‘The Memory Police’ Explained: Loss of Memories, Characters and Story

“The Memory Police,” by acclaimed author Yoko Ogawa, offers a unique first-person narrative where objects, ideas and words disappear both from the unnamed narrator’s world and the prose we read. This literary element injects a subtle but palpable dose of originality into a 1990s novel that could have been buried under the mountain of commercially and critically successful speculative authoritarian regime stories that have since been released.

If the interplay of memory alteration, speculative fiction (some would argue magical realism) and clever first-person prose does not sufficiently intrigue you, we recommend you disappear “The Memory Police” from your reading list. Every other aspect of the novel is weak and might be unappealing to readers who like typical story payoffs. Characters are as forgettable as the ideas removed from their unnamed island. The world is left largely unexplained, and the behavior of the eponymous authoritarians becomes increasingly nonsensical. Rhetorical messaging fails to deepen beyond the obvious impact of state control, censorship and loss.

Does a first-person narrative with memory holes justify plot holes? Can we fairly evaluate a 2019 English translation of a Japanese text originally published in 1994? Read our review to decide if our critique is fair and whether Yoko Ogawa’s novel deserves its accolades.

‘The Memory Police’ Summary: Objects and Memories Gradually Disappear, and Only One Man Can Remember

On a mysterious unnamed island, the Memory Police are gradually removing people’s memories of anything from birds and rose petals to photographs and fruit. When the memory disappears, residents are compelled to discard or burn every trace of the item, as well as any evidence of its existence. The Memory Police search and confiscate all remnants. Soon after, most citizens forget the word and ideas associated with the disappeared item. Even when they see the lost object, it’s difficult for their five senses to process it.

Rare individuals — perhaps because of a genetic trait — are able to remember everything that has disappeared. To maintain control, the Memory Police prioritize the capture of these people. When our nameless narrator, a young writer, realizes her beloved editor is one of these gifted few, she risks her life to hide him.

Dozens of critics and consumer reviewers have presented “1984” as a comp title for this book because both stories deal with authoritarian regimes and powerless protagonists who (spoiler alert) do not triumph in this haunting Orwellian novel. Later in our review, we will explain the differences between Orwell’s classic and this modern mainstream critic pick.

‘The Memory Police’ Audience and Genre: Speculative Literary Science Fiction for Experiential Prose Appreciators, But Especially Asian and White Women

Critics and booksellers categorize “The Memory Police” as speculative literary fiction because its world is like what Ogawa experienced in the 80s and 90s, but with the “what if” twist of mysterious memory removal practices and a nameless authoritarian regime. The prose, despite being translated from Japanese, is what we tend to associate with native English literary fiction. There is beauty, melancholy and cleverness in Ogawa’s writing, similar to what you might find in a novel by Zadie Smith, one of the most exciting contemporary authors of our time.

Anyone with an appreciation for literary prose and discussions of loss — as well as an ability to forgive or ignore the book’s weaknesses and holes — is likely to enjoy “The Memory Police.”

The most common book cover has a picture of an Asian woman on it, and the main character is a young woman who dedicates a noticeable amount of thought to her mother. Nonetheless, there’s no reason why people of other gender identities and ethnic backgrounds would have an inferior reading experience. The book does not explore specific rhetoric about being a woman, and race is not mentioned in the world.

If profile pictures and engagement data on Goodreads reviews are any indication of demographics who tend to read and enjoy this dystopian novel, the title might be most popular with white and Asian women in their 20s and 30s. Speaking anecdotally, my wife, who is Asian, first told me of this thought-provoking book, and she learned about it from her Asian female friends.

Perspective and Prose Style

Editorial Note: For this review, I combined the Perspective and Prose Style sections in our usual format because these two aspects of the novel are inextricably linked.

The nameless female narrator provides a first-person perspective for the entirety of the story. When she is still able to write her novels, we read pieces of her manuscript, marked by a change in font. Other than the focus on flashbacks and backstory in the first chapter, the vast majority of the narrative is the standard past tense usage that covers the story’s present moment.

It was fun to analyze her novel excerpts and draw parallels to her life. Some connections are intentionally obvious, a fact the narrator admits. Other details are more open to our interpretation.

