The Memory Police

Book Title: The Memory Police

Author: Yōko Ogawa

Date Started: August 27th 2020

Date Completed: September 3rd 2020

Genres: Dystopian, Magical Realism, Literary

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Well, I don't know what The Memory Police is trying to say to me, but I know that I enjoyed it. There's an allegory in there somewhere, and probably with a bit of research and thinking I could work it out, but it was a pleasant enough experience without wholly understanding what it meant.

The Memory Police is a dystopia, set on an unnamed island where objects spontaneously 'disappear' from people's memories and all traces of which are subsequently destroyed by the authoritarian police mentioned in the title. But it's a dystopia that's more concerned with the experience of the people trapped in it than challenging the authority or solving it altogether. For me, it reads more like magical realism than science fiction, and I would keep that most in mind because if you don't get along with speculative, slightly abstract musings without an actual explanation for why things are happening, you're probably headed down the wrong path with this book.

The book is beautifully written and translated. Although there is a storyline and tension, it's really a meditation on the importance of memory as identity and our fixation on objects to tie them to, and what actually constitutes emotional value and remembrance. Different characters have different opinions on this, and I really liked that fact that there was no clear cut solution or point of view that won out. The people who forgot the objects felt no grief for their lost memories - and is it really fair to get angry/upset with someone for no longer identifying with something, all completely out of their control? But is it also the duty of people who do remember to preserve what is forgotten for those who forget? The fact that the novel is also from the perspective of someone with an acceptance of their situation (maybe with some hope, if not belief, that it could change), rather than the typical rebel, was refreshing.

Honestly, it's almost the same thing over three hundred pages - very little actually changes even with little discoveries or emotional arcs. I don't think that was a bad thing, it was actually fascinating for me, but it's probably suited for a particular kind of reader.