Book Review: The Memory Police

Yoko Ogawa’s latest novel to be translated into English is The Memory Police, Originally published in 1994, it is quite perplexing as to why it’s taken 25 years to get this story to us considering that Ogawa is one of the most popular authors in Japan. However, just like how Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale feels arguably more relevant now than when it was published, The Memory Police is an important piece of literature that feels very current.

The Memory Police follows an unnamed woman as she navigates life on an unnamed island, she is a writer whose only friends are an Old Man (also without a name) and her editor R. She leads a simple life under a totalitarian regime where things disappear: people, flowers, food - nothing is permanent and can be erased from existence and memory.

Evocative of Orwell’s 1984, but pretty much any piece of literature that has any modicum of paranoia gets dubbed as Orwellian. However, I do feel that The Memory Police goes a step further than standard dystopian novels, it explores the idea of how Memory is so integral to our existence and that without it our identity is compromised. It’s allegorical quality also means that the novel can have multiple different meanings, one person could read it as purely a political novel, another could see it as meditation on life itself, as how we get older things disappear, our memories get tarnished or lost completely. The disappearances could also become a metaphor for climate change, Mother Nature succumbs to the will of man and her bounty depletes after the greed of humanity squanders what she has given us.

As I worked my way through the novel it made my heart feel tender and with each disappearance I felt the novel become a little more tragic and by the last page I was in tears. It is an emotional read and I feel like it has left me thinking upon is contents long after I finished it. But I feel like its power to move the reader is exactly what makes it an enjoyable (if somewhat melancholy) read.

Disclaimer: I received a e-copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.