The Memory Police

On an unnamed island on an unnamed coast, items are disappearing. First, they are hats, ribbons, birds and then roses. Eventually more serious things start to disappear eventually so do people… A young woman whose is a novelist struggling to finish her latest novel, concocts a plan to hide her friend R in a room built under her floorboards. Why she does this? R is a threat to the memory police as the memory makes anyone who still remembers the things and items of the past disappear.  As fear, sadness and loss close in around the two of them, they cling to the novelist’s writing to preserve the past.

Story, Pacing, Writing & Characters

I love the story despite its dark and depressing concept. I am someone who has a strong memory. My grandfather tells me I have a memory like a steal trap. So I would absolutely hate to live in this world where items and memories of the past are stolen. We don’t know exactly why things and people disappear and why the memory police want to keep things gone, but still the story intrigues me. The Memory Police is my first time reading anything by Yoko Ogawa. The book originally came out in Japan in 1994 but was published everywhere else in 2019. Despite the pacing that can be too slow at times and the depressing concept, the writing is beautiful. It flows across the paper like a river just like that scene in the book where the river disappears and there’s just the rose petals. I love the characters of the novelist, R the editor, & the old man. I could picture myself being friends with them and I love the love story that develops between the novelist and R. I like the story that the novelist is writing that somehow coincides with the story we are reading in The Memory Police. The ending I also enjoy, a part of me hopes there is a sequel and a part of me is fine with the way it is.

Overall

If you enjoy dystopian novels, especially ones from another culture, & you don’t mind the slow pacing, I suggest checking out The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa.