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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
this review is more than three months late, though i don't think that will affect it much. this is a very character-driven book and the characters have stuck in my mind. unfortunately, not everything worked for me, though i can't quite explain why. other people would definitely enjoy this a lot more than i did! but even the aspects of the book that i didn't like weren't necessarily flaws; they just weren't for me, so i would still recommend this to others who are intrigued by whatever i mention.
first off, i read this as an audiobook, and i loved that experience! the book features two povs, which i didn't know until the second pov started and i realised that there was a second narrator. the author voices the black american character, while another person voices his japanese american partner, and since i am a sucker for audiobooks narrated by the author, this got a big thumbs up from me! dual-pov books are really good when written well, and that was definitely the case! they had distinct personalities and family backgrounds and anxieties, and all of these things intertwined well. one of the characters has hiv and the way it's discussed was pleasantly surprising.
i did enjoy mike's pov more, i think partly because benson's family dynamics fell a little flat for me, but the parts where benson talks about his job working with children stood out for me. however, i will admit that benson's pov made me slightly uncomfortable because it reminded me of myself, particularly in the way he gets inside his own head and can become self-destructive. it was a little too similar to my own mental state at times. that's a me problem.
one of my other minor issues with the book was the tone. it's an emotional and moving book, but sometimes i wished it would lean more into that direction, because other times it would be silly and funny in a way that didn't really work for me. the humour was dry, not necessarily in a bad way, but something about it disconnected me from the narrative and the characters a little. this added to my overall lukewarm feeling towards the execution of the premise. again, that's another me problem; other people would love this.
it might be weird to end the review by discussing the premise of the book, but the premise was the thing that kept me going the whole time. i wanted to see how things would change, and ultimately be resolved. one of the central themes of the book is change. how do you change alongside another person? how do you show someone your vulnerabilities? and how do you continue to be vulnerable, when it can feel awful and painful and difficult? their relationship with each other is paralleled with their relationships with various family members and other side characters, highlighting different forms of love and connection. the concept and themes were what initially drew me to the book, and they were ultimately what made me stay as well, even when i didn't always enjoy how they turned out. sometimes a book giving you food for thought is enough to make it a decent book.
(in my journal i wrote 3* for this book, but i've bumped it up slightly here because writing this review made me feel surprisingly thoughtful and reflective, and i can appreciate a book that makes me think when i least expect it)
first off, i read this as an audiobook, and i loved that experience! the book features two povs, which i didn't know until the second pov started and i realised that there was a second narrator. the author voices the black american character, while another person voices his japanese american partner, and since i am a sucker for audiobooks narrated by the author, this got a big thumbs up from me! dual-pov books are really good when written well, and that was definitely the case! they had distinct personalities and family backgrounds and anxieties, and all of these things intertwined well. one of the characters has hiv and the way it's discussed was pleasantly surprising.
i did enjoy mike's pov more, i think partly because benson's family dynamics fell a little flat for me, but the parts where benson talks about his job working with children stood out for me. however, i will admit that benson's pov made me slightly uncomfortable because it reminded me of myself, particularly in the way he gets inside his own head and can become self-destructive. it was a little too similar to my own mental state at times. that's a me problem.
one of my other minor issues with the book was the tone. it's an emotional and moving book, but sometimes i wished it would lean more into that direction, because other times it would be silly and funny in a way that didn't really work for me. the humour was dry, not necessarily in a bad way, but something about it disconnected me from the narrative and the characters a little. this added to my overall lukewarm feeling towards the execution of the premise. again, that's another me problem; other people would love this.
it might be weird to end the review by discussing the premise of the book, but the premise was the thing that kept me going the whole time. i wanted to see how things would change, and ultimately be resolved. one of the central themes of the book is change. how do you change alongside another person? how do you show someone your vulnerabilities? and how do you continue to be vulnerable, when it can feel awful and painful and difficult? their relationship with each other is paralleled with their relationships with various family members and other side characters, highlighting different forms of love and connection. the concept and themes were what initially drew me to the book, and they were ultimately what made me stay as well, even when i didn't always enjoy how they turned out. sometimes a book giving you food for thought is enough to make it a decent book.
