Summary
Memorial begins with a swap: Benson, a Black American childcare worker in Houston, and his Japanese boyfriend Mike are in a troubled relationship when Mike's estranged father calls from Japan — he is dying. Mike flies to Osaka. His mother, Mitsuko, flies from Osaka to Houston. For several weeks, Benson and Mitsuko — who have never met — share Mike's apartment while Mike tries to reconnect with the father he resents. The novel alternates perspectives between the two households and the two men.
On the surface this is a romantic comedy setup. In practice it's a quiet, precise novel about families as ecosystems of unspoken injury and unexpressed love. Mitsuko is not comic relief; she is a fully realized person with her own grief, her own opacity, her own way of showing care through cooking. Benson and Mike's relationship is troubled in ways that are never reduced to a single cause. Washington is interested in the accumulation of small failures and accommodations that define long-term intimacy more than in dramatic ruptures.
Washington came to fiction from a short story collection, Lot, also set in Houston, and Memorial has that book's texture: Houston itself — the heat, the food, the specific topography of the city's neighborhoods — is a presence rather than backdrop. The novel is written in short, declarative sentences with almost no emotional announcement. Characters show feeling through what they cook, eat, and say about food; the novel's emotional register is largely communicated through meals.
Memorial is a book for readers who trust accumulated detail over explicit statement, and who find queer domesticity — the ordinary texture of two people sharing a space — as interesting a subject as queer drama. It is not a book with strong forward momentum or a climactic confrontation. What it builds toward is an honest, unresolved picture of two people deciding whether they want the same thing, which turns out to be harder to render than most novels suggest.
Talk to Memorial like its author wrote you back.
Get the ideas that fit your life — not generic summaries.
- Chat with the book
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Key takeaways
- 1.
The novel treats queer domesticity — the mundane sharing of space and time — as worthy of the same literary attention as crisis or drama.
- 2.
Food is the primary language of emotional expression throughout; meals communicate what characters cannot say directly, and the meaning is usually legible to the reader even when invisible to the characters.
- 3.
Mitsuko's arrival reframes Benson and Mike's relationship from outside, the way a stranger in a shared space will; her perspective is neither neutral nor cruel, just different.
- 4.
Houston functions as a specific, non-generic American city — its heat, its demographics, its food culture are all active elements, not scenery.
- 5.
Washington refuses to locate the trouble in the relationship at a single cause. There is race, class, communication failure, and simple incompatibility, all present simultaneously.
- 6.
The alternating-perspective structure gives the reader information neither Benson nor Mike has, which creates dramatic irony without being manipulative about it.
- 7.
Grief and family inheritance — specifically the way fathers' failures get absorbed by sons — run through both storylines without ever being named as a theme.
- 8.
The ending is deliberately unresolved in a way that feels true rather than evasive; Washington declines to tell you whether the relationship survives.
Discussion questions
Use these on your own, with a book club, or as chat starters in Superbook.
- 1.
The swap — Mike leaves, Mitsuko arrives — is a structural conceit. Does it feel contrived, or does it earn its strangeness?
- 2.
Benson and Mitsuko develop a relationship that might be friendship, or might just be proximity. How would you describe what develops between them?
- 3.
Food is the novel's main emotional language. Pick a specific meal in the book. What was Washington communicating that the characters couldn't say?
- 4.
Mike's father is dying and Mike goes to him despite years of estrangement. Is that a defensible choice, an admirable one, or something else entirely?
- 5.
Benson's race and Mike's Japanese background are both present but never the explicit subject of a scene. Does that restraint feel honest or evasive?
- 6.
The novel is set very specifically in Houston. How much does that particularity matter? Could this story be set anywhere, or is the city doing real work?
- 7.
Both Benson and Mike are somewhat opaque as narrators — we don't fully trust either of them about their own motivations. Is that a limitation or a formal choice?
- 8.
Washington's sentences are short and declarative throughout. Does that style convey emotional restraint, or does it feel like a tic?
- 9.
The ending withholds a resolution that most romantic novels would provide. Did you find that satisfying, frustrating, or honest?
- 10.
Memorial and On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous were both published in 2019-2020 and are both queer novels about immigrant family dynamics. Where do they diverge most sharply?
- 11.
What do you think Mike actually wants by the end of the novel? What does Benson want? Are those wants compatible?
Themes
Frequently asked questions
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Is Memorial worth reading?
Yes, if you're drawn to quiet, precise fiction about ordinary relationships. It's not a plot-driven novel, but it renders the texture of intimacy and family with unusual honesty. The food writing alone is worth the time.
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What is Memorial about, without spoilers?
A Black American man and his Japanese boyfriend are in a strained relationship when the boyfriend flies to Japan to visit his dying father. His mother comes to Houston in his place. The novel follows both households simultaneously as everyone tries to figure out what they want from each other.
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Is Memorial part of a series?
No. It is a standalone novel, though it shares Washington's Houston setting and some thematic concerns with his short story collection Lot.
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Who shouldn't read Memorial?
Readers who need strong forward momentum, dramatic confrontation, or clear resolution will find it unsatisfying. The novel accumulates rather than builds, and the ending does not resolve the central relationship neatly.
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Is Memorial an own-voices story?
Washington is Black and queer. Benson is Black and queer. The Japanese-American material comes from research and relationships rather than lived experience. Washington has discussed this distinction in interviews.
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How does Memorial compare to Lot?
Lot is a story collection that established Washington's Houston world and his short declarative style. Memorial is more expansive — it takes more risks with structure and interiority — but readers who loved Lot will recognize both the city and the voice immediately.
