From the Bookshelf of Reading with Comrades…

The Memory Police

Yōko Ogawa

Start date: December 1, 2021

Finish date: December 31, 2021

Discussion: Group Reads - Fiction

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Showing 2 of 5 topics — 94 comments total

Group Reads - Fiction

Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
By Steph · 4 posts · 49 views

last updated Feb 28, 2023 01:01PM

December 2021 - The Memory Police
By John · 34 posts · 76 views

last updated Jan 17, 2022 03:09PM

What Members Thought

Aug 04, 2021 Priya Prabhakar rated it it was ok

I was extremely disappointed to the point to which I thought I might be missing something. I thought the plot and the underlying context was developed very poorly, making it a terribly lazy book, overall. The comparisons to Orwell and Bradbury are so literal - they burn books and there's a "authoritarian" government (not to mention Orwell's underlying anti-communist agenda throughout 1984) - why does that make this book good? There was hardly anything that challenged me and the prose was quite b ...more

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Oct 08, 2020 lindsi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-fiction

So haunting, so beautiful, so eerie. I hate that it’s compared to 1984 and Fahrenheit 451; it’s so much subtler and infinitely more interesting. The refusal to draw the obvious parallel between the “disappeared” things and people of “The Memory Police” and the historical disappearings of leftists in Indonesia and Latin America is a huge detriment to readers.

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2023 Emilie de Saint Martin rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned

Fuck.

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 05, 2023 Amber rated it really liked it

Shelves: genre_science-fiction

This is a remarkable translation of an original work by a Japanese woman. The book takes place in a dystopia where people lose something from their memory (birds, rose, and other random objects), and The Memory Police come to remove all reminders of said item. It starts as a commentary on authoritarianism and the State, but ends as an exploration of self and memory. It’s a really fascinating read.

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Mar 27, 2021 Steph rated it it was amazing

The slow and creeping mystery that builds into fear and terror of the incomprehensible violence of loss characterises this book. I honestly was so utterly spellbound by the writing and translation. For me this is a perfect example of dystopian fiction at its very best.

I am pretty heartbroken that my Dad who passed away this month cannot read it. He would have loved it.

So to anyone else that enjoys this book, just know you'd have had two allies in me and my Dad, and not just me. As my life is now ...more

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