(in my journal i wrote 3* for this book, but i've bumped it up slightly here because writing this review made me feel surprisingly thoughtful and reflective, and i can appreciate a book that makes me think when i least expect it)
I would give this a 3.5 if half stars were allowed. The story being told from both perspectives is fantastic, and I love it. But for an author from Houston, some of the phrases and descriptions he uses just sound weird. I've never heard anyone from Texas say "the 10," it's just 10. I still really like Washington and his characters, and I'll be reading more of his work.
A bunch of good stuff here: interesting, complex gay characters whose gayness is most definitely not their only distinguishing characteristic, set in a complex world based in Houston, unlovely and lower socioeconomic class, amid complex families. I found the text a little hard to read because no quotation marks (and much of the book is in dialogue), but even more so, because often a character speaks two lines/paragraphs in a row, and their voices aren’t notably different, even between Benson, the young black protagonist, and his boyfriend’s Japanese mother, which didn’t ring true to me. I found the characters really unsympathetic throughout; it get a bit like a grim cartoon, with only a sliver of hope toward the end, but the hope feels true. And I appreciated that this book didn’t feel like it was written to appeal to everyone—nothing is dumbed down or simplified about the characters’ situations to make it palatable for nongay or older or other audiences.
A quiet story. Its tone feels like a lot of Japanese literature. It is an interesting choice on Washington's part. It makes you work hard to dig down into the characters. Lazy readers would likely see sad and disconnected characters but really that is not the case at all. This is a character study about two people so dinged up they are afraid to feel too much and also so afraid to be their fathers that they are paralyzed when it comes to defining themselves as adults. That fear of feeling extends to the secondary characters as well.
I was gratified by a book that gave us characters we don't often see in litfic - economically lower middle class, not college educated, and not striving to change either of those things. It also presents certain characteristics that are often a BIG DEAL in literature with no muss or fuss. The central couple are of different races and countries of origin, and that is not really a thing, there are people with substance abuse issues, and while those issues have ripple effects, we don't have to analyze the disease itself,. It was refreshing.
The one significant negative for me (if I could I would have rated this a 3.5) was the relationship between Ben and Mike. I liked them individually, but i would have liked to have some reason to want to preserve their relationship. It was hard to see what was there to hang on to, and it felt clear that they would both easily survive the breakup, and would likely be the better for it. I was sadder to think that Ben and Mitsuko (Mike's mother) would be separated than Ben and Mike would be. The most compelling relationships by far were between Ben and Mitsuoko and Mike and Eiju and I am not sure that is what Washington intended.
Overall a lovely quiet read with real resonance. I need to mention that I find people's obsession with the lack of quotation marks odd. Not using quotation marks gives encounters a more natural vivacity, and also more closely aligns prose with poetry. I have no problem with quotation marks, but I also get that they, like all punctuation, are a choice -- a way to set a tone, establish authorial voice, and define the relationship between the story and the reader. This is not something Sally Rooney invented, so stop with that shit. James Joyce was eschewing quotation marks before Sally Rooney's parents were born. Established current writers like Cormac McCarthy, Junot Diaz and Louise Erdrich do the same. If you can't figure out that people are having a conversation without quotations marks either you have a bad writer on your hands, or you are a bad reader.
I was gratified by a book that gave us characters we don't often see in litfic - economically lower middle class, not college educated, and not striving to change either of those things. It also presents certain characteristics that are often a BIG DEAL in literature with no muss or fuss. The central couple are of different races and countries of origin, and that is not really a thing, there are people with substance abuse issues, and while those issues have ripple effects, we don't have to analyze the disease itself,
Spoiler
there is a character in the book who is HIV positive, and while that status impacts their actions and their thoughts about relationships, it is not something the author primarily focuses onThe one significant negative for me (if I could I would have rated this a 3.5) was the relationship between Ben and Mike. I liked them individually, but i would have liked to have some reason to want to preserve their relationship. It was hard to see what was there to hang on to, and it felt clear that they would both easily survive the breakup, and would likely be the better for it. I was sadder to think that Ben and Mitsuko (Mike's mother) would be separated than Ben and Mike would be. The most compelling relationships by far were between Ben and Mitsuoko and Mike and Eiju and I am not sure that is what Washington intended.
