´Sometimes the best we can do is live for each other (...) It´s enough. Even if it seems like it isn´t´.
Ever since reading Memorial, I was craving for the next Bryan Washington book. His writing convenes a genuine empathy that I often miss in both literary and everyday ´real´ life.
Family Meal is a story told from the perspective of three characters: Kai (now a ghost), Cam - Kai´s partner - and TJ - Cam´s first old crush. It´s a story of enjoying the moment, having a lot of sex, and a lot of sex again. Because life is running fast, we rarely figure out when it goes and sometimes focusing on the moment is the best we can do.
Through the interactions of the day, there are short fragments of old memories, like flashes from the past. Most of them they have to do with people, their reactions and interactions and how they went out of the picture.
As in the case of Memorial, I loved the authenticity of the dialogues, reflecting the way in which we usually interact through words in the everyday life. No longue reflective sentences without end. This is how we imagine people may talk, but it´s not true.
I also loved the interposition of few pictures, black-and-white pictures, mostly of flowers in bloom, which are completing the story.
Family Meal is a queer story of friendship and community, of the strength of empathy. Such feelings are part of being an adult as well.
Rating: 5 stars
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