The Memory Police
Ratings239
Average rating3.7
I'm not the same person after reading this 😭 do authors get off on making people cry so fuckin hard
conceptual, a parable. beautiful and haunting but not a 1984 action thriller deal. grief, loss, the corrosive nature of fascism to self and communiti. sad.
Ogawa first published The Memory Police in Japanese thirty years ago, in 1994. It is a disturbing and beautifully written story about an unnamed narrator who lives on an island where things keep disappearing. And I do not mean a crime spree or that the air is being drugged to cloud memories. It is more surreal and ubiquitous than that.One day, the occupants wake up and all the rose petals on the island have fallen from their bushes and are washing out to sea. Soon after, everyone on the island has forgotten about roses. Nobody remembers why people grow and give roses, how they smell, even what the word means. Except for the people that do. But the Memory Police take care of them.The narrator is herself an author, and weaves her latest novel into the text until the lines become blurred, further demonstrating how slippery reality feels under an authoritarian regime that feeds on fear and learned helplessness, that targets authenticity, nostalgia, and art to break down community. Yet people keep trudging on, going to work, switching professions, marrying and having children, grocery shopping. The worse things get, the more resigned people feel. We surpass a tipping point on restrictions, and everything starts feeling arbitrary and pointless. Each next deprivation, and any resistance to it, feel ever more hollow. Because when the goal is complete control, it's a race to the bottom.It is...something to read in January 2025. Still, the characters are so tender towards each other in a brutal world. They carve out what they can with what they have (not much, and less everyday), and take calculated risks to hold onto each other and keep each other safe. It is exquisitely depressing and simultaneously muted and tense and ambiguous and I will be thinking about this book forever. Unless the Memory Police wipe it out, of course.Excellent audiobook narration by Traci Kato-Kiriyama, especially the voice of the old man. I have to read all of Ogawa and also this again 16 times. For fans of quiet dystopias (bonus points for woman author, bonus BONUS points for translated) like [b:The Wall 59468837 The Wall Marlen Haushofer https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1639132182l/59468837.SY75.jpg 573687], [b:I Who Have Never Known Men 60811826 I Who Have Never Known Men Jacqueline Harpman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1649947133l/60811826.SY75.jpg 14356], [b:Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind 60754889 Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind Molly McGhee https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1682359454l/60754889.SY75.jpg 95796035], [b:Severance 36348525 Severance Ling Ma https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1507060524l/36348525.SY75.jpg 58029884], the movie The Double (based on [b:Dostoyevsky 210190 The Double Fyodor Dostoevsky https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388265212l/210190.SY75.jpg 236056]), and in some moments even [b:The Book Thief 19063 The Book Thief Markus Zusak https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522157426l/19063.SY75.jpg 878368].
3.5 rounded down - some spoilers
I was sure this was going to be 4 stars right up until the end. I really liked the premise although i found myself confused by the ‘rules' at times. Sometimes the narrator would use the word of a disappeared thing, sometimes would describe how foreign the name of something felt in her mouth and have to sound them out. I enjoyed the writing style and pace - i think im quite suited to this type of storytelling, whereas people in negative reviews seemed to feel frustrated by it. The characters remaining nameless felt right to me and i generally liked them enough. They werent very in depth but i didnt feel frustrated by this, the old man was my favourite however i never felt much attachment to R.
I felt incredibly exited to near the end, whilst i could foresee the events and twists that came (memory police after the party, old mans death etc), i thought that things would come to some sort of conclusion. Each disappearance was given its time up until the end, i felt the bodily disappearances were rushed and didnt give me time to digest and understand them, and then it was over. On the last section of the manuscript, when it ended on a cliff hanger i flicked through the remaining few pages stressed that, that would be that and i would get no conclusion. The same then happened back in our story, she lost her body and throughout the description i felt confused, lost, presently aware of the lack of pages left to explain what was happening, let alone the myriad of questions i had about the story and world in general. I had hoped we would learn some about the memory police, or the world outside the island even if we never learned of the Inui familys or her mothers true fate. I dont know if im just not appreciating a story which leaves questions unanswered for the reader to digest and sit with but this felt like far too many. I felt dissatisfied and liked id been lead up a great old hill by someone who knew the shape of the land, but just before we reached the peak they scurried off pointing me in the direction i needed to go which led me to a disappointing and confusing view almost entirely obscured.
