A review by winterlily
The Memory Police, by Yōko Ogawa

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

UPDATE #2:
While this book isn't technically a "favorite" in the way which I'd be in love with the characters and absorbed in their world. I can't rate this anything leas than 5 stars. 

UPDATE:
[ I've sat with it a little longer and seen other people's reactions and I now have an even stronger appreciation for this book. The text is quiet and slow paced, but it's also alive and screaming. I don't think everyone will appreciate the format, but it really spoke to me. So much is written in subtext and to be understood and explored by the reader. This novel is so well crafted and I'm blown away that Ogawa was able to accomplish this tone and effect and still capture the beauty of humanity.

More and more I appreciate the ending and the choice of the slow, violent progression to the conclusion. Someone else wrote here in a review that the real terror of the novel comes from us having to continue reading the story although
Spoiler the characters don't resist or try to change their fates.
It is much more profound this way and is the first time a story has broken me like that. Perhaps there was nothing that could change things past a certain point, perhaps our characters alone couldn't do it. Maybe it's wrong to expect them to sacrifice their lives to resistance?

I think the most important aspect of this book might be the refrain from making this book a fantasy or adventure about courageously overcoming the Memory police. Instead, the novel sits entrenched in the horror and sees the story to conclusion. The sense of normalcy and adaptation of the community is terrifying. The fact that life goes on is terrifying.
Spoiler The fact that no one comes to save them is terrifying.
It's a type of tragedy I've never read before but it's one I think we're all living in a version of. 

It left me with questions of what I expected from the protagonists. What should be expected from me If I was in their position? What is reasonable to expect of others? When one is powerless, what is there to do? Is there dignity in just surviving? What checks failed for this to happen and how could it have been prevented? How close are we to this now? Is it already too late? 

I think it will be very natural for most of us to feel dissatisfied that we never got answers to the mysteries or that
Spoiler the characters weren't able to save themselves,
but the point of this book was never to satisfy the reader. This was definitely a case where I expected to go on an adventure in the fiction but was instead left questioning why I would look for escape in a setting such as this. At the very least, I know I will always be grateful for this depiction of trauma 

Another thing I wanted to mention is that it might take several reads or more consideration for some readers used to the western perspective to fully appreciate the text! 

- I really liked rincey read's youtube review on this The Memory Police! ]

Wow, this got me out of a decade long reading slump. I struggle to have words for this book. It was extremely emotional at times and at others I was pushed to that deeply sad state of the calm acceptance similar to the main character in the book. I adore the writing of this book- it's not needlessly complicated or convoluted. It's beautiful and intentional - the type of writing that flows so well in your mind that the story seems to play like a movie in your head. The Memory Police has a lot of special and unexpected qualities to it- the heartwarming depiction of platonic friendship and love, normal people instead of chosen one/super important characters, and a silent depiction of trauma that hit deep. 

I was surprised that the novel within the novel was so mesmerizing and disturbing to me, the ending and the actions of the woman are still haunting me. I might want to read analysis on the book to see if there are any specific issues the book touched on that I didn't pick up on but the themes are unmistakable and extremely relevant. I will say that the beginning of the book was an unquestionable 5 stars for me, middle slowed down and was a 4 stars, and the ending brought it back to 4 point something. I'm a little dissatisfied that most of my questions never got answers but I understand why Ogawa wrote it that way. The foreshadowing and laying of plot details was so good! I was so impressed with the way that information was revealed and later made relevant. I grew up really loving books like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, and this book easily stands among or above them as a cautionary tale and retaliation against oppression and totalitarianism. 

The "tropes" felt familiar but then I realized it was the "tropes" of oppression, totalitarianism, and surveillance that were the same, that all these books are fighting the same evil. The last note to my stream of consciousness review is that this book really resonated with me because of my memory loss and disabilities too. The trauma of having something important indiscriminately taken away from you and having to live with a new normal without knowing what you've lost is an open wound for me  & definitely explored in the book, if not in this context. 

If you're interested in the book, you should read it. Everyone will walk away with some important to carry with them.

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