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Sunrise on the Reaping
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matsushimaDid you read the new Hunger Games book, Sunrise on the Reaping?
If so, what did you think of it? If not, do you plan to?
If so, what did you think of it? If not, do you plan to?
matsushima
[Review] The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
Apr. 8th, 2024 12:00 amspacedogfromspace
Book Report: The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
Synopsis
The Memory Police is a dystopian science fiction about an island where things disappear. At seemingly random intervals, everyone wakes up and something will be missing from their collective memories. Even though it still exists physically— at least until the Memory Police come to confiscate it —nobody remembers what it is or what it's for. This story follows a young novelist as she navigates the diminishing reality of her world with an old friend, and a man she is harbouring from the Memory Police in a secret room in her house.
Plot Summary - Spoilers!
The book begins with the main character, a novelist, remembering a scene from her childhood in which her mother explains how things disappear from the island. Or rather, from the memories of the people on the island. Suddenly, something will lose all meaning or usefulness to the people. If it's a physical object that disappears, the people of the island gather up all the remnants of it and destroy them, and a few days later, it's as if nothing happened, and no one can remember what had disappeared. Her mother takes her to an old cabinet full of drawers and asks her to pick one. She has opened her mothers special drawers with her many times before, and they always revealed strange objects. This time, the drawers she picked held unknown items called 'ribbon,' 'bell,' 'emerald,' stamp,' and 'perfume.' Her mother explains what they are for, but the novelist can't understand their purpose like her mother does. She asks her mother why she remembers the things that have disappeared, and her mother just says it's because she thinks about them all the time.
In the present, the novelist explains that both her mother and father have since died, and she has no other family. She explains that her father was an ornithologist, and that she remembers him showing her the birds through her binoculars. She reflects that it's good that her father died before the birds were disappeared. She explains how when a disappearance affected someone's job, they quickly found another line of work, but she didn't think her father would be able to move on so easily. The day after the birds disappeared, officers from the Memory Police appeared at her doorstep demanding to see her father's office. They ransack the office, gathering up anything to do with birds and shoving it into black plastic bags. The Memory Police's job is to enforce the disappearances.
The main character is a novelist, though few people on the island have any use for novels. She visits a friend, the old man, who operated the ferry before it disappeared and was the husband of the novelist's childhood nurse, who had since died of a heart attack.
One afternoon, the novelist encounters the Memory Police again. She witnesses them pull up to some buildings and lead a line of people out to the trucks, loading them in at gunpoint. She tells R, her editor, about the incident. They agree that the Memory Police have been worse lately. The Memory Police arrest people who don't forget what has disappeared, and the novelist thinks that it is strange that so many people from one place were taken away. Usually it is just one person from a family. R thinks that those people must have been taken from a safe house. They talk about the people who get taken away. The novelist wonders if her mother was killed.
The novelist is working on her new book late at night when she hears a knocking at the basement door. She goes to investigate, wondering who is out there at this time. She discovers that it is Professor Inui— an old family friend —and his family. He tells the novelist that he and his family have been summoned by the Memory Police, and he suspects they want to use his research to identify the people who keep their memories. He explains that it's just like the letter that came for the novelist's mother fifteen years ago. The novelist remembers that her mother had recieved the orders and went away in a fancy car sent by the Memory Police. It was supposed to be temporary, but the Memory Police sent back word that her mother had suddenly died of a heart attack. Professor Inui is worried that the same fate might befall himself and his family if he goes to the Memory Police. He informs the novelist that they are going to a safe house. Professor Inui wants her to keep some sculptures made by the novelist's mother a long time ago— gifts she gave Professor Inui. She agrees to keep the sculptures for them. Then, the Inui family vanishes.
The novelist wakes up one day to find that something had disappeared. She eats breakfast while she tries to figure out what it was that was disappeared, and when she goes outside she finds the river flowing with fresh rose petals. Roses had disappeared, and they are being disposed of in the river. The novelist visits the old man and they talk about how things are disappearing more quickly than they are being created.