Overall a lovely quiet read with real resonance. I need to mention that I find people's obsession with the lack of quotation marks odd. Not using quotation marks gives encounters a more natural vivacity, and also more closely aligns prose with poetry. I have no problem with quotation marks, but I also get that they, like all punctuation, are a choice -- a way to set a tone, establish authorial voice, and define the relationship between the story and the reader. This is not something Sally Rooney invented, so stop with that shit. James Joyce was eschewing quotation marks before Sally Rooney's parents were born. Established current writers like Cormac McCarthy, Junot Diaz and Louise Erdrich do the same. If you can't figure out that people are having a conversation without quotations marks either you have a bad writer on your hands, or you are a bad reader.
3.5 stars, I think. I liked this a lot, especially because the characters are so different than ones I normally read about. Families are hard, relationships are hard!
The core relationships were all so strained that it felt hard to watch the characters not communicate their hurt and needs with one another, and equally hard to see occasional moments of vulnerability brushed off or disregarded. But it was also a really beautiful portrayal of those strained relationships in all their mess and pain and beauty. A good book about hard stuff.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
NYT Notable Books 2020: 38/100
Despite the fact that Mike and Benson's relationship kind of fell flat for me, this was still a really solid read since there was so much more to the book than that. It was sad, but filled with love and hope, which was needed after some heavier reads. I loved Benson and Mitsuko together, and honestly just Mitsuko in general. I didn't love Mike's plot line quite as much, but still sympathized with him. Washington is a fantastic writer and I'm excited to keep reading more from him.
Despite the fact that Mike and Benson's relationship kind of fell flat for me, this was still a really solid read since there was so much more to the book than that. It was sad, but filled with love and hope, which was needed after some heavier reads. I loved Benson and Mitsuko together, and honestly just Mitsuko in general. I didn't love Mike's plot line quite as much, but still sympathized with him. Washington is a fantastic writer and I'm excited to keep reading more from him.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Terminal illness, Death of parent
I really enjoyed the exploration of characters who are non-white and gay and their relationships with their families and in particular their fathers. But their relationship and the way both characters communicated was so frustrating and I wanted more growth/ an ending from them.
Welcome to my adventures with Book of the Month (BotM).
I decided to join BotM and committed myself to a year for multiple reasons: 1) to check it out and see if I like it, 2) expand beyond my genre comfort zone (left to my own devices I tend to stick to fantasy and sci-fi), 3) read more current works, and 4) support fledgling authors.
This was my first selection for November 2020.
I hated this book.
It is the worst book I read in 2020, among the worst books I've ever read.
To start, I wasn't overly convinced by the premise. I guy decides to leave for Japan to be with his estranged, dying father one day after his mother arrives to visit from Japan, leaving his partner and his mother (who have never met) to figure it out. I suspended my disbelief because it seemed to have the potential for an unique dynamic, maybe some interesting dialog and interactions. Spoiler alert: this was not the case. It's mostly her cooking him food while the two of them don't talk. I suspect if you removed all the descriptions of food preparation in this book, it would be at least half the length.
There isn't much of a plot, barely anything happens, the characters lack depth, don't truly grow or change much and none of them are likable. I wasn't invested in the relationship and did not care whether or not they stayed together. I didn't find it very well written either. I noticed a lot of negative reviewers complaining about the lack of quotation marks for dialog. This isn't something that bothers me in and of itself. I've seen it used well (think The Handmaid's Tale). This wasn't well done, so there were times it was confusing, I had to reread sentences at times and never quite knew if a character was supposed to be speaking or not.
This is also the first time I ever caught myself physically rolling my eyes while reading a book. It happened multiple times. I would get to a stand-alone sentence at the end of a section that I could tell the author meant to be profound, but it felt more like a younger sibling telling you "your Momma wears combat boots" in their best Johnny Five impersonation and thinking they had just read you to filth.
