Permeated by a deep affection for the city of Tokyo, its cuisine, its mass transit, its look and feel ... And the food! The unpretentious way Washington writes about food is a throughline in his work ... Not much happens in Palaver, though by the mother’s departure, we see that things will be a little less arctic in the son’s family of origin going forward. It’s enough, at least enough for the reader who appreciates texture and delicacy, queer authenticity, and a well-placed crisped oyster.
Though [Palaver...circles around many of the themes he explored in his previous books — family estrangement, the search for belonging, gnawing isolation and nagging self-doubt — there’s a subtle shift in Washington’s approach. “Palaver” similarly deconstructs the myriad ways we intentionally or unintentionally tear people apart, but it also eloquently illuminates the tiny steps we can take to lift each other up and make ourselves whole again ... In between these deep dives into the past are wonderfully moody, wholly immersive snapshots of the characters’ intersecting present lives, which both propel the narrative forward and contribute to some of its magic. What begins as a simple story about a mother and son’s fractured relationship is transformed into a heart-wrenchingly honest, often luminescent exploration of how to find and cultivate true connections, sometimes in the unlikeliest of places ... an unshakable triumph.
The author relies on terse, defensive dialogue and spare, naturalistic descriptions to tell the story of a son reuniting with his estranged mother ... As a whole, the book has a pleasant, calming effect — reading it feels like sifting through a disorganized pile of family photos in bed ... This rhythmic interweaving is quite an achievement; the frequent set changes, rather than disrupting or fracturing the narrative, inculcate a hypnotic desire in the reader to keep looking.
Arguably, there is something colourless and trite about the novel’s ultimate – and seemingly inevitable – move towards mutual understanding between the two lead characters ... But fans of Washington’s work will have much to enjoy here ... Undoubtedly Washington is a fine, stylish and very talented writer. But I am itching for him to turn his sharp eye to new material and questions.
I’ve read Washington before and liked his debut collection of stories, Lot, but like so many young writers, he is so focused on pointing out how miserable life is that he fails to identify any of its joys. Thankfully, the mother brings some much-needed energy to Palaver; otherwise, we’d be stuck with the interminable whining of an entitled man-child. Should I ever find myself teaching writing courses again, I’ll add one simple piece of advice to my students to help improve their work: lighten up.
Washington writes in a realist mode, with an acute attention to the look and feel of a street, a shop window, a meal. His prose is taut and rhythmic, and he excels at capturing both the minute particulars of a given bar or apartment or district, and the numbing vastness of the city. All the same, his decision not to assign names to his principal characters, while initially lending the novel an air of universality, lapses into what feels like a formula for its own sake ... Palaver often feels insistently unmomentous, its exchanges and episodes like so many missed beats ... Yet, like the laying of a mosaic, the fragments slowly delineate a larger picture. The stasis of the story’s first half begins, at last, to shift ... Palaver, in the end, is the story of two people being re-revealed – both to each other and to themselves.
Contemplative, conversational, and atmospheric ... The story brings in earthquakes real and emotional as readers come to understand how the mother and son each ended up where they are, the hurts they carry, and their readiness, perhaps, to see beyond their assumptions about one another.
Bighearted ... 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 ... The author’s fans will love this.
