The Memory Police, by Yoko Ogawa is a quiet, spare, literary tale of dystopia. While I can’t say I enjoyed reading this book, I can say that I think it’s very good.
I found the book hard to enjoy for a couple of reasons. One, because it was very strange concept. Our unnamed narrator and her unnamed friends and family live on an unnamed island where things disappear. But, they disappear from people’s memories first, and then the people of the island get rid of the actual items. Like hats and ribbons and ferries and roses. And if the people of the island don’t lose their memories, or if they fail to destroy the disappeared items, they themselves end up disappearing at the hands of the Memory Police.
But it’s not just the concept of what’s happening to this island that made it hard for me to enjoy. The writing has a strange, dreamlike quality that was at odds with the disappearances, and the hardships, and the thuggish memory police. Oh, and then there is the book within the book. Our narrator is a novelist, and we get to read part of her current work which I found very weird and even off-putting. It literally took me until page 262 (out of 274!) to figure out what was going on there. But, man, once I got it, I appreciated this book on an entirely new level.
Because this book quietly, and sort of sneakily, to be honest, displays the problem with compliance. Yes, it’s very easy to comply when everyone else is. When no one is even talking about what’s going on, much less fighting it. And yes, it’s even easier when non-compliance is met with jack-booted thugs and night raids. And yes, it’s amazing what you can get used to. Amazing how you can make excuses and even convince yourself that maybe this oppression is easier and better because, you know, reading or writing (or voting or being alive or whatever) can be a lot of work.
In the end, I’m giving it 4 stars because even though I didn’t actually like the experience of reading this book, I appreciate that it’s extremely well done and appropriately terrifying.
Edited to add the CBR18bingo tag because this book fulfills the “Friends” circle. I’m in a book club (named R.A.G.E) with three of my closest friends and “A” selected this book to read and review this month. And I’m glad she did; again, not a fun read but a very good read!
