BOOK REVIEW: Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

I feel like Memory Police has such profound meaning but I cannot dig a well deep enough  inside my brain where I could find that meaning. As of now, it's loss that comes to mind first then I'll just go along as I type this overthought review.

It's not my first time reading a novel from a Japanese author and so far, I found the way they tell a story direct, yet metaphorical and deeply sensational. I could just read it simply, but I still find that it holds so much meaning that is so BIG for my tiny brain to process immediately. 

So to summarize the gist of the story, there is an unnamed island where our narrator resides. In this island, the disappearance of random things is just a normal thing to get through on a day to day basis. For them, there's no point in holding on to something that has no meaning to them already. One day she finds out that a person close to her remembers and they tried to find a way for her to hide that person from the Memory Police.

For a reader who looks forward to character and plot development so much, this would be such a huge letdown. I was actually waiting for something to stir up in the gaping holed hearts of most of the people on the island. But as you might have guessed, that was never the intended purpose of the book. It was never meant to entertain and give answers to a curious mind. It was meant to be questioned and here I am answering all my questions through real life association. Am I supposed to analyze it like a requirement for an english class?? Am I overthinking things?? Maybe?

Also, for someone who reads -um- typical american novels or sci-fi or dystopian or whatever, it could be hard to swallow the ending of the book. It wouldn't satisfy the curiosity that we have for the whole duration of the story. Like, who were the memory police? What's the mechanism of the disappearances?? Where did the 'people who remembers' go? What?! Wha-? I need answers!.... Yet, after all the initial outbursts of emotion, when the mind wandered back to the story, there was something bitter and sweet and salty and sour about the book and the meaning buried deep within the words of the author is still, well, buried at the back of my head. hahahahhha my mind's still reeling but nothing's getting caught on the line.

Lastly, I just want to say that I was deeply impressed by a change of voice within the story. It was written so harrowingly beautiful that I decided that I wanted to follow this other story line that just popped up. I didn't realize my idiocy at first since the characters of the book were all shrouded in mystery. I thought the identities of these people would unravel themselves on the chapters to come only to find my mouth agape in surprise because I didn't realize I was reading fiction within a fiction. How did I miss that? 

Here are the bits and pieces of nonsense that I could come up with considering I am not an expert with nitpicking literary masterpieces.

LOSS & GIVING UP

It's hard for me to piece together the puzzles but I do understand that the whole disappearance thing depicts loss, and how the people who remains (the one who remembers) hold on to what is left. 

Everyone knows how hard letting go is - how hard it is to hold on when the one you're holding on to is already succumbing to the loss themselves (without a fight). It's tragic but it's reality and the way the book portrayed it is full of desolation. My heart was so sad the entire book.

EXTINCTION

Halfway through the story, the thing I associate with the disappearances was the extinction of animals and superannuated things. For example, in this lifetime, dinosaurs were long gone even before the existence of human beans, yet we remember them even if we don't have a use for them anymore. Or the floppy disks or walkman. We don't have use for those anymore, yet we remember that they existed.Wait, dunno what my point is. I don't know why the book has to forget the things that have disappeared, maybe this was a shallow association. lol, maybe there was more meaning to the disappearances. hahhhhaha

SILENCING VOICES

I thought the book would focus more on the memory police hence the title, but the memory poilce were only present at times and their history and the reason why they existed or how they came about weren't tackled. So looking back, I think that they signify the silencing of voices and can be applied through all sorts of life aspects. It could be about a child's opinion being silenced by an adult which could result to loss of assertiveness. Oooor government silencing the voices of its people therefore the loss of their right to free communication or speech or something like that.

The memory police could mean a lot of things and that's the only thing I could compare it to in real life.

THESE WERE MY NOTES DURING THE TIME I WAS READING THE NOVEL

The book seemed reminiscent and full of regret. In reality, a lot of things have been thinning in the world. Slowly crumbling and disappearing into ashes. I find that I'm afraid of how this book would end. What was this book trying to tell me?  OMG, I am quite nervous about R's intention. gurllllllll!!! I thought he was a spy at first but then again, I thought O-M-G! He has retained memories! And then, yep, that's it. He's a wanted man. There was this sort of feeling emanating from the words of the author. It was so direct, yet beautifully descriptive, it was like the words are honey bound to be consumed completely. The mystery that was put around the identity of the characters were mournfully depressing! They don't have names, yet I know them. I was briefly disconcerted by the fact that there were two stories, with one I've yet to unravel. I knew from the very beginning that there was something about the old man. I just dismissed the idea entirely but came back like a gust of wind and it made sense. He was wise not just because he's old but because he remembers.... everything. Oh wait, I've jumped to conclusions yet again. Oh goshhh, this is not turning out the way I thought it would. Wait what? Was it mentioned at first that the woman who lost her voice was the story that the protagonist was writing? I was trying to decipher the identity of that woman because I thought it was another POV! I was shocked when after a horrific turn of event, the protagonist suddenly stopped writing and I was like, WHAT!?!?!?!

REVIEW NOTES