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A review by reads2cope
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
3.5
While the atmosphere and concept of this novel were incredible, the plot and characters left me wanting so much more. The Memory Police could have been such a powerful call against authoritarianism, book burnings, and the collective amnesia plaguing modern society in service of thoughtless capitalism, but instead this book delivered an interesting but pointless tale of a weird land where things happen with little meaning, no characters grow from it, and people react in strange but un-interrogated ways.
Why have R be married if he is to start a romance with the main character? I didn’t feel any spark between them at first, but by the end I saw what their romance meant. Still, if the wife was so easily forgotten and his NEWBORN BABY almost never mentioned, why create them? I thought something interesting would at least happen with the wife confronting the main character, or the baby turning out to Remember like his father, but no.
The passivity of the main character was the most grating. She lost her family and is in constant fear for the safety of herself and her lover, yet she says, "We've managed to cope with all kinds of disappearances in the past, but no one has suffered terribly, no one even seems to mind much.”No one has suffered terribly?? They murdered your mother and disappeared your friends, including children!
I suppose her passivity is supposed to mirror that in her final novel, especially the voice being the first/last thing to be taken/disappeared, but that device alone wasn’t enough to make this a great read.
The passivity of the main character was the most grating. She lost her family and is in constant fear for the safety of herself and her lover, yet she says, "We've managed to cope with all kinds of disappearances in the past, but no one has suffered terribly, no one even seems to mind much.”
I suppose her passivity is supposed to mirror that in her final novel, especially the voice being the first/last thing to be taken/disappeared, but that device alone wasn’t enough to make this a great read.