Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Washington revisits the Japanese setting of his novel Memorial with a bighearted drama about a 30-something Houston man's reunion with his estranged mother. At the outset, the unnamed protagonist, known only as "the son," gets an unexpected visit from his mother in Tokyo, where he's spent the past 12 years teaching English. She's curious to know more about his life, but they struggle to connect beyond small talk, and the son remains embittered at her failure to support him when he came out as gay many years earlier. Meanwhile, the son grapples with his feelings for the married man he's been seeing and another man he's recently met, who might be a better match. During a sightseeing trip with his mother, the pair finally put it all on the table, but struggle to find resolution: she misses him and wants him to come back to Texas with her, but he insists Japan is his home now, as he's built a tight circle of friends in Tokyo. The situation is rather straightforward, but Washington's nuanced portrait of the gulf between mother and son and their difficulties bridging it offers keen insights into human relationships, showing "how people change through others" as they "try to figure out what works for us." The author's fans will love this. (Nov.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Lambda Award winner Washington's (Family Meal) tender and endearing novel concerns an estranged mother and son. The mother is a widowed Jamaican who lives in Texas and works as a dental assistant. The son is a gay Black man teaching private English lessons in Japan. A rare phone call from the long-estranged son prompts his mother to take a two-week vacation from work and embark on a 19-hour flight to Tokyo to check in on him. The son is displeased to see his mother and asks her to fly home early. When that proves impractical, he lays down some ground rules for the visit and lets her know that he won't be around much. Left to her own devices in Tokyo, the mother explores her son's neighborhood and befriends the owner of a nearby bistro. The source of bitterness between mother and son is slowly revealed, though their progress toward rapprochement is never sure. Striking black-and-white photos of Tokyo frame each chapter and set the story in context. VERDICT Count on Washington for stylish tales with emotional depth and, always, delicious-sounding food.--Barbara Love
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A deeply estranged mother and son slowly, slowly learn to reconcile. Referred to as "the mother" and "the son," these two people--like characters inFamily Meal (2023) andMemorial (2020)--are equipped with the psychological tools needed to repair a wounded relationship but are almost entirely uncertain how to employ them. Truculent and alcoholic, he's an English tutor in Tokyo but lately he's been "forgetting his words." He'd moved to Japan a decade earlier partly, it seems, to escape his family in Texas, while his brother, Chris, who'd joined the Army, is now in prison. The son agonizes over his fractured relationship with his brother, another element in his perception that something is missing or incomplete in him. The son is sleeping with a man, Taku, who's married to a woman; he's seeking "clarity" from Taku about their relationship status. The mother and son hadn't spoken in a number of years until he calls her one night but is unable to say much; the words he seems to want to say just do not emerge from his mouth, a physical manifestation of his emotionally stunted status. Suddenly, the mother takes two weeks off from her dental-office job in Houston, arrives in Tokyo, and promptly gets lost. It's remarkable how delicately and finely Washington metes out the emotional journeys for both mother and son. The novel begins with the son's embittered fury at his mother's passivity and emotional distance, which becomes a begrudging détente, and then an eventual kindness toward her. She proves to be an adept and patient woman who finds her own way in a dizzying city, making acquaintances until her son lets her into his life. She seeks forgiveness for her past harshness, which her son initially refuses to grant. Washington imbues both mother and son with humane backstories, including the mother's less-than-easy upbringing in Jamaica. He's skillful at conveying the ways in which small, even tiny acts of kindness can heal: Returning home to his apartment late one night, the son notices the TV still on and his mother's soft snoring, and he "slowly wedge[s] a pillow under the back of her neck." In a less minutely observed novel, that would be an unremarkable moment, but it's deeply affecting given the fine emotional calibration Washington employs. A patient, powerful analysis of the dual devotion required to heal a fractured relationship. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