Overall, i had a pleasent journey but now feel a little gutted and abandoned, like my story teller had to rush off and
It has an interesting premise and intriguing characters. I was keen to see where it goes. Unfortunately, nothing is resolved, no revelations, no interesting plot movements. I guess you could be very interested in this if you try to look for some allegories or comparisons to different themes. Unfortunately I'm not about that and therefore I did not ultimately like this. Boring, melancholic piece of work that will definitely interest people who are pulled to these types of novels.
This book meanders in the mundane, dwelling on the atmosphere of a dystopian world where memories are taken away. It is a surreal portrayal of the importance of memory, the loss of autonomy once we begin to forget and the dangers of passivity. I enjoyed the parallels to the story within the story and how though the ending is quite vague the themes are apparent, but the stylistic choice of ambiguity did leave me questioning the integral substance of the story. The ending made the decisions that pushed the narrative feel redundant; however, I believe that overall the story can be seen as contemplative and maybe with another read I'll uncover an interpretation I had not seen the first time around, on!y time will tell.
Promising start that quickly deteriorates into mediocrity, filler content and loose ends.
TWs: confinement, kidnapping, sexual assault, police brutality, natural disaster (aftermath of)
Time is a great healer. It just flows on all of its own accord.
What happens when you lose memories, the objects that once held meaning, and they all disappear?
Major props to the translator, Stephen Snyder, for providing such a translation that pierces and kept me going! In this odd situation, where objects and memories disappear one by one, with no explanation as to how it happens, the dystopian society provides immense tension as we follow the narrator and her story.
The opposites meet their fate at the end and leave it open for the reader, which may be frustrating. But perhaps there is still hope out there through what is kept hidden and safe.
Other quotes:
I clutched the packet and the envelope to my chest and started up the stairs, feeling the warmth of the old man's body still lingering in the objects.'Men who start by burning books end by burning the men.''Our memories have been battered by the disappearances, and even now when it's almost too late, we still don't realize the importance of the things that have been lost.'
I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting this story to be what it was. For nearly half of the book I frankly was bored, waiting for some thrust into our protagonist's plight to emerge. The bulk of the intro does a great job establishing background to the characters and the type of world they inhabit–one where at any moment and for no reason at all their memories of something can disappear, enforced by the mysterious memory police. There are a lot of concepts thrown around here, ones I was excited to explore, but it spent a bit longer than I expected fleshing them all out.
So, when around the halfway point I realized the story structure was more akin to 1984, sharing more of a glimpse of someone's life within this conceptual world, rather than telling a story of that person exploring how they might break out of a problem the world puts in front of them, I started to understand why I was so bored for so long. I was expecting the pieces to amount to some adventure, a call to action to take our protagonist to explore this world for some reason or another–and there were plenty of things she could have sought after! The fates of many close characters are touched upon in a way the protagonist might want to explore them with more depth (loved ones die, neighbors disappear, a close colleague becomes indebted to her for his livelihood), maybe she is compelled to try to remember something that's dear to her, maybe there is something to be gleaned about the true nature of these police or the relationship their island has with other places outside of it, maybe there is merit to trying to escape the island, but no, the story plods along telling only of how she forgets more and more and more.
And that's okay. It just wasn't what I was expecting. I want to rate this higher because I enjoyed the concepts explored and there were some profound scenes, but I can't rate it too high because frankly, on the whole I did not enjoy reading this book. And that's okay as well. I appreciate this book for what it is, and with this knowledge now I feel confident recommending this to people, but I can't in good faith say it is a particularly entertaining read, more of a thoughtful one. In the end, I didn't grasp a singular message or sentiment from the book, and I think I was also looking for that, but I think there is plenty to the story for one to make their own conclusion and draw parallels to pieces of their own life. We all forget things the same way those in this book do, just often not about such foundational things as birds or calendars, and they don't simply cease to exist from our world when we do forget them.
