The Memory Police
Reddit take
Not enough linked mention summaries yet; the source excerpts below are the evidence.
Pros
- The Memory Police is my favourite of hers that I've read so far.
- I enjoyed reading it but the end also made me feel like I needed something more.
- Btw, I really loved the book-within-a-book sections! There’s a lot going on in The Memory Police, for sure 🤓 Lots to discuss and ponder.
- I recently read this book and I enjoyed it - and didn't mind the ending at all! ... I have a high tolerance for slow stories but even I found this dragged a bit. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this different take on a dystopian society
- I'd previously read her more recent book - The Professor & The Housekeeper. It was a feel-good story for me, and I really liked it.
Cons
- I read this a few months, & also felt conflicted. I expected a straight-forward read with explanations & resolution & kept waiting for explanations that don’t come or are really minimal. Also, I was bothered by seeming contradictions of...
- I loved all of these, except for the Memory police. I understood what The Memory Police was doing but just didn't care for it.
- It also seems deliberare that the book is painstakingly slow. Nothing significant happened for a long time, and the story felt very repetitive. I almost left it halfway but I picked it back up because I *had* to know what the author poss...
- I have conflicting thoughts about this book. Did I like it? Did I not like it? I genuinely don’t know. The ending definitely left me dissatisfied — there’s no denying that. But the overall reading experience? I’m certain I’m better for it.
Sentiment
7 positive (64%) · 2 mixed (18%) · 2 negative (18%)
Trust + time weighted score: +50% · raw score 45%
What redditors said (10 of 11)
The Memory Police is my favourite of hers that I've read so far.
I enjoyed reading it but the end also made me feel like I needed something more.
Btw, I really loved the book-within-a-book sections! There’s a lot going on in The Memory Police, for sure 🤓 Lots to discuss and ponder.
I read this a few months, & also felt conflicted. I expected a straight-forward read with explanations & resolution & kept waiting for explanations that don’t come or are really minimal. Also, I was bothered by seeming contradictions of “people forget what [insert item] was, & how they felt about said item, but that doesn’t hold true throughout the novel
I loved all of these, except for the Memory police. I understood what The Memory Police was doing but just didn't care for it.
I recently read this book and I enjoyed it - and didn't mind the ending at all! ... I have a high tolerance for slow stories but even I found this dragged a bit. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this different take on a dystopian society
I'd previously read her more recent book - The Professor & The Housekeeper. It was a feel-good story for me, and I really liked it.
It also seems deliberare that the book is painstakingly slow. Nothing significant happened for a long time, and the story felt very repetitive. I almost left it halfway but I picked it back up because I *had* to know what the author possibly intended to do with this story.
I have conflicting thoughts about this book. Did I like it? Did I not like it? I genuinely don’t know. The ending definitely left me dissatisfied — there’s no denying that. But the overall reading experience? I’m certain I’m better for it.
In **The Memory Police** by Yoko Ogawa people start forgetting things, including the concept of objects (e.g. people can forget their own limbs, and then can't use them anymore). It's written in quite a dream-like way, and was a very interesting read.
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