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A review by plantbasedbride
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
5.0
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa is a lyrical, timeless, and haunting fable exploring the nature of memory and its power to define us.
Originally published in Japanese in 1994, this recent translation by Stephen Snyder feels just as fresh, provocative, and topical as a new release.
Not only did I find this novel compulsively readable and deeply thought-provoking, but the disquieting tension left behind in pockets of amnesia as the disappearances increased in frequency and severity left me with a creeping sense of terror.
If you don’t enjoy anxiety-inducing dreamlike novels with an open ending, The Memory Police likely isn’t for you. But, if you, like me, live for an ever-present hazily oppressive quality clinging to each page like a memory just out of reach, I would recommend you pick this one up!
With themes including identity, loss, police brutality, control, and the creation of art as resistance against authoritarianism, The Memory Police is in no way light fare. The anxiety, isolation, fear, and emptiness these characters experience feel deeply relevant a year into the pandemic, speaking to this current chapter of history in a way Ogawa couldn’t have imagined 25 years ago.
Despite the heavy themes and gradual horror of the story within the story, The Memory Police contains its fair share of hope:
“My memories don’t feel as though they’ve been pulled up by the root. Even if they fade, something remains. Like tiny seeds that might germinate again if the rain falls. And even if a memory disappears completely, the heart retains something. A slight tremor or pain, some bit of joy, a tear.”
Not all is lost in this world of forgotten treasures and abandoned professions. There is love. There is art. There is a quiet, determined strength.
There are simple joys:
“His soul is too dense. If he comes out, he’ll dissolve into pieces, like a deep-sea fish pulled to the surface too quickly. I suppose my job is to go on holding him here at the bottom of the sea.”
I was deeply moved by this story and have been unable to stop thinking about it since my eyes scanned the bottom of the final page. It plays on my memory like a music box melody, forever repeating even after the lid has been closed.
The Memory Police is absolutely worth your time.
Originally published in Japanese in 1994, this recent translation by Stephen Snyder feels just as fresh, provocative, and topical as a new release.
Not only did I find this novel compulsively readable and deeply thought-provoking, but the disquieting tension left behind in pockets of amnesia as the disappearances increased in frequency and severity left me with a creeping sense of terror.
If you don’t enjoy anxiety-inducing dreamlike novels with an open ending, The Memory Police likely isn’t for you. But, if you, like me, live for an ever-present hazily oppressive quality clinging to each page like a memory just out of reach, I would recommend you pick this one up!
With themes including identity, loss, police brutality, control, and the creation of art as resistance against authoritarianism, The Memory Police is in no way light fare. The anxiety, isolation, fear, and emptiness these characters experience feel deeply relevant a year into the pandemic, speaking to this current chapter of history in a way Ogawa couldn’t have imagined 25 years ago.
Despite the heavy themes and gradual horror of the story within the story, The Memory Police contains its fair share of hope:
“My memories don’t feel as though they’ve been pulled up by the root. Even if they fade, something remains. Like tiny seeds that might germinate again if the rain falls. And even if a memory disappears completely, the heart retains something. A slight tremor or pain, some bit of joy, a tear.”
Not all is lost in this world of forgotten treasures and abandoned professions. There is love. There is art. There is a quiet, determined strength.
There are simple joys:
“His soul is too dense. If he comes out, he’ll dissolve into pieces, like a deep-sea fish pulled to the surface too quickly. I suppose my job is to go on holding him here at the bottom of the sea.”
I was deeply moved by this story and have been unable to stop thinking about it since my eyes scanned the bottom of the final page. It plays on my memory like a music box melody, forever repeating even after the lid has been closed.
The Memory Police is absolutely worth your time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Confinement, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Police brutality, Death, Sexual assault, and Infidelity