The Memory Police by Yōko OgawaMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reading this in mid-2021, this relates quite readily to the current discussion of the government taking away freedoms and where that slippery slope leads to. In “The Memory Police”, residents of an unnamed country are lead somehow to understand that something that they used to know is no longer to be talked about, or owned, or seen. The way it is described is a kind of mass brainwashing – all of the sudden one day, for instance, hats are no longer to be talked about, or owned, and people throw their hats away. There seems no rhyme or reason for what is chosen to be forgotten. The memory police are the wing of the government that enforces the elimination of items, including the “re-education” of people that can’t seem to forget what needs to be forgotten. As the book goes on, you learn of a waning effort to fight the losses. And the memories that are lost get larger and more imposing over time, from hats to birds to parts of the body. The writing is haunting. The story is prescient.
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