficult to care a jot about them.
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