The novelist continues working on her book and shows her latest writings to R during an appointment at the novelist's house. They stop work for the day, and talk. R asks about her mother's sculpting studio, which is the basement, and asks to see it. He finds the cabinet, and the novelist explains that that is where her mother kept secret things. The cabinet is empty now, and the novelist isn't sure where they had gone— the Memory Police had never come to the basement. She thinks her mother must have found a way to get rid of them before the Memory Police took her away. R asks her what she remembers, and she tries describing the objects, but can't really remember them. R reveals that he hasn't forgotten anything.
The Memory Police make their arrests more and more often, and become more and more brutal. The novelist pays a visit to the old man and tells him that she needs help to try and hide R. The old man agrees to help her, and they decide the best place is a little room in the novelist's house that exists between the ceiling of the first floor and the floor of the second, accessible only by a hatch in her father's office. They plan to clean it out— including the books and documents about birds that the Memory Police missed —and gather basic amenities for R, install plumbing, make the room soundproof, etc. They take care to make sure they don't appear suspicious when acquiring items or doing renovations.
When the room is finished, the novelist tells R that she has a place to hide him. He doesn't want to go, as he has a pregnant wife that he wouldn't be able to take with him, but the novelist convinces him that hiding would be the best way to protect them.
One rainy day, the old man and R show up at the novelist's house, having used the rain to obscure their movements. The novelist and the old man show R the hiding place they prepared for him, and show him the makeshift intercom they made to communicate with the hiding place without opening the trap door.
After a couple of weeks of R hiding in the novelist's house, they fall into a routine. The novelist asks R how it feels to remember everything. But R has a hard time explaining it. A call comes from the publishing house— a new editor has taken over for R. The old man is designated to be in touch with R's wife. They use a nondescript drop location to send letters and items back and forth, with the old man acting as a courier.
The novelist has R read everything she writes before she takes it to her new editor. It is better for R to have work to do. He is desperate for more things to do, so the novelist starts giving him little chores that he can do from his hiding place, like organizing receipts and putting page numbers on manuscripts. Then things start disappearing again, starting with photographs and fruit. R tries to stop the novelist from gathering all of her photos for disposal, arguing that they are precious things, but to the novelist, they are nothing more than pieces of paper.
One day, out of nowhere, the old man is taken by the Memory Police. The novelist is in a panic, thinking the Memory Police know something about them harbouring R, and that they should move R as soon as possible. But R convinces her that the best plan is to stay quietly where they are, thinking maybe the old man was taken for a different reason. The next day, the novelist visits the Memory Police headquarters with a package for the old man. But the officer there insists that the old man is not there and she cannot see him. She returns home, regretting visiting the headquarters, as she didn't find out anything about the old man and had to give up some of her personal information to the Memory Police.
Three days later, the old man is released, and the novelist visits him on the old ferry, where he lives. The old man tells her he was brought in regarding a smuggling incident. Some people who didn't forget the things that disappeared took a boat and fled the Memory Police, and since the old man used to be the ferryman and knew a great deal about boats— at least, before they disappeared —the Memory Police thought he might have helped them and questioned him. He didn't tell them about the secret room. R's child was born, and since the old man hadn't yet recovered, the novelist was making the trips to the drop location to collect and drop off letters between R and his wife. When the novelist takes the latest package to R— a note with a hand drawn picture of R's new baby —she notices that R is looking more frail these days.
The calendars disappear. The novelist speaks with a neighbour, who made hats before they disappeared, about how food is getting harder to come by and how the winter is particularly long. Another neighbour suggests that because the calendars have disappeared, the seasons won't progress and winter won't end. In the end, no matter how long they waited, spring never comes.
When the old man's birthday comes around, they decide to celebrate in the secret room. The novelist goes about buying groceries to make a birthday dinner, struggling through the long lines at the grocer and getting only measly ingredients. The old man is surprised by the decorated secret room and food laid out. There is barely enough room for the three of them in the room, but they manage. The novelist even managed to bake a little cake with what little things she could buy from the store, and R produces some candles for it. Then the novelist gives the old man a gift— a porcelain shaving set. R also has a present for the old man. It's a music box, something that had long since disappeared. The novelist and the old man are amazed and wonder where the music is coming from, having forgotten about music boxes. As their party comes to a close, the doorbell rings.