The one message that stood out to me the most, about halfway through the book, was when the protagonist was losing a memory of something near to her. It was something that everyone had some appreciation for, but was of more importance to the main character. Lamenting that she would soon completely forget about this thing, she talks with a close friend about this occurrence with some mild amount of panic. The other person simply says to her that it's okay. They'll forget it, and they'll move on. The hole in their mind where that thing occupied space will fill in with other things, insinuating that since things more often disappear from their minds than get added, the space will be filled with the leftover memories that aren't lost. I found this particularly sad, on two levels. One, the dismissal of losing something precious to the protagonist was astonishingly bitter, and left me feeling so much contempt for this other person's attitude. Second, the assumption that holes in these people's minds get filled in only with the leftover memories implies that their minds only narrow and don't grow. Their perspective only shrinks. What a sad fate to be resigned to. And I drew parallels to both of these sentiments in how some people act in our daily life.
Ultimately, those thoughts will stick with me. As well, the way Yoko Ogawa describes concepts disappearing from the characters' minds is very thoughtfully done, especially near the end when much more difficult concepts begin losing themselves. I found this to be a well written and thought provoking book, but don't go in expecting a story, more a description of a concept.
You know that feeling you get when you have been waiting two hours at a concert for the headlining act to come on? There's that anticipation in the air. You're excited, you're flustered, and you're ready to rock! The lights go out, and your eyes start to sparkle as the band belts out the riff to your favorite song. Could this get any better? Then, as the musician makes their way to the mic for the second song, they say these eight dreaded words. “This is a song from our new album.” Heart-sink, buzz-kill, kill-joy. I went through similar emotions while reading The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa. The only difference is if the band continued playing songs from the new album; in fact, they played most of the new record, leaving you disappointed and scratching your head.
In a nutshell, this book follows the narrator as she tumbles down the rabbit hole of memory loss prevention. Her memory is not degrading because of old age; its deterioration is being systematically eradicated by the Memory Police. Dun dun duuun!
Do not let my rating hamper you from adding this book in any way; it might strike a chord for you, but it was definitely not the droids (book) I was looking for. I just found it lacking in the content department. After the initial setup, it digresses into fairly ordinary character moments and weighty chapters that are filled with whimsical ideas you understand within the first few paragraphs but seem to idle on for several pages. For every neat idea like, “Your voice is trapped inside this (type-writer) machine. It's not broken, it's just been sealed off now that it no longer has a purpose,” it has several paragraphs reiterating the same feelings over and over again. The words sterile, unassuming, round-about, and plotting come to mind. It just does not have the connective tissue to keep the feelings engaged.
Rather than using Fahrenheit 451, 1984, or even The Collector as a dystopian starting point (most of the ideas were lifted from these), this book just adds a bit of magical realism to the stew, but it never really simmers or adds anything new to the taste you already know and enjoy.
Oh! And that ending.
This book confused me and then made me think and finally made me cry. It was a very very unique read.
I used to think this would adapt well into an HBO original. Now I know it would actually be an Apple TV+ series.
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The concept was unlike anything I had read before but I feel it fell flat and maybe that was the point. Towards the end I found it confusing, the memories that disappeared, where they now physically manifesting to where those who remembered were forgetting too or did R just leave her body in the secret room? Was the novel she was writing the actual story? I'm okay with a book ending without answering all my questions, but I'm left not understanding what I read.
3:
Overall, I think this is worth the read if you're into the more contemplative face of dystopias. I was pretty enraptured while reading, and the story flowed very easily, but I feel it could've done with a bit more world building. I wish she'd touched a bit upon WHY things were the way they were, you know? I know it wasn't that kind of story but still, I have questions!
