The plot of the novel is fairly straightforward. These and other elements of dystopian fiction are present in The Memory Police Review of The Memory Police: Genre, Plot, Narrative Ogawa’s novel is an excellent example of how genre crossover can be problematic.

In other words, if you’re interested in dystopian narratives, you should pay close attention. That is good news, of course, but at times it also becomes problematic, for reasons that are both interesting and educational. There’s an undeniable aura of 1984 floating in Ogawa’s novel, but it’s much more subtle than that. They make sure people forget the things that “disappeared” by forcing them to destroy these things.Īll that sounds very dystopian, and it certainly is. If they can’t, no problem Memory Police to the rescue. But after the book is closed, we all have a lot of anxiety left.The Memory Police, by Yōko Ogawa, is basically a dystopian novel about a Japanese island where things “disappear” on an apparently random basis, and people must forget about them. For some it will be a metaphor for oppressive rule, for violent relationship, and for others it will be a story about life and aging. It is largely a book about memory – about how easily it is bent – by force, trauma, age, or because it is easier to forget. It is a story about a lack of trust, but also about allowing the world to go wherever it is going.

It is a story about a violent world – both about the relationship between the “memory police” and heroes, but also about the relationship between the people themselves. The Memory Police is promoted as a dystopian novel, but for us in Tajfuny, it is much more than that. It is difficult to read it only as a parable of what is happening in our world today, because the book was written twenty-five years ago, although it was only now published in English for the first time. But The Memory Police is more than a description of a dystopian world or a political metaphor. Instead, she makes us wonder how far the “special memory” police will go in keeping track of the islanders and controlling a shared vision of the world. Ogawa does not try to unravel the mystery of why certain things disappear. Everything is watched closely by the “memory police”, who cares about it, that absolutely no one remembered what should remain forgotten. Every now and then specific things disappear from it – flowers, ribbons, perfumes – and with them the memory of them. The Memory Police is a disturbing book on many levels – the action takes place on a seemingly ordinary, unnamed island, but we know from the very first pages of the book that there is something wrong with it. If you think that Yōko Ogawa is a writer of only warm and intimate novels, then you are definitely wrong.

Yoko ogawa the memory police review