Knowing the Memory Police have come, the novelist and the old man leave the secret room, covering the trap door with the rug, and answer the door. The Memory Police come into the house to search it. They wonder why the old man is there, and he explains that he's basically part of the family. They notice the sink is full of dishes, more than would be usual. The novelist lies, saying she cooks enough for a week and freezes it. The Memory Police move along through the house, searching it and asking questions. The novelist is nervous as they go upstairs and she notices the rug concealing the trapdoor has a corner turned up slightly, and fears the Memory Police will think it is suspicious and discover the secret room. But they are much more concerned with the pocket datebook they find. Calendars have disappeared, so it must be destroyed. After that, they leave. The novelist sees more officers leading a group of people from one of the neighboring houses. They had indeed been searching for people in hiding. The novelist is shaken up by this, and R comforts her.
Several weeks after the old man's birthday party, the novelist has a chance encounter with an old woman selling vegetables along the road. She tells the novelist that she is looking for someone to hide her. The novelist says that she can't help her. Over the next few days, the novelist saw the woman selling vegetables, but then, she suddenly vanished. The novelist doesn't know if she just ran out of vegetables to sell, found a place to hide, or was taken away by the Memory Police. Then, the former hat maker and his wife had their whole house painted, and ask the novelist if they can stay at her house until the fumes dissipate. They stay the night and leave, none the wiser that there is anyone hidden in the house. The novelist also starts to take care of the dog that belonged to the neighbours that were taken away by the Memory Police on the old man's birthday. She names the dog Don, and wonders what happened to the Inui's cat, and regrets not offering to care for it.
Then, the novels disappear. R insists on moving all the novels into the hiding place, but the novelist says there wont be room for him to live there. R tells her she must keep writing novels. But she doesn't know how she can write novels when novels have disappeared. But he convinces her that if she keeps writing stories, those memories will protect her. The novelist ends up taking a dozen books to R for safekeeping, but picks them at random since they have no more meaning to her. She takes the rest to burn with the old man. They see a young woman shouting in hysterics, wanting to put out the fire and to stop the novels from disappearing. They watch as the Memory Police come and arrest her. She drops something unfamiliar on the ground, and the novelist suddenly remembers that it is a hat. She asks the old man if he remembers, but he seems confused. Later, she confides to the old man that she is going to continue writing novels, even though she doesn't know if she'll be able to. The old man tells her that even though he has been listening to the music box every day, all he hears is strange sounds, and his memories aren't coming back.
The novelist finds a new job at a trading company that sells spices, as a typist. She reacts to the word typist, and feels it has some significance, which she doesn't understand until she rereads her manuscript, which she could no longer glean any meaning from, but was about a typist. She tries to continue to write stories, and tries to keep reading her manuscript to understand it, but can't make any sense of it. It's just meaningless words on a page to her. R keeps encouraging her to keep trying. The novelist visits the old man, and he asks if she is in love with R, and she admits that she is. Then, there is an earthquake.
When the earthquake is finished, the novelist sees the dog, Don, hiding under the couch, scared but fine. But the old man is trapped under the fallen dish cabinet. The novelist tries to get him out, but he insists that she leaves him and heads to high ground, because a tsunami will arrive soon. The novelist refuses to leave him, and works to lever the cabinet up to free the old man. The novelist, the old man, and Don flee to high ground. When they get somewhere safe, the novelist notices blood coming from the old man's ear. But then they see the approaching tsunami. When it is over, the novelist notices that the old man brought the music box with him, and asks why he brought it. He isn't sure how he ended up grabbing it. As soon as it is safe, they rush back to the novelist's house to make sure R is okay. R is fine, but the trap door is warped stuck from the earthquake and the power is out, so he is trapped in the pitch dark. The novelist goes out in search of a tool to get the trap door open again, and they pry it open.
The town never recovered from the disaster, as there weren't enough materials to do repairs. The Memory Police seemed to be hauling even more people away. The old man, who previously lived on the ferry, moved into the novelist's house. He helps the novelist clean up her house after the disaster. While cleaning, they find some mysterious objects that they can't identify, that seem to have come out of the novelist's mother's statues that had been broken in the earthquake. The old man's arms start to shake and he can't control them, but he claims he is fine. They take the objects to R, who asks if her mother made other sculptures after she got her summons from the Memory Police. The novelist says she isn't sure, but if there are any more sculptures, they are in a cabin up the river, which must be a ruin by now. R tells her what all the objects are and seems a bit frustrated that she remembers nothing no matter how hard she tries to.
