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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. If they can’t, no problem; Memory Police to the rescue. They make sure people forget the things that “disappeared” by forcing them to destroy these things.

All that sounds very dystopian, and it certainly is. There’s an undeniable aura of 1984 floating in Ogawa’s novel, but it’s much more subtle than that. That is good news, of course, but at times it also becomes problematic, for reasons that are both interesting and educational.

In other words, if you’re interested in dystopian narratives, you should pay close attention. Ogawa’s novel is an excellent example of how genre crossover can be problematic.

Review of The Memory Police: Genre, Plot, Narrative

The plot of the novel is fairly straightforward. Indeed, I don’t need more than what I’ve already mentioned in the introduction, above, to let you know what the book is about. The Memory Police say “roses have disappeared” and then everyone must destroy them and never mention them again. Then the Memory Police say “novels have disappeared” (surprise-surpriseIndeed the novel contains a scene with a public book burning.), and so on and so forth.

One interesting detail is that the story unfolds from the protagonist’s perspective, which places certain constraints in terms of “what happens”. On the other hand, this allows the possibility to have a deeper exploration of the “why it happens”.

In other words, the author’s decision to focalize on the protagonist has two major repercussions:

• It’s difficult to move away from the protagonist and discover the wider context.
• There is enhanced opportunity to explore affect – thoughts, feelings, states of mind.

I’ve used “possibility” and I’ve used “opportunity”. If you suspect I’m implying the author hasn’t quite made the best of the setup, you’d be right.

Unfortunately, although the first-person perspective does bring some refreshing look into the protagonist’s narrative soul, this doesn’t become deep enough to make the penalty taken worth it: Though subtlety and ambiguity are superb narrative strategies, for a dystopian novel like The Memory Police, it becomes problematic.

Problems of Genre Crossover

The Memory Police is part dystopian science fiction, part soft literary fiction. There are also elements of magical realism in it, fact that muddles the waters even further. Still, The Memory Police is much closer to dystopian fiction than anything else, as it simply lacks the depth and character analysis for literary fiction and doesn’t quite take advantage of the metaphysical opportunities magical realism presents.

The problem, however, is that The Memory Police tries to be many things at the same time and it kind of fails at all. Perhaps “fails” is a bit too strong word; maybe it’d be best to talk about a lost opportunity. In this sense, Ogawa’s novel strongly reminded me of Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore. In that review I said “there are things to enjoy in Kafka on the Shore, but I would call it a missed opportunity for something phenomenal”.

That’s precisely my experience of The Memory Police. The narrative – which includes a delightfully ambiguous story-within-a-story, replete with references to expression and the act of writing – could’ve been something phenomenally interesting, with great symbolic power. Instead, I witnessed (rather frustrated) the writer wasting good opportunity after good opportunity.

Review of The Memory Police: Characters

As I briefly implied above, The Memory Police doesn’t have the necessary character depth and realism to pass for literary fiction. However, for a dystopian science fiction novel it’s well above average. Having said that, I would’ve liked to see a bit more subtlety specifically in the characters.

For all their interesting reactions, the characters are a bit too direct and explicit. They’re also highly predictable and linear in their behavior. Imagine a sophisticated robot with only on/off switches to control behavior. You can adjust plenty of variables, but you can’t have an in-between state. That’s more or less what the characters look like in The Memory Police.

As a result of the first-person perspective, the protagonist is a little bit better in terms of exploration, but still not deep enough to reach anything phenomenal.

All in all, as I said, character exploration is perfectly adequate for science fiction. But, in the end, that’s the problem: The Memory Police tries to be something else, too.

Review of The Memory Police: General Impression

The Shadow of the Wind, Diary of the Fall, The Heart Goes Last. Three novels I’ve reviewed, and in all three of them I described the same feeling: lost opportunity. Together with Kafka on the Shore, I’m afraid The Memory Police has to join the group.

This isn’t a poorly written novel, by any stretch of the imagination. It was enjoyable to read, it flows effortlessly, and it keeps your interest. The determined reader can also find plenty of symbolism (hence, meaning), as there is a lot of empty narrative space to fill with their own imagination.

Overall, I’d say Ogawa’s novel is worth your time. However, be prepared to be left with a slightly disappointed feeling after reading it.