vitalbeachyeah 's review for:

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

5.0

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I don't think this is a perfect novel, but I do think it's a work of art. Ogawa explores the psychology of people who accept their own captivity, loss and powerlessness, and in doing so revisits some of the uneasy sexual territory of Hotel Iris. But she does this in the context of an Orwellian dystopia, which brings out parallels between the sexual neuroses of her characters and the experience of domination by an all-powerful, irresistible police state. Basically it's pretty fucked up. She's exploring difficult territory - "we're on the edge of the unspeakable", writes Hilary Mantel in the cover blurb - and doing it with incredible skill and psychological perception.