The novelist decides to visit her mother's cabin with the old man in search of any other sculptures that might be hiding secret items. The cabin has all but fallen down and it is overgrown. There's even a decaying corpse of a cat inside. They find many sculptures, and fill their backpacks and suitcase with them. When they get back to the train station, there is a long line and people are nervous— the Memory Police are checking the bags. They avoid being searched when a woman behind them faints, leading to the officers ushering everyone else ahead to the train. They get home safely, and look for something to eat. The old man struggles to use his fork, as if his arms aren't working right. He claims he is just tired.
They break open the statues and bring the artifacts to R, who is very eager to see them. This raises R's spirits. A few weeks pass without major incident. One day, the novelist is walking Don when she runs into the old man on the hill. She sits with him and talks for a while. When the sun starts to set, the novelist suggests they go home, but the old man tells her he has one more stop to make and she should go on ahead. It would be the last time the novelist saw the old man alive.
That evening, the novelist receives a call from the hospital telling her the old man collapsed in the street. She goes to the hospital, but he has already died, apparently of an intracranial hemorrhage. The novelist remembers how he had been bleeding from his ear after the earthquake, and how he had trouble with his arms. There is a funeral, and now the novelist only has R and Don to keep her company. The novelist begins to write, and though they are just strings of story-less sentences, she at least manages to write down words. Then, there is a disappearance. The novelist struggles to figure out what it is, exactly, that has gone missing, but eventually determines that it is her left leg. She drags her disappeared leg down the stairs and into the street, where the neighbours have gathered, confused at such a disappearance. They worry about how they will get rid of them. But when they see the Memory Police with their left legs still attached, they are put at ease, knowing they would get to keep their disappeared limbs. Even Don's left hind leg had disappeared.
Everyone gets used to not having a left leg. They adapt to it. But now even more people are being taken away by the Memory Police, because people who remembered couldn't imitate the others' new sense of balance, making them easy to spot. When everyone's right arms disappear, they are less bothered than when their legs disappeared. They knew this would happen again sooner or later. The novelist tells R that she will disappear bit by bit, and what will happen when there's nothing left? She knows the end is coming. She is afraid because she doesn't want to leave R all alone.
The novelist manages to write more of her story about the typist. R was right— it had come back to her a little bit. The novelist wonders if the story will remain after she disappears. Then, their entire bodies disappear, but nobody is very upset. Every part of the novelist slowly disappears— the hand that wrote the story, her eyes, her cheeks, until nothing is left but her voice. The island was now filled with aimlessly drifting voices. The novelist tells R that even after she is gone, he must take care of the room, and keep her memory. She says goodbye. R climbs out of the hidden room, and the novelist disappears.
Thoughts - Spoilers!
The Memory Police is a short book, but it is very slow paced. There's kind of a dream like feel to reading it. The main characters' lack of names and the slow pace of the book, along with the interludes where we read the novelist's work all work together to make this book feel like a dream, and make the island feel like one too.
I don't go into it in my plot summary but we get to read the novelist's story about the typist at numerous points throughout the book. The typist falls in love with her typing teacher, but she loses her voice, and can only communicate through a typewriter. But when the typewriter breaks, her lover refuses to fix it, instead locking her in the bell tower of the building he teaches in, in a room full of other broken typewriters. It seems to be a metaphor for what happens on the island, whether the novelist is aware of it or not. Something about having things taken away from you, and being trapped.
This book is strange, but it's really interesting. And despite the characters not even having names for the most part, you get attached to them. My heart hurt when the old man died. And it was sad when everyone disappeared at the end. The mystery of why things disappear and what the Memory Police really were remains a mystery, and I think it's better left that way. I like being left to wonder.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys dystopian fiction. It's deeply atmospheric, and I think it is definitely one of the more unique dystopian novels out there.
