A review: The memory police, Yoko Ogawa
How I review books:
Top notes - a first impression. A practical summary of everything you need to know including a completely biased view on how much I liked the cover.
Middle notes - the foundation. Readability / structure and characters.
Base notes - the impression. Interpretation and everything else.
Top notes:
“Time is a great healer. It just flows on all of its own accord.”
28 chapters, 274 pages, read over 4 days.
Science fiction.
Author Yoko Ogawa, translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder. Originally published in Japan in 1994 - 密やかな結晶 - Hisoyaka na kessho. My paperback version was published in 2020 by Penguin Random House - Vintage and purchased in Waterstones.
The cover is a soft matte and I managed to read the book without creasing the spine. The cover echoes the dystopian story within.
Middle notes:
I have written my review, trying my best to not ruin the story for you - the conclusion of my review is I recommend this book.
It goes without saying that this book conjures the same feelings for the reader as 1984 by George Orwell - but in a different way.
Set on an unnamed island, the narrator is also unnamed. On this island disappearances take place, following an items’ disappearance the inhabitants of the island forget the item that has disappeared. It seems that it isn’t only people that forget but nature forgets too. The enforcement of ‘forgetting’ is undertaken by the Memory Police. There are people who can remember.
“Why are you the only one who hasn’t lost anything? Do you remember everything? Forever?”
The story intensifies as you read, both regarding the disappearances and the enforcement by the Memory Police.
Key themes:
Memory and connection
Identity
Surveillance
Defiance
Autonomy
Authorotarianism.
Key characters:
Narrator (novelist then typist)
Narrator’s mother and father (ornithologist)
The old man
R (editor)
Don (dog).
Base notes:
The story gently unfolds with a brutal undertone. The disappearances become more pertinent, removing a bigger part of ‘self’ each time.
This book made me consider the importance of the things around me and how they form part of my identity, the things I take for granted in my life and the process of acceptance. The connection between memory and the heart is used throughout this book;
“A heart has no shape, no limits. That’s why you can put almost any kind of thing in it, why it can hold so much.”
“Your heart is doing everything it can to preserve its existence. No matter how many memories these men take away they will never reduce it to nothing.”
There are many things we are never told as a reader that we come to accept. Questions we have whilst reading that remain unanswered - the who and the how is never known. Much like the characters in the book, we accept that this is the case.
The subtle detail in the writing can sometimes pass you by until you realise the beauty of the detail being presented to you, look out for references to birds as you read. My favourite was the Narrator, as a novelist, her novels, the novel she is writing (that we get to read), the unimportance of books on the island, and us as a reader reading this book.
“And what will happen if words disappear?”
I love reading a book that leaves me with unanswered questions, makes me wonder where the story is going and then ends in a way I could never have imagined.
If you are interested in books that can be called ‘frustratingly beautiful’ then you will enjoy this book.
Ms ASK