“...loving a person means letting them change when they need to. And that doesn’t make them any less of a home. Just maybe not one for you. Or only for a season or two. But that doesn’t diminish the love. It just changes forms.”
Benson and Mike have been together for a few years. When things work, they’re good together, but it seems lately those moments have been fewer and farther between. But neither wants to start a conversation about what they want from each other.
Mike’s mother Mitsuko arrives from Japan, and at the same time he learns his estranged father is dying in Osaka. He decides he needs to go to Japan to be with his father, so he leaves his mother with Benson, despite the fact the two have never met before.
As Benson and Mitsuko try to negotiate the strange arrangement they’ve been left with, Mike begins to better understand his father and their relationship, and see how his memories differ from reality. At the same time, both Benson and Mike think about their relationship and its potential longevity, or what they might want from the future.
Bryan Washington is such a talented storyteller and I love the way he writes. There is definitely some beauty and emotion in this book. That being said, I kept waiting for a big revelation or moment in the story, and it never quite happened.
I felt like so much of the interactions between the characters were shaped by the things they didn’t say, and that was frustrating at times. It was almost like we were viewing Benson and Mike’s relationship through a window, and everything wasn’t quite clear.
This is one of those books that will resonate more for some than others, and it probably would benefit from some discussion. Still, reading Washington’s work is a real privilege.
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