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aspenapple's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
giannaitt's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
soyabeanos's review against another edition
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
breeblah's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
cbala6's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death
reikableu's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
3.75
It was a different kind of good. First time I read a book like this.
calicos's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Animal death, Death, and Fire/Fire injury
ollyson13's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
2.5
Unsatisfying. That’s kind of the point, but I think the book goes on for too long if that was all it sought out to do. It sacrifices a pleasant reading experience to make an interesting commentary on human nature
javinki_'s review against another edition
2.0
'The Memory Police', for me, was a pretty disappointing and unsatisfying read. This is mainly because the central concept - that things on this particular island "disappear" without warning - is never really fleshed out and felt flimsy, which made the book feel more like a Young Adult novel than adult dystopian / political / literary fiction.
This is the second book of Ogawa’s I’ve read - much like 'Revenge', a collection of short stories rooted in magical realism, there’s a sense of whim about the whole book; various characters and events feel shoehorned in for the sake of moving the plot forward (see: the Inuis, the cabin, R’s ability to remember). Unlike in 'Revenge', where the connections between each story felt forced, I thought the meta-narrative elements / extracts from the protagonist’s novel were actually the strongest parts of 'The Memory Police'. Each moment spent with the story-in-a-story felt more considered and significant than the main narrative, and I can’t help thinking that the book would’ve been stronger if the ‘fictional’ story had been awarded as much space as the ‘real’ one.
The Memory Police themselves are cartoonish, limp parodies of a secret police force, like someone filled Kafka’s 'The Trial' with the bungling stormtroopers from 'Star Wars'. R is flat and characterless and utterly unconvincing as a love interest. The motifs that crop up throughout the text, such as the snow (forgetting) and the ferry and the birds (escape), are either heavy-handed and shallow, or (for me at least) indecipherable; the gloves and the fingernails, for example???
I suppose my main issue with 'The Memory Police' is that the genuinely interesting ideas it's about - namely issues surrounding memory, community, and censorship - are never explored in any real depth. The novel succeeds in drawing our attention to these huge concepts, but beyond that... it feels empty. The words are all there, but the meaning of them never appears.
This is the second book of Ogawa’s I’ve read - much like 'Revenge', a collection of short stories rooted in magical realism, there’s a sense of whim about the whole book; various characters and events feel shoehorned in for the sake of moving the plot forward (see: the Inuis, the cabin, R’s ability to remember). Unlike in 'Revenge', where the connections between each story felt forced, I thought the meta-narrative elements / extracts from the protagonist’s novel were actually the strongest parts of 'The Memory Police'. Each moment spent with the story-in-a-story felt more considered and significant than the main narrative, and I can’t help thinking that the book would’ve been stronger if the ‘fictional’ story had been awarded as much space as the ‘real’ one.
The Memory Police themselves are cartoonish, limp parodies of a secret police force, like someone filled Kafka’s 'The Trial' with the bungling stormtroopers from 'Star Wars'. R is flat and characterless and utterly unconvincing as a love interest. The motifs that crop up throughout the text, such as the snow (forgetting) and the ferry and the birds (escape), are either heavy-handed and shallow, or (for me at least) indecipherable; the gloves and the fingernails, for example???
I suppose my main issue with 'The Memory Police' is that the genuinely interesting ideas it's about - namely issues surrounding memory, community, and censorship - are never explored in any real depth. The novel succeeds in drawing our attention to these huge concepts, but beyond that... it feels empty. The words are all there, but the meaning of them never appears.
deedewi's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5