Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
This book was something different. Written between the two perspectives of a couple, Mike who went to Japan to care for his dying, estranged father, and Benson, who's in Houston with Mike's visiting mother. Each character voices their own personal struggles and challenges in their life and their current relationship.
I didn't particularly like Mike or Benson, they were both flawed characters, which made them interesting to read about. This book didn't have any quotations marks for dialogue and included occasional pictures that Mike would send Benson.
Memorial isn't the kind of book where everything works out smoothly and there's a 5-years later epilogue with alle the characters thriving and doing their best- but that's okay. Sometimes books don't have to be pretty or standard and I think that's what this one is.
I didn't particularly like Mike or Benson, they were both flawed characters, which made them interesting to read about. This book didn't have any quotations marks for dialogue and included occasional pictures that Mike would send Benson.
Memorial isn't the kind of book where everything works out smoothly and there's a 5-years later epilogue with alle the characters thriving and doing their best- but that's okay. Sometimes books don't have to be pretty or standard and I think that's what this one is.
Loved the heart of this book. Lots to experience at the intersections of so much including love, life, and the love experiences of others.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A thought-provoking read about the complications of relationships. Meant to be frustrating, so it's not necessarily a satisfying read. I enjoyed the unique writing style and short chapters - sort of read like an indie screenplay.
This is one of those books I read and think I don't know what I don't know when it comes to the full range of human interaction. To me, the solution seemed so obvious: Mike and Benson should break up. But it's not that simple. Sometimes I need books like this one to remind me that it's never that simple.
Open ended......
I enjoyed this novel and appreciated the author’s honest depiction of romantic and familial relationships. Thematically, I found that the stories we are told as well as the stories we spin weave us together in this story about love, loss, grief and what means to be human. Easy to read, though the only heartbreak for me is an unclear ending, however, one could easily argue we never know what the ending will be until we get there, both on and off the page.
I enjoyed this novel and appreciated the author’s honest depiction of romantic and familial relationships. Thematically, I found that the stories we are told as well as the stories we spin weave us together in this story about love, loss, grief and what means to be human. Easy to read, though the only heartbreak for me is an unclear ending, however, one could easily argue we never know what the ending will be until we get there, both on and off the page.
realistic in the sense that emotionally unavailable people JUST DON'T TALK!!!! both men have gone through so much shit in their childhoods (which totally informs their unhealthy not-coping mechanisms), and despite their history and attachment to one another, theirs is a relationship non-conducive to growth and healing. they're committed via complacency, and not even entirely at that given the physical and emotional infidelity committed by both of them. and like, that's ok! not every relationship can be nurturing or beneficial. some are really toxic (which this was) or simply unfulfilling (which this also was). again, realistic. sometimes you need to be alone to grow, and I feel like only mike got to do that: in osaka, reestablishing a relationship with his estranged father, integrating into the community around eiju's bar, and caring for his father in his final days. what struck me was mike's aversion to tan considering home to be wherever his mother is. "I don't think you should make a home of another person." a perspective crystallized like shards of broken glass over the course of his and benson's self-destructive relationship. but the thing is, mike has always tried to make a home of people, just not a singular person, but the community around him: his parents, his neighbors, his bar regulars. for him, home *is* people; it's caring for them, making them food. and he tries so hard to find it and keep it, but the indecision and fear of what's the right choice in the end (going back to osaka or staying in houston) may keep him rooted, frozen, stuck again in the same cycles of hurt and suffocation emblematic of his and benson's relationship. and ben? ben still doesn't really know what home is for him; I don't think he's even really looking yet. his apathy--for mike, his family, his life, himself--remains constant and frustrating til the end. but I can't totally blame him. memorial is about two men, so scarred by their upbringings, so scared of turning into their absent fathers that in many ways they do just that: retreating into themselves, withholding their emotions and love for one another for fear of vulnerability begetting pain. it's the hedgehog dilemma. and at this point, the two should stop trying to connect, they'll just keep hurting and getting hurt. but they don't have to with other people. they already have.