Memory Piece

A Novel

By: Lisa Ko

Narrated by: Eunice Wong

NAMED A VOGUE BEST BOOK OF 2024
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY BOOKRIOT, THE MILLIONS, LITHUB AND MORE!

"A moving, strikingly evocative exploration of New York's art, tech, and activism scenes across the decades."–Vogue

The award-winning author of The Leavers offers a visionary novel of friendship, art, and ambition that asks: What is the value of a meaningful life?

In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three teenagers drawn together by their shared sense of alienation and desire for something different. “Allied in the weirdest parts of themselves,” they envision each other as artistic collaborators and embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity.

By the time they are adults, their dreams are murkier. As a performance artist, Giselle must navigate an elite social world she never conceived of. As a coder thrilled by the internet’s early egalitarian promise, Jackie must contend with its more sinister shift toward monetization and surveillance. And as a community activist, Ellen confronts the increasing gentrification and policing overwhelming her New York City neighborhood. Over time their friendship matures and changes, their definitions of success become complicated, and their sense of what matters evolves.

Moving from the predigital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different from the one they were promised.

*Includes a downloadable PDF of images from the book

Memory vs Present

I am still sorting out whether Ko is valuing or devaluing Memory. Giselle burns then stores memories; Ellen challenges then clings to the past. All sort of pretend to escape their Present circumstances, yet their lives are undoubtedly shaped by the world they live in, that for all their efforts they cannot escape. the story seems to be saying that ultimately we cling to and are defined by both, but I get the feeling that Ko would prefer to say that both are somehow ephemeral, or powerless to define us. So I am.left wondering if I missed the point.

Also, I had a hard time with the narrator. Was her tone intending to convey a sense of remembering the events in the past?

Just not for me.

It was an interesting story but I disliked almost all the characters which made it less compelling for me.

Maybe it's the narrator, but I could not continue

From the first moment, the narrator's style was cringe worthy. Slow, slow, slow - and apparently for no reason. Sped up, the plot (which is meandering to put it kindly) made no sense at all. Maybe if I read this book, I could stomach it, but I just could not get into the story.

Not good

This book is confusing and disjointed, room many narratives and too many directions. I finished it hoping it would eventually redeem its self but it did not.

East Coast Nostalgia

I loved everything about this book. Wow. 3 Asian girls growing up in Bergen county New Jersey, then living in NYC in the late 90s. So much of that offered little treats of nostalgia for me, but this book would have been brilliant without all that. The self-discovery was primal and necessary for these characters. The final part that takes place in the future (only 15 years from now) — while it contained aspects reminiscent of 1984, the forbidden remembering that was depicted stirred up memories for me from my time making forever friends in NYC in a way I haven’t felt or couldn’t feel until now. This was a love letter to NYC and that time and I wish I could read it again for the first time.