I still cannot wrap my brain around all the positive fanfare for this book. I've come to understand it as what I think of as "The Emperor's New Clothes Made From Rorschach Cards Effect". Seems his debut short story collection was well received and gaining a lot of attention when it was recommended by former president Obama, so his next book was highly anticipated. Positive reviews for this novel tend to focus on the information left out and the power of what's not being said. Seems to me it's easy to project that on to something when there isn't much there and you go in convinced it's going to be great. It's like the old sitcom joke of a character fawning over a striking piece of art in an abstract exhibit that turns out to be the actual fire extinguisher for the building.
Any positives? Well, it was a fast read, I finished in under 48 hours. There was queer representation and a diverse cast of characters, part of why I selected it. I guess it made me feel like a decent, well-rounded person with depth and a healthy long-term relationship, in comparison to the characters, but that wasn't something I needed going in.
Would I recommend it? No.
Will I read anything else by the author? No
BotM first impression: Not sure that I'm the right demographic. I'm concerned BotM is geared toward the type of privileged, middle-aged white women that made Fifty Shades of Grey and Outlander popular.
I'll end with my BotM review, since they are limited to 200 characters:
"It seemed the purpose of this book was to justify spending the advance on a trip to Japan by describing how to make authentic food in tedious detail and throwing in a few random pictures for evidence."
The journey continues...
I decided to join BotM and committed myself to a year for multiple reasons: 1) to check it out and see if I like it, 2) expand beyond my genre comfort zone (left to my own devices I tend to stick to fantasy and sci-fi), 3) read more current works, and 4) support fledgling authors.
This was my first selection for November 2020.
I hated this book.
It is the worst book I read in 2020, among the worst books I've ever read.
To start, I wasn't overly convinced by the premise. I guy decides to leave for Japan to be with his estranged, dying father one day after his mother arrives to visit from Japan, leaving his partner and his mother (who have never met) to figure it out. I suspended my disbelief because it seemed to have the potential for an unique dynamic, maybe some interesting dialog and interactions. Spoiler alert: this was not the case. It's mostly her cooking him food while the two of them don't talk. I suspect if you removed all the descriptions of food preparation in this book, it would be at least half the length.
There isn't much of a plot, barely anything happens, the characters lack depth, don't truly grow or change much and none of them are likable. I wasn't invested in the relationship and did not care whether or not they stayed together. I didn't find it very well written either. I noticed a lot of negative reviewers complaining about the lack of quotation marks for dialog. This isn't something that bothers me in and of itself. I've seen it used well (think The Handmaid's Tale). This wasn't well done, so there were times it was confusing, I had to reread sentences at times and never quite knew if a character was supposed to be speaking or not.
This is also the first time I ever caught myself physically rolling my eyes while reading a book. It happened multiple times. I would get to a stand-alone sentence at the end of a section that I could tell the author meant to be profound, but it felt more like a younger sibling telling you "your Momma wears combat boots" in their best Johnny Five impersonation and thinking they had just read you to filth.
I still cannot wrap my brain around all the positive fanfare for this book. I've come to understand it as what I think of as "The Emperor's New Clothes Made From Rorschach Cards Effect". Seems his debut short story collection was well received and gaining a lot of attention when it was recommended by former president Obama, so his next book was highly anticipated. Positive reviews for this novel tend to focus on the information left out and the power of what's not being said. Seems to me it's easy to project that on to something when there isn't much there and you go in convinced it's going to be great. It's like the old sitcom joke of a character fawning over a striking piece of art in an abstract exhibit that turns out to be the actual fire extinguisher for the building.
Any positives? Well, it was a fast read, I finished in under 48 hours. There was queer representation and a diverse cast of characters, part of why I selected it. I guess it made me feel like a decent, well-rounded person with depth and a healthy long-term relationship, in comparison to the characters, but that wasn't something I needed going in.
Would I recommend it? No.
Will I read anything else by the author? No
BotM first impression: Not sure that I'm the right demographic. I'm concerned BotM is geared toward the type of privileged, middle-aged white women that made Fifty Shades of Grey and Outlander popular.
I'll end with my BotM review, since they are limited to 200 characters:
"It seemed the purpose of this book was to justify spending the advance on a trip to Japan by describing how to make authentic food in tedious detail and throwing in a few random pictures for evidence."
The journey continues...