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fkshg8465's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Infidelity, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
steveatwaywords's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
First, do not enter this work thinking you know how books and stories work. Ogawa is going to teach us something new. The narrative success of it may be in question, but there is little doubt that the initial discomfiture and confusion readers experience (both in setting and in narrative pace) are a critical part of what she is up to. For these reasons, if we enter the work seeking a clean and simple "answer" to the mystery of social memory loss, like it's a thriller or detective novel, we will equally be disappointed. Let the novel work on its own terms.
When we do, we find a psychological and emotional dysphoria, an internal world broadcast outward into an external dystopia. Or is it the other way around? In any event, our narrator is herself a writer of novels about writing, memory, and language, themselves highly allegorical. So there is a meta-level to this novel, as well. Which is most significant as a tale to follow?
Along the way, we have plenty of near-nameless characters who test the premise: how should we respond to a world where, each-by-each, its objects are dismantled from both reality and memory? What is the purpose for knowing an objective truth which nevertheless is not shared by a community? How much forced deprivation can or should a people accept before responding? What degree of impoverishment can be normalized?
I've seen other reviews which place specific allegorical meanings to this novel (mental health metaphors, totalitarian economic policies, marriage, etc.), and I won't say they are wrong. But Ogawa's surreal narratives (or magically realistic ones) don't just echo Orwell or Murakami or even Dazai. But she here has tendrils of memory in all these writers while still taking us, inevitably, somewhere else altogether.
Moderate: Mental illness, Dementia, Grief, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
Depending upon how you read the novel, it is easy to see it as a parallel to mental illness, emotional abuse or destitution, etc.amsswim's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Police brutality, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Everything is very vaguejoshoonet's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
- Different from anything I've read before for sure
- Has a very dreamlike atmosphere
- Mostly like it for the vibes and unique setting, plot is almost secondary
- There will be no answers
- Some beautiful descriptions
Graphic: Dementia and Deportation
Moderate: Confinement and Death
Minor: Body horror, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy
Confinement/Sexual Assault:serendipity421's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Dementia, Trafficking, and Grief
Moderate: Sexual assault and Death of parent
leapyear_reader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Confinement, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Death of parent
Moderate: Chronic illness, Blood, Dementia, and Grief
Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Murder
bonnienoire's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Dementia and Gaslighting
Minor: Infidelity and Sexual assault
bunntboy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Police brutality and Dementia
lilifane's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It's set on an island where things keep disappearing. But they don't disappear physically, the people living on this island just collectively forget about them. Things like birds, roses, boats. When people wake up and feel something is missing they try to get rid of those things physically as well. If they kept birds, they let them free, if they planted roses in their garden, they destroy them. It's easy for them because once the thing is disappearded, they don't have any emotional connection to it anymore. All memories connected to the thing disappear as well. However there are people who still remember, who try to keep those lost thing and this is where the Memory Police comes into play. They confiscate those things and arrest the people.
The protagonist is a writer whose mother was able to remember and was taken by the Memory Police. So when she discovers that her editor remembers as well, she tries to help him and hide him from the police.
I think the book depicts a totalitarian regime in a very believable way, I felt the fear, hopelessnes and resignation. There were a lot of parallels to Nazi Germany. It just goes one step further and creates a truly dystopian world.
On the other hand it is beautifully written and creates this melancholic, heavy atmosphere that you feel in your bones. The premise was interesting and I loves the setting, the characters but there were some things that bothered me. Some parts of the story the protagonist was writing were very weird and disturbing, as well as the relationship between the protagonist and her editor in the second half of the book. And the ending.... it was very abstract and therefore hard to grasp for me. I mean, you can get a lot of great discossions out of this book and think about how words, stories, memories shape our world. But the ending let me downa bit. It has this "Then what was the point of this?" feeling.
Graphic: Confinement, Infidelity, Police brutality, Dementia, Grief, and Death of parent
bookmarkie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Confinement and Police brutality
Moderate: Dementia