The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa

Fiction (Dystopian)

Rating: 8/10

On an unnamed island populated with nameless characters, objects are disappearing; hats, roses, birds and more. The inhabitants are oblivious to the loss due to the memory police.  Their job is to ensure that what has disappeared is eradicated from every human sensory awareness, including thought.

A surreal tale that leaves the reader to wonder which fate is worse; not being able to see, touch, smell, taste or hear what is lost, or not even knowing it ever existed. 

This book was first published twenty-five years ago, its uncanny and unsettling how relevant it is to current times. The author finds new ways to express anxieties about authoritarianism and humanities wiliness to be complicit in its own demise. We need to be cognizant of how technology acts as a ceaseless tug on our thoughts into a kind of undertow.  We must not allow that undertow to trap our memories.

Footnote: Everything and everyone is being erased, and despite your anticipated horror of what’s to come, you will not be able to look away from the page.  This book is both a dream and a nightmare.