Little Prose Puzzles That Change With Memory: The Only Reason to Read This Book

Whenever I read a book, whether for review or purely for pleasure, I think about degrees of uniqueness. Why would you read this book over others? In the case of “The Memory Police,” there are dozens of other acclaimed speculative and/or literary titles that offer better characters, a more engaging world and a comparable level of prose that is pleasing in the stereotypically literary fashion. Some of these books even deal with authoritarian regimes and memory.

“The Memory Police” is the only novel I’ve read where the story’s events constantly change its parameters of vocabulary and challenge our understanding of the prose. The first time I pondered this dynamic was on page nine. Describing an interaction with the narrator’s father, translator Stephen Snyder wrote, “He waved good-bye so vigorously that he nearly lost the red pencil — or the compass or highlighter or ruler or tweezers — stuffed in his breast pocket.” Because of the memory loss narrative element, I wondered if she was saying her father could have had any of those items in his pocket, or if she couldn’t remember what the item was.

On page 93 I became more sure of this dynamic, and I was overjoyed feeling like I had discovered a little hidden treat. She says, “It’s an excellent idea, killing two creatures with one stone,” while talking about how she and R can do two chores at once. “Creatures” instead of “birds” — At first I thought it was a translation issue or typo. Then I remembered: The Memory Police disappeared all birds from the remote island, and its population forgot the word.

I believe there are several more of these instances, but I won’t spoil them for you. If you’re interested in seeking and debating them, make a list of the disappeared objects as you’re reading. Look for unusual uses of italics or words that seem off. Among the disappearing objects we find that first hats disappear, then roses disappear, then calendars disappear.

If I ever reread the book, I’d like to search for more of these instances. Whether you like or hate the other aspects of the book, “The Memory Police” is a work of science fiction that must be read to be fully experienced, or rather to experience the unique aspect of it. Right now I can’t imagine this prose dynamic translating to a possible film or illustrated adaptation. As an author myself, I see value in a book that makes me appreciate my beloved medium of prose.

Three Cs: Compelling, Clear, Concise

Editorial Note: We believe these three factors are important for evaluating general writing quality across every aspect of the book. Before you get into further analysis, here’s a quick breakdown to clarify how we’re using these words:

• Compelling: Does the author consistently write in a way that would make most readers emotionally invested in the book’s content?
• Clear: Are most sentences and parts of the book easy enough to read and understand?
• Concise: Are there sections or many sentences that could be cut? Does the book have pacing problems?

Compelling: If the Prose and Concept Don’t Compel You, Nothing Else Will

It is difficult to become emotionally invested in this book. The three main characters — the narrator, R and the old man — aren’t particularly interesting or entertaining. Ogawa does not reveal anything significant about the worldbuilding mysteries presented in the beginning. The ending is whimpering. There’s no resolution to any of the larger problems our protagonists grapple with.

Clear: Always Readable, Perfectly Translated

Translator Stephen Snyder did an excellent job. Every sentence was clear. Everything flowed smoothly. Ogawa’s talent for prose shone brightly. You won’t feel like you’re reading a translation.

Concise: Near Perfect Pacing, But With Some Filler and Typos

With near perfect timing, Ogawa switches between scenes of thought/dialogue vs. action. The moment I felt like something hadn’t happened for a while, boom. After the action, there was time to reflect at a slow pace.

Some readers might have less patience for the excerpts of the narrator’s novel. They could have been shorter, and such shortening probably would have made them better. Because they mirror the real life story, readers may not feel the experience is sufficiently nuanced.

The paperback edition I bought at a bookstore is 274 pages (only counting the actual story). My edition of “1984” is more than 100 pages longer.

As an experienced editor, I noticed many instances of “in order to” that could have been cut down to “to.” “In order to” is one of those superfluous phrases I learned to cut early in my career. It’s disappointing to see this type of mistake in a critically acclaimed book that must have been edited several times before release.

Character Development: Do Lost Memories Excuse Forgettable Characters?

There are three main characters: the narrator, her editor, R, and the nameless “old man.” These characters feel like mere products of their situation and mechanics of the plot, not fully fleshed out people.

