When asked about his favorite recent meal, author Bryan Washington thinks back to a previous week’s takeout order of steaming hot dim sum. For Washington, food isn’t just sustenance—it’s a detailed and eloquent form of conversation. And his new book, Memorial, sets it right at the center of the table.
What Washington and his editor lovingly refer to as “a lowercase l love story,” details the collapsing relationship between Mike, a Japanese-American chef, and his boyfriend, Benson, a Black daycare teacher. The two live in Houston, cook together, and are fairly sure they love each other. But when Mike’s father is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he flies to live with him in Osaka, Japan—just as his mother, Mitsuko, comes to stay withshows how Benson stuck with an unlikely roommate, learning about what he wants in life, and reconciling himself with what love is really worth.
