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headliner's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Kehilangan menjadi satu hal yang paling aku takuti. Jika aku menjadi salah satu karakter dalam buku ini atau paling tidak berada di universe-nya, aku rasa gak akan sanggup. Barang, orang, suara, dan diri - perlahan menghilang dan entah apa yang akan terjadi.
Bagiku bacaan ini terasa suram, kelam, dan gelisah. Aku juga dibuat penasaran dengan asal muasal Polisi Kenangan. Tindakan bengis mereka juga membuatku muak. Satu hal yang aku sadari saat membaca ini adalah bagaimana "distopia" menjadi genre yang aku hindari.
Bagiku bacaan ini terasa suram, kelam, dan gelisah. Aku juga dibuat penasaran dengan asal muasal Polisi Kenangan. Tindakan bengis mereka juga membuatku muak. Satu hal yang aku sadari saat membaca ini adalah bagaimana "distopia" menjadi genre yang aku hindari.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria, Police brutality, and Confinement
Minor: Death of parent
cat_is_turning_pages's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
A hauntingly written novel with a terrifying ending, The Memory Police is not a traditional book with an obvious story arc. More of an allegory than a story, the novel opens a window to a handful of years of the life of a young woman who lives on an island where random things are “disappearing,” meaning the island citizens are forced to forget and compelled to dispose of the items which “disappear.”
Though the prose is quite simple, the author’s mysterious emphasis on what seem to be carefully chosen elements left me slightly puzzled. I found the characters’ tendency toward inaction frustrating, the lack of explanations boring, and I finished the novel acutely unsatisfied. I had the immediate impulse to slap a one-star rating and annoyed review on what seemed to me to be an over-hyped book. Yes, it’s different from most novels. But different doesn’t necessarily mean good.
However, after sitting with this story for half an hour or so, while reading reviews from other readers, I’ve made peace with The Memory Police. I was struck by just how widely varied the interpretations and explanations I read were. For some, the allegory was clearly political. For others, metaphysical. Others derived a distinctly religious overtone from the book. But my first impression led me to assign a psychological theme to the book’s message.
It struck me then that The Memory Police as a novel is like an enchanted mirror that shows the reader their deepest fear. The story had to be terrifying to unearth this fear. The plot had to be simple to adapt itself to every reader’s unique psyche. The explanations for events had to be sparse so the reader could fill in the gaps.
I didn’t enjoy this book, but I do recommend it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Confinement, Dysphoria, and Body horror
steveatwaywords's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- 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
This is my first Ogawa read, and it certainly will not be my last. Her work, Revenge is next, I think, especially after I recently read the short story "Welcome to the Museum of Torture."
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Dysphoria, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief
Depending upon how you read the novel, it is easy to see it as a parallel to mental illness, emotional abuse or destitution, etc.hannah_and_her_stories's review
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Confinement
Moderate: Grief, Rape, Infidelity, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent
Minor: Dysphoria, Sexual content, Torture, and Violence
theliteratewalrus's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Death of parent and Dysphoria
Minor: Rape and Domestic abuse
beanie_bob's review
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Simply the words “memory police” are enough to evoke Orwellian imagery but the author’s work is powerful enough to stand on its own. The story is strange, unsettling, and devastating. But it’s also filled with little moments of calm and simplicity and domesticity. I found myself generally reading a chapter a day because the writing and pacing of the story felt like something to sift through and consider slowly.
You never get an answer for why the world is the way it is. Instead you learn what it’s like to be a person in the world. Every chapter you are forced to confront loss and fear and grief.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Dysphoria
theayeaye's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I found The Memory Police to be a masterclass in writing successful anticlimax. Before the last three chapters I would have rated this book just slightly fewer stars (maybe 3.75) but the ending brought together the threads of the Memory Police into a hauntingly tragic resolution.
One caveat for potential readers, I think this book is better understood less as a novel and more of a meditation on some themes through a story. Go into this book with the same mindset as taking in a painting at a museum.
Ogawa's writing style (and Stephen Snyder's translation) is remarkably understated and accomplishes a really interesting technique to show the narrator's emotions and feelings in her actions while keeping some aspects hidden.Like her romantic affections for R. It works really well when one of the themes of the book is which emotions do we acknowledge and honour in ourselves and which do we dampen.
I also really enjoyed the juxtaposition of the main story with the text of the narrator's novel. I think it added a great deal to the book to see how she works through her experiences by writing about them.
I found the writing a really thought provoking meditation loss and grief, and the things we lose without noticing, and the things we lose and notice very deeply.
The build-up of sadness and grief grows and grows until the book's ending. (Spoilers ahead for the curious but I don't think it would ruin the book to know how it ends.)The final chapters show the narrator succeeding in R's request for her to finish her novel – a remarkable achievement in the context of her losses, though the achievement comes through understated because of her changing state of mind. And ultimately, remembering how to write does not succeed in saving her, and she gives in to the end with a chilling finality.
One caveat for potential readers, I think this book is better understood less as a novel and more of a meditation on some themes through a story. Go into this book with the same mindset as taking in a painting at a museum.
Ogawa's writing style (and Stephen Snyder's translation) is remarkably understated and accomplishes a really interesting technique to show the narrator's emotions and feelings in her actions while keeping some aspects hidden.
I also really enjoyed the juxtaposition of the main story with the text of the narrator's novel. I think it added a great deal to the book to see how she works through her experiences by writing about them.
I found the writing a really thought provoking meditation loss and grief, and the things we lose without noticing, and the things we lose and notice very deeply.
The build-up of sadness and grief grows and grows until the book's ending. (Spoilers ahead for the curious but I don't think it would ruin the book to know how it ends.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria, Grief, and Confinement
Moderate: Abandonment
nicolepaul_ine's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Dysphoria, and Trafficking
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