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A review by savvylit
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- 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
5.0
The atmosphere in The Memory Police is palpably unsettling. Not only are the members of the unnamed island community forced to rid themselves of "disappeared" items but they also lose all memory or concept of the items. For instance, the narrator recounts how at one point, all hats are disappeared. Later on, she notes a person wearing an odd object on their head while struggling to recognize it as a hat.
At its core, this novel is a terrifying parable about the extreme duress and gaslighting inherent in police states. The citizens of the island are constantly surveilled by the titular memory police. Folks who have retained memories of the disappeared items are forcibly taken away from the community to meet unknown fates. Such scenes are all too accurately reminiscent of the treatment of radicals during extreme fascist regimes. Perhaps that's the scariest aspect of this novel - the way that Ogawa's dystopian world closely mirrors our own reality.
At its core, this novel is a terrifying parable about the extreme duress and gaslighting inherent in police states. The citizens of the island are constantly surveilled by the titular memory police. Folks who have retained memories of the disappeared items are forcibly taken away from the community to meet unknown fates. Such scenes are all too accurately reminiscent of the treatment of radicals during extreme fascist regimes. Perhaps that's the scariest aspect of this novel - the way that Ogawa's dystopian world closely mirrors our own reality.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail