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A review by theayeaye
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
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