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

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

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 · 46 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

Jul 07, 2024 crissoopshii rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. this book was fascinating and quite depressing, but who am i if not a sucker for misery…

the story occurs on an island where objects are known to disappear from people’s memories— a process which is fully affective and mental, as the objects do not actually vanish from the physical realm. our protagonist is in the center of it all and, unlike other protagonists in dystopian fiction, she does not rebel or try to break free from her destiny. just like everyone else, she accepts it as being part of this book was fascinating and quite depressing, but who am i if not a sucker for misery…

the story occurs on an island where objects are known to disappear from people’s memories— a process which is fully affective and mental, as the objects do not actually vanish from the physical realm. our protagonist is in the center of it all and, unlike other protagonists in dystopian fiction, she does not rebel or try to break free from her destiny. just like everyone else, she accepts it as being part of how things just go. there is also a memory police, as the title indicates, who makes sure that the people who are immune to forgetting are found and most likely killed or locked up.

there is a lot of unresolved mystery surrounding a lot of aspects of the world yogo ogawa creates. i found myself waiting for insight into the police, into the fugitives, into the mystery surrounding the main character’s mom, but this was never cleared up, which adds to the eerie atmosphere. still, i would have preferred to have some things explained through showing if not telling, but that’s my personal preference.

after reading a bit about where the author draws inspiration from, it is clear to see the parallels drawn between the events of the book and ww2 events, specifically in japan. the memory police terrorizes any person who does not adhere to the burning and discarding of the forgotten objects, and hunts down the people who are immune to the ‘curse’. however, the police seems immune to it, too. as everything else in the book, if this is questioned, it is not for long.
interestingly, the memory police appeared only as a result of the disappearance of objects. this is a perfect way to illustrate the process of forgetting in real life. japan has continuously tried to erase their colonial past and their horrifying crimes during ww2, to the point of censoring and creating distractions that serve to paint japan as a safe haven. however, the oppressed have never forgotten. this process can be seen in the book, as the citizens are not mere spectators to the forgetting, but involved actors that endorse it and do not fight against the system. by choosing to not portray the memory police as a single entity evil, the author emphasizes the idea that the process of maintaining the status quo and upholding a corrupt system is in the hands of the people, too. forgetting does mean losing our humanity.

to end on a good note, i enjoyed the parallels between the story the main character was writing, where the protagonist lost her voice and, finally, ceased to exist as a result, and the story of the character herself on an island where her whole existence started to slowly dissipate by taking things away one by one, until just her voice remained. it was a chilling finale, but a really well written one. ...more

1 like · Like · see review