From National Book Award 5 Under 35 honoree Bryan Washington comes MEMORIAL, a deeply sensitive and raw dramedy about two young men at the crossroads of their relationship, their families and themselves.

Benson and Mike have been together for just over four years now. Still youthful and sensual, they engage in passionate fights and equally passionate sex afterwards. Sure, they love each other, but they’re about to figure out just how much. Benson is a Black day care teacher who is more or less estranged from his family, including his mother and her perfect second family, his alcoholic father and his ambitious sister. Mike is a Japanese chef who enjoys making delectable Mexican food at his restaurant and keeping in close contact with his mother, Mitsuko, who relocated to Japan a few years ago. Together they live in an “up-and-coming” ward of Houston that was once predominantly Black but is now giving way to frat houses and white college students.

"What makes MEMORIAL so perfectly compelling is the raw sensitivity with which Washington approaches every single character, theme and tension-filled moment. I read this book in one sitting because I simply could not look away."

When we meet Benson and Mike, it is clear that something is off in their relationship. Mike has begun staying out late, receiving explicit photos from other men and questioning their happiness. Meanwhile, our narrator Benson seems happy to stay stagnant, accepting that being “okay” or “happy enough” is more than most people get in life, and quite possibly far more than he deserves. Washington cooks tension into every page, but there is a definite sense of love hiding behind it, fanning the flames of their fiery, occasionally violent fights and make-up sessions. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Mike has just dropped a bombshell on Benson: his estranged father is dying in Osaka, and he is flying out to care for him for an undetermined period of time. Even worse, Mike has kept this information to himself until the last possible moment before the couple sets off to pick up Mitsuko from the airport. It is to be her first visit with her son in years, and Benson will have to take the lead.

For the first third of the book, we only see Mike in Benson’s flashbacks, with Washington focusing mostly on the relationship between Benson and Mitsuko, a sharp and forthright woman who shares Mike’s love of cooking and Benson’s cool stoicism. As she slowly takes Benson under her wing and guides him through the kitchen, focusing on Mike’s favorite meals, a different side of each character is revealed: Mitsuko, initially cold and off-putting, becomes warm and maternal; Benson, so dreadfully flat and accommodating, becomes funny, intuitive and curious.

At the same time that the two are building the bonds of a mother/son-in-law relationship, Benson’s life at the day care is expanding too, as he grows close to one of the few Black children under his care. Alternating between humorous, awkward and downright heartwarming scenes, Washington not only aligns his readers with Benson and asks them to root for his happiness, but --- perhaps unexpectedly --- draws a sharp portrait of Mike using the people who love him most as his medium.

One third into the book, Washington flips the script, dropping us into Osaka, where Mike has been caring for his stubborn father and helping him run his hole-in-the-wall bar. Readers who identified with Benson immediately (including yours truly) will be delighted to see Mike fleshed out and explored, built up from the stereotype of the cheating boyfriend, and made into someone with his own histories, insecurities and heartaches. Watching his father deteriorate forces him to consider his own past, and as we see them cling to their happiness in flashbacks, the present becomes even more stark, pain-filled and painful. The parallels between Mike and his father and Benson and his father play out beautifully, complementing and twisting away from one another. They prove to readers that even in the midst of what looks like a drawn-out breakup, there is a lot of real, true love holding Benson and Mike together.

As Mike’s visit --- and his father’s life --- draws to a close, both Benson and Mike are forced to consider whether or not they really want to be together when Mike returns to Houston. But the love story at the heart of the book is not theirs alone; Washington makes their union a family affair, once again using his supporting characters to tell you far more about his protagonists than they ever would reveal themselves. What emerges, slowly and beautifully, is a funny and profound love story about vulnerability, grief and the undeniable bonds between two men with far more in common than they’d ever let on.

What makes MEMORIAL so perfectly compelling is the raw sensitivity with which Washington approaches every single character, theme and tension-filled moment. I read this book in one sitting because I simply could not look away. Whether he is breaking down the effects of gentrification, exploring the pain of coming out or celebrating the bravery in choosing joy, Washington is endlessly wise and poignant, but never verbose or overwritten. His prose is as lyrical as it is sharp, yet there is a quiet humor written in that never ceased to surprise me. Benson and Mike are complex and layered characters, and I loved how Washington never shied away from their awkwardness --- their unsexy lovemaking, squabbles and petty remarks.

This is a book for real people living real lives who want to feel seen and understood, but without the grand pronouncements about life or what it means to be a gay man. Washington does not preach to his audience --- he reaches them somewhere far deeper --- and his work is that much more impactful because of his keen understanding of the difference between one and the other.