The Memory Police

A Novel

By: Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder - translator

Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama

*** 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST ***
*** LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE AND THE 2020 TRANSLATED BOOK AWARD ***
*** NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE YEAR ***

A haunting Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance, from the acclaimed author of The Housekeeper and the Professor.

On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses—until things become much more serious. Most of the island's inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten.

When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.

A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.

An unexpected pleasure

Not the typical book, I'd read what I really truly enjoyed it. Even the narration was pleasing after my trip to Japan. I've been reading more books from japanese authors.

Novel as Metaphor

Like a blank slate, the reader can assign meaning to this story in myriad ways.

As an American, elements in the plot symbolize how a regime can assert its agenda in small ways, so that the general population accept deprivations with little resistance. Dissent is squashed quietly. As larger rights are violated, dissenters are dealt with harshly and publicly to sow fear in objectors. A passive majority holds those that see danger and want change prisoner. The only way freedom is regained is when that public majority is eliminated by the regime. The regime itself disappears without a public to prop it up.

The languid pacing of the story is a mirror to the passivity of the characters. When danger and consequence fail to stir action, the mood shifts to those of frustration, acceptance, and inevitability. Inaction is action, it’s a choice, and a warning for what happens when we fail to use our voice.

Interesting dystopian take, not so thrilling

I feel like what I got from this was a serene depiction of a dystopian world clamping down gradually. It was a new take on the genre for me but I did not find it that interesting. I feel like the focus was more on the constant and gradual experience of decline as experienced by very very stoic characters. I didn’t get the satisfaction of learning about any of the whys of the story, though I admit that the pattern of the story is established early enough where that doesn’t come as a huge surprise.

Sad but Beautiful

I read this on a recommendation. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but it was a truly brilliant book. Even the story within the story, as parts of the book are excerpts from a novel the MC is writing throughout the book, is achingly haunting.

The main story is told from the perspective of an unnamed woman living on an island where their memories of objects are “disappeared” (so thoroughly forgotten that they cannot be recognized for what they are even when plainly visible) and there is a group called the Memory Police that hunt down people who are unaffected by the disappearance of memories. The book follows the MC as she deals with several tribulations caused by the lost memories, including trying to resist the disappearance or even recover things that were disappeared.

Though there are highs and lows, there is always a thread of sadness and growing loss throughout the book. The author is quite good at making the prose emotionally weighty and making the people in the story feel real.

The only thing I can criticize is that it took me out a bit that is that the disappearances and the memory police themselves often felt inconsistent and underexplained. It’s has a fable like quality that just kind of expects you to roll with the unrealistic aspects. The book isn’t about the disappearances and the memory police, it’s about how the MC reacts to them. The whys of how they exist are insignificant to the story being told.

Anyway, the long and short is that the book is incredibly depressing in the most beautiful way and I loved it.

Extremely impactful, well written, and well voiced.

The story was engaging, yet meaningful. I enjoyed the snippets of the written novel as well as the ending. In fact, it was one of the most meaningful endings I have read in a long time.
There is a reason this book is read heavily in Japan, it is an amazing story worth a listen.