Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Podziemie pamięci

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Podziemie pamięci by Yōko Ogawa

45 reviews

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

i thought this was such a cool idea for a book and thought it was executed really well. i love any book with found family elements, especially when it involves an older person. the relationships formed and described were the backbone of this story imo. the only thing i struggled with was the ending. it wasn't exactly what i imagined or thought fit well with the story but it wasn't bad. also i really want the author to release a book that fully tells the story that the main character was writing. i loved it.

Content Warnings

matcha_reader's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I was expecting more from this book. Great idea, poor execution - in my opinion.
The writing is okay, very beautiful in the beginning actually. The first pages are what got me into this book in the first place. But then... the narrative gets painfully slow at some points and so many questions are left unanswered (personal preference, but I don't like it when too many plot points are left to my imagination, I want to know what happened!).
Also, the end seemed rushed, as though the author had no idea how to continue the story and decided to end it in the most most simple way. I feel like overall the book was a bit absurd and pointless, but interesting nonetheless.

Content Warnings

oceanwriter's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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.

Content Warnings

salt_y's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Content Warnings

mae55's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

this book was very somber and i grew to really like it. it's about powerlessness and inevitability, using the main character's personal and creative stories to display this. i found this book very moving and was not expecting to like it as much as i was. the author also uses imagery very effectively (i'm normally someone who skips over the nature descriptions, but i found these ones very succinct and effective). this is a read that will stay with me for a while.

Content Warnings

u_0's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.5

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 a deeply sad state of 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 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 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 and definitely explored in the book, if not in this context.

Everyone will walk away with something important to carry with them.

UPDATE:
[ I've sat with it a little longer 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 like 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

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.

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

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.

Content Warnings