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barelycarebear 's review for:
Memorial
by Bryan Washington
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...