To be fair to Ogawa, perhaps it’s impossible to richly develop the island’s inhabitants when they are constantly losing their freedoms and capabilities. R is the only one who can directly resist the Memory Police, but he spends most of his time cooped up in a bunker. The moment he is able to venture out and potentially grow as a person experiencing a different world, (spoiler alert) the story ends.

The narrator is the only character who changes in any noticeable way. R’s potential persecution galvanizes her to become more courageous and assertive. She visits the Memory Police headquarters to search for the old man, a risk she would not have taken at the beginning of the story.

R and the old man have simple, static personalities and thoughts. R is relentlessly optimistic because he retains his memories. The old man is the most passive in this quiet drama. He easily copes with loss.

There are several major missed opportunities for character development. R, who is married and whose wife gives birth while he is hidden away in the narrator’s home, (spoiler, although a very obvious and predictable one) initiates a romantic and sexual affair with the narrator. They don’t forget about the existence of R’s wife and child, yet they don’t discuss the context of their affair. There aren’t any consequences for their affair.

Story: We Don’t Learn Anything About the Eponymous Memory Police

If you prefer typical stories where the good guys win, read a different novel.

Stories where the good guys lose can be very well-written. “1984,” the most commonly mentioned comp title for this book, is a perfect example.

The problem with “The Memory Police” is that Ogawa wets our appetite to learn about the world, then doesn’t serve us anything. The narrator marches into Memory Police headquarters when she believes they have disappeared the old man, and then nothing more happens.

By the end, you won’t know anything more about the Memory Police’s operations than you did during the first dozen or so pages. How do they erase the memories? Why? Why those memories? I have no idea. If you figure it out, please tell me.

In the beginning of the story, the draconian Memory Police’s behavior seems at least somewhat logical. I thought, “Maybe they disappeared birds because birds symbolize freedom and flight, and the rulers of the island don’t want people to leave.” Then the disappearances escalate to the point of physically crippling and erasing everyone on the unnamed island. Don’t the Memory Police need people to do their farming? Are they trying to wipe out society? If so, why not simply massacre everyone? Their actions become increasingly nonsensical because we don’t know anything about their motivations.

‘The Memory Police’ Ending Explained

All of the perceivable characters, except R, are erased from the island. R is finally able to alight from the basement, leave the house and walk the open air. The end.

It’s one of those ambiguous endings where interpretation is left almost entirely to the reader. Were Memory Police officers behind the final erasures? Or were the Memory Police officers disappeared as well? Did their memory erasure practices spiral out of their control? Is R actually the only person left, or are there others Do these questions even matter? It’s all up to you.

Depending on your perspective, the ending may feel hopeful. R survived, after all. There is at least one non-Memory Police person left on the island. R is free.

If you’re more like me, you’ll find the ending dissatisfying. Again, I wouldn’t have wanted a fleshed out conclusion if Ogawa hadn’t focused so much on the eponymous authoritarian force. Normally I don’t advocate for sequels or series, but I could have accepted the ending if I knew there was subsequent material about R’s journey.

‘The Memory Police’ Setting: Mysterious Island With No Sense of Race, Maybe During the 80s or 90s

Most scenes take place around the island and in the narrator’s home. Ogawa’s setting descriptions are rich; they demonstrate her skill. On page 177 she describes a metal tower as a “great iron mummy of a corpse that had died of exhaustion.” Expect this kind of literary device usage for descriptions of many places and items.

Ogawa reveals little about the layout of the island, because the characters don’t know themselves. There are abandoned buildings, cliffs, a massive rusted boat where the old man lives for a time.

We don’t know if the island is supposed to be in Japan or colonized by Japan. The prose mentions Japanese items and uses their Japanese names in some cases. There are kimonos, tatami mats and ramune, a Japanese sweet. “Chinese cabbage” appears on page 271, but it’s unclear if island residents have any understanding of what countries are.

In terms of when the story is set, my guess is it’s in a speculative fiction version of the 80s or 90s when Ogawa was mentally brewing this book. Page 199 briefly mentions television. On page 240 the narrator thinks of getting a taxi. There are landline phones, but no cell phones or internet.