Anywho, the characters were interesting, and the story very allegorical. It focuses on the characters, their bonds to each other, to themselves, their past, and their future. If you like this kind of story, you'll probably really enjoy it. I've read it's a 1984 sequel in spirit, but I've never read 1984 so I wouldn't know.
And this is more of a personal thing but I didn't like the romance angle at all. It took me right out of the story; I just can't understand why it had to be taken in that direction. Romance is not crucial in order to convey the depth of a relationship, and in fact I believe it would have been more poignant to show the lengths people are willing to go to for the sake of protecting their friends. It felt off to me, and the guy was married and expecting a child, too. It's like they completely forgot about that until it got to the phone ringing part. For me, it affected my enjoyment of the story.
I did have a good time with the book, because I enjoy Ogawa's prose. I liked The Professor and The Housekeeper loads more, though! It made me cry.
(There was one detail that irked me, and it was that the mom and the girl at the train station gave them an apple AFTER fruit disappeared. What was that about??? They were all casual about it, even though it should've been the riskiest, most careless ‘thsnk-you' in existence? Maybe it signifies something but I can't grasp the meaning with my tiny little brain. Whatever the case, it was an odd choice that fucked with the story's continuity, so weird.)
I thought the story would take a positive turn at the end. But I was mistaken.
The last 4 chapters left a void in my heart eventhough I have kind of foreseen the events that took place.
Truly a very unique and emotional read for me. A piece of fiction where I expected an explanation (for the disappearances at least) but didn't get any and had to adjust my thoughts about it accordingly - just like the characters in the book had to adjust to the disappearances on the island.
Remember how you felt when you first read 1984 and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle? Don't let that disappear.
Though I wouldn't quite label this Orwellian, The Memory Police certainly was haunting.
Somewhere in the ocean off Japan, there's an island run by the Memory Police who can make objects (and people) disappear forever at a whim. One day there are birds, the next day they're ordered to be set free, and soon enough, the people of the island can hardly recall the word ‘bird' let alone what they looked like or any memories associated with them. Disappearances are a common occurrence and compliance is expected. Most people are able to erase their memories without effort. Unfortunately for those few who can't, it means their lives are in danger and they must go into hiding. Such is the case for R who is hidden by the unnamed narrator of the book.
Lacking in world-building, we don't learn exactly how the Memory Police operate, only that they are stoic figures who think nothing of barging into people's homes and tearing the contents apart in search of disappeared items or evidence of resistance. We don't know how these people came to power, what their origin is, or how long they've been in power. It's been a while at least, and several hold out hope that they will someday be the ones to disappear.
The story itself has a slow pace for a dystopian novel but it worked for me. Less focus on the technicalities of this universe allowed for a lot of attention on the characters. I especially loved the narrator's friendship with the old man. Their scenes were my favorite parts of the book. I also liked R's efforts to try and get the two to remember items they'd long forgotten, even if it's just one of the associated memories.
The narrator is a novelist and some sections of the book follow the book she's writing. While these passages give a deeper look into the narrator's mind and how she's internalized life beholden to the Memory Police, I would have traded them for more world-building. So many questions go unanswered. Perhaps this is fitting for a book about people losing their memories (and in turn knowledge), however as a reader, it's difficult not to crave more build-up for a full understanding of the islander's lives. Nevertheless, the ideas of this book — manufactured memory loss — are too intriguing not to enjoy.
3.5
I loved the writing a lot, especially in the first half of the book. Before the she tries to save her editor and a lot of things got more uncomfortable and weirder from that point onward. I understand that it might be to explore the possibilities or the strangeness of it all, but if it makes me uncomfortable, I can't love it. Also, the ending was not very satisfactory imo. The novel as a whole was not very impressive and it was just pretty words and no plot. And I have a soft spot for pretty words but the story and the end really weren't for me. It didn't ruin it, but the end just felt rather abrupt, as in I expected something more to happen. Very interesting concept and I think I will have to revisit this book one day and maybe it'll make more sense if I do.