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.