‘The Memory Police’ Rhetoric: Generic Authoritarianism

The rhetoric in “The Memory Police” is disappointingly shallow. At The Rauch Review, one of our frequent criticisms is that many acclaimed books have rhetoric that can be summed up as “[insert bad thing] is bad.” With this novel, it’s “authoritarianism is bad,” “censorship is bad” and “loss is bad.” There’s nothing deeper.

If we’re being generous, maybe “belongings are important because they help define who we are” is another message, albeit an obvious one we didn’t need a book to learn.

One of the reasons “1984” is a better book is because it explores the intricacies of an authoritarian regime’s capacity for propaganda, punishment, subjugation, exploitation, censorship and endless war. There are specific details such as “doublethink.” Because we understand the world, readers can extract many lessons, including less obvious ones.

Cultural and Political Significance: Anne Frank, Censorship and the In-Development Movie

Yoko Ogawa has extensively studied Anne Frank’s diary.” She said, “Her diary proved that people can grow even in such a confined situation. And writing could give people freedom. I wanted to digest Anne’s experience in my own way and then recompose it into my work.” R’s experience hiding in his secret room is a reference to Anne Frank and her family hiding from the Nazis in the secret section of an old office building.

The Japanese edition was published in 1994. Anna Stein, Ogawa’s English language agent, told The New York Times she selected the novel for translation in 2014. By the time of publication in 2019, consumer interest in authoritarian stories had spiked because of anxiety over political figures such as Trump and Duterte.

When The New York Times asked Yoko Ogawa whether she was trying to write a political allegory, she said, “I am just trying to depict each individual character and how those characters are living in their current time.” Later she added, “I myself like to keep a certain distance from my native culture or environment.”

It’s a shame. Specific references to Japanese government censorship would have deepened the story’s rhetoric and made it politically courageous.

According to Osaka-born writer Julia Shiota, the original Japanese title of the novel translates roughly to “secret or quiet crystallization.” “Unlike the English title, the original Japanese title does not focus on a specific group of bad actors but on a surreptitious, societal process underpinning the entire novel,” Shiota wrote in an article for Michigan Quarterly Review. A novel called “The Secret Crystallization” certainly wouldn’t have sold as well in the U.S. during 2019. From an editorial quality perspective, however, less focus on the Memory Police would have lessened our criticisms of Ogawa’s story writing.

What Cultural Significance Will the Movie Have?

An eponymous film adaptation of “The Memory Police” is in the works. At the time of updating this book review (6-5-2024), the only significant project details available are:

• Lily Gladstone, of “Killers of the Flower Moon” fame, will be the star
• Reed Morano, who directed several episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale” TV adaptation, will be the director
• Martin Scorsese will be the executive producer
• Charlie Kaufman, who worked on “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Synecdoche, New York,” wrote the script

While answering questions about the project, Gladstone said, “I think anybody who comes from a world culture or a history where there’s been a systemic effort to erase your sense of who you are, your memories, your language, your culture- in this film, birds are disappeared because they’re deemed unnecessary.”

I was surprised to see Gladstone, an Indigenous American woman, cast as the lead. Many readers were expecting an Asian woman.

In the context of her quote and background, perhaps Gladstone is a good fit who could meet the moment we’re in. With the accelerated genocide in Palestine constantly livestreamed, consumers are more mindful of erasing cultures. There are many parallels between the history of Indigenous American genocide and Israel’s conquest.

Critiquing the Critics: Undeserved Institutional Acclaim and Identity Politics Ratings Boosts from White Reviewers

As is the case with many critically-elevated literary novels, there is a significant gap between critic and consumer sentiment, a theme we will be exploring frequently in The Rauch Review. Whether it’s The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal or The Guardian, I have yet to find a single critical opinion of Ogawa’s work on any mainstream or legacy publication.

“The Memory Police” is a national book award finalist and was shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize. These facts emphasize the trend of critics overvaluing prose while excusing mediocre story and character writing.

Consumers, however, tend to see the book’s flaws. The top reviewer on its Goodreads page uses a quote from one of Ogawa’s other books to describe “The Memory Police”: “”The prose was unremarkable, as were the plot and characters, but there was an icy current running under her words, and I found myself wanting to plunge into it again and again.” Ouch. This is harsher than my critique. I at least think the prose is good.

