"While we now use it to mean a fuss or convoluted mess, the origins of the word palaver, the title of Bryan Washington's third novel, lie in the Portuguese term palavra, which simply means word. Over time, and possibly coloured by the historical context of Portuguese colonists' rampages across the globe, palaver came to refer to a complex debate or negotiation between two culturally distinct parties."
"Palaver centres on the tense relationship between protagonists the son and the mother. Guarded and prickly, the son is an American who has lived in Tokyo for the best part of a decade, teaching English as a foreign language. Throughout this period, he's been estranged from his Jamaican-American mother back home in Texas. The novel opens with the equally crabby mother unexpectedly turning up on her son's doorstep, and mostly covers the week and a half they spend together, moving between their two perspectives."
A guarded son who has lived in Tokyo for a decade and his Jamaican-American mother, estranged and prickly, reunite when she unexpectedly arrives at his door. The reunion spans about ten days and alternates between their perspectives as they navigate Tokyo's harsh neon and memories of familial dysfunction. Conversations frequently falter; the son resorts to adolescent body language and maintains distance by drinking and spending time with his flamboyant friends. The pair edge toward tentative rapprochement through intermittent reckonings, cultural disjunctions, and strained, often humorous exchanges.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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