Without looking, how many stars do you think that reviewer gave? It sounds like a two-star rating to me. Nope, she gave it four stars.

When I was looking through similar Goodreads reviews that pointed out huge shortcomings while awarding at least four stars, I realized I was once again seeing a troubling trend: white reviewers, especially white women, treating female POC authors with kid gloves. One review featured a “three-and-a-half-stars” tag, yet the reviewer gave four. In her review, she admitted she nearly forgot the characters, while emphasizing how translated work by women is such a great genre.

At The Rauch Review we are strongly opposed to treating authors differently based on their identity politics. Boosting ratings and omitting critiques doesn’t help authors, it doesn’t help readers and it doesn’t make the world of books a better place.

Book Aesthetic: Excellent, But Is the Badge Wrong?

The cover is effective and appropriate for the book. At a glance, you can glean that the main character is an Asian woman and that the novel is literary, but probably not straight realistic fiction. The drawn patches reference both memory loss and the fact that she writes her manuscripts in pencil. I don’t think she uses a red pencil. Red pops and draws our eyes, so choosing red for the cover was most likely a marketing tactic. The red on the cover also matches the red that dominates the spine and back.

I only have one problem with the cover: the Memory Police badge illustration doesn’t match the descriptions in the book. I took detailed notes of every Memory Police badge description. Here are the shapes Snyder mentions: diamond, bean, trapezoid, wedge, hexagon, letter T, concentric circles, rectangle, teardrop. Officers have different badges that seem to represent their duties, although Ogawa doesn’t explain anything in significant detail. I didn’t catch any description of a general badge every state surveillance officer has.

Take my opinion with a grain of salt. I was terrible at those shape-based puzzle tests in school. Do you see any of the shapes I mentioned clearly represented on the cover’s badge? I suppose the circle in the middle could be a bean. Please let me know.

‘The Memory Police’ Reviewer’s Personal Opinion: Deeply Disappointing, But I’m Glad I Read It

My wife told me about this rare work book in 2019. When my second novel, “The Last of the Mentally Ill,” published in 2022, one of my editors listed “The Memory Police” on a shared spreadsheet of comp titles. Other than sharing the speculative literary genre, I don’t see any similarities. Maybe you do!

I try so hard to separate personal feelings from an attempt at objective analysis, but by now you’ve probably figured out that I don’t like this book. It makes me think of how much I would have hated “Attack on Titan” if the main characters never figured out what titans are or what lies beyond their walls. Still, I’m happy I read it. It’s an apt first book for me to review for my publication. Ogawa’s unique prose techniques have inspired me. My next novel has a unique perspective, so maybe I’ll be able to use these review notes for my own writing.

Also, it’s always wonderful when my wife and I read the same book. Suddenly there’s more topic diversity in our pillow talk.

‘The Memory Police’ Review: Can Interesting Prose and Premises Carry Bad Character and Story Writing?

If you see value in the experience of prose in this novel, and the themes resonate with you, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy “The Memory Police.” You’ll either be one of those people who forgive its flaws, or the flaws will ruin it. Do you want to spend between $6 (the e-book price) and $27 (the hard cover price) on a coin flip, or do you want to try the comp titles below?

Books Like ‘The Memory Police’

Here are some comp titles both critic and consumer reviewers of “The Memory Police” have mentioned several times. We regard them as superior books. If you only want to spend money on one book right now, buy one of these instead of “The Memory Police.”

• “1984” by George Orwell
• “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro
• “Blindness” by Jose Saramago
• “Exit West” by Mohsin Hamid

‘The Memory Police’ FAQs

For those of you who decide to scan this review, I wrote this convenient section with answers to many frequently asked questions I’ve seen online.

Buying and Rental Options

As always, let us know if we’re missing an option here. Send us the link, and we’ll include it if we can.

E-Commerce Text and Audio Purchases

• Amazon
• Bookshop.org
• Barnes & Noble
• Apple Books
• Google Play Books
• Kobo

E-Commerce Audio Only

• Audible
• Libro.fm

Physical Location Purchase and Rental Options

• Most Barnes & Noble locations and large independent bookstores sell this book
• Most public libraries stock this book

Digital Rental Options

• Libby, the library reading app
• Your local library might have a rental app