レビュー要約

• 静かな文体で全体主義的な恐怖を描く点が高く評価されている。派手な説明を避けるため不気味さが持続し、寓話としても記憶と創作の物語としても読まれている。

レビュー

• prescient and contemporary

  It took me almost 2 years to appreciate the insight and prescience of Ogawa Yoko in this story. My first impression was, 'Oh, another version of 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and etc. in a setting of Anne Frank's Diary'. Then, the extraordinarily coercive measures enforced by a number of governments during the pandemic and the subsequent conflicts on a global scale made this seemingly an out-of-touch dystopian story more imminent one to which I can heartily relate. It is a surprise that young Ogawa created this poignant story almost three decades ago when the western world was immersed in a state of euphoria celebrating an open and free society, audaciously declaring 'the End of History' and before the arrival of such words as algorithm, digital ID, disinformation, and virtual reality to average citizens minds. What would happen to your own existence, if your cognitive world is forcibly infiltrated and manipulated by uncontrollable forces? We are now witnessing the answers unfolding in digital sphere when quite a few dissident voices are being banned/cancelled from the platforms for, among other reasons, challenging official narratives. They simply cease to exist in the matrix. With their archives too being taken down, there remains no trace of the very existence in digital world and thereby in minds of other people as well. What else could be more an appropriate title than 'Memory Police' in this age of online censorship? A touch of forlornness of 'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro and helplessness of 'Snow' by Orhan Pamuk. To me, however, this Ogawa's work reflects more philosophical and insightful than those of two Nobel laureates. A monotonous style and slow development of the story may deter non-Japanese readers. I recommend prospective readers to read patiently to the last page.

• The memory police

  平易な英訳で大変読みやすい。今の不安定な時代を予見するようなプロットが興味深い

• excelent

  not so fast delivery but superb condition

• underwhelmed….

  Maybe I’m only shallow… but I didn’t see the point of this book… what’s there so meaningful?!

• 現代の不条理寓話

  独特なのは、一つひとつ物が消失しそれへの忘却が強制されるという不条理世界をただひたすら甘受し続ける島の人々、それに主人公たちの態度だろう。唯一抗うのは、忘却できない人々をかくまうということのみ。かなりひどい不条理な事態でも抗うことなく受け入れていく美しき精神性を持つ日本人、が寓意的に描かれていると見ていいのかと思う。 英文は平易、大学生になって英語の実力を伸ばしたいと思ってる人には、小川洋子作品を英語で読むというのはいいと思う。

• Love it

  It is actually great ,twisted storyline

• very original

  a haunting dystopian tale from the nineties, by an interesting japanese writer

• A Japanese take on totalitarian erasure

  I enjoy dystopian novels, and I also love discovering Japanese authors, so for those two reasons, I picked up The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa. The story intrigued me right away — it’s set on an unnamed island where objects begin to “disappear.” But these aren’t just physical disappearances; they vanish from memory too. Birds, perfume, photographs, hats — once something is declared gone, it becomes meaningless. The island’s residents forget what the object even was. The Memory Police enforce this forgetting, ensuring all remaining traces are destroyed, and punishing those who resist or remember. The unnamed narrator is a young novelist who continues to write even as the world around her slowly erodes. When she discovers that her editor, R, still remembers the disappeared things, she hides him in a secret room in her home to protect him. I won’t say much more about the plot — I think it’s better experienced than explained. I noticed that around 70% of reviews give it four stars or higher, while about 30% rate it lower. I can understand both sides. As for me, I appreciated the themes: the slow erosion of freedom and identity, the effects of individual and collective amnesia, the systematic erasure of culture and society and how memory preserves meaning and love. It’s a quiet kind of dystopia, more emotional than action-driven. Some say the pacing is slow — and it is — but I think it works. Totalitarianism doesn’t always arrive with a bang; it creeps in quietly, and that’s the kind of tension this story captures. The translation reads well, and the writing builds the necessary atmosphere that draws us into the world that the narrator lives in. Overall, I found it enjoyable and also unsettling too — if enjoyed is the right word for something so dystopian. 5/5 for me

• Unique and brilliant

  Thought provoking and unique story about memory, nostalgia, and loss. I wonder if the negative reviews come from people expecting a police procedural, or a Hunger Games style dystopia. Which this is not.

• Muito bom! A luta contra o esquecimento

  Escrito no mesmo estilo calmo, pausado e profundamente lírico de seus outros romances, A Polícia da Memória se passa em uma ilha sem nome dominada por uma polícia secreta que em muito lembra a “Companhia” de José J. Veiga, responsável pelos sumiços de objetos como mapas, rosas, barcos, caixinhas de música, frutas, etc. Esses sumiços, completamente arbitrários e insólitos em sua escolha e execução, já se tornaram parte da rotina dos habitantes da ilha, os quais, ao acordarem e perceberem que um novo objeto desapareceu, se livram deles o mais rápido possível, ajudando os objetivos da polícia. Assim que os objetos são completamente destruídos, todos não demoram para se esquecer de que um dia sequer existiram, e com isso não são capazes de sofrer suas perdas, seguindo suas rotinas diárias sem perceber o que mudou. Porém, há os que não conseguem esquecer, que preservam a memória dos objetos desaparecidos, e por conta disso são perseguidos pela polícia, precisando viver na clandestinidade, em esconderijos ou fingindo não lembrar. A narrativa de A Polícia da Memória acompanha uma romancista cuja mãe foi levada pela polícia e que, após presenciar a truculência com que a polícia busca e sequestra os que conseguem se lembrar, passa a tentar preservar não apenas as pessoas, mas também as memórias que vão desaparecendo ou sendo desaparecidas. Por lidar com a imaginação e o registro do mundo ao seu redor, o ato da escrita toma um papel muito mais central nessa ilha, e não demora para, também, ser visto como uma ameaça pela polícia secreta. Apesar de publicado originalmente no Japão em 1994, A Polícia da Memória somente chegou ao Oeste a partir de 2019, após ser traduzido para o inglês e chamar a atenção da crítica, ficando entre os finalistas do prestigiado International Booker Prize de 2020. E não é de se surpreender que, neste estranho mundo pandêmico da pós-verdade, a leitura do romance de Yoko Ogawa ganha significados e interpretações profundas e inquietantes. Resenha completa aqui: https://porcoespinho.com.br/livros/a-policia-da-memoria-de-yoko-ogawa-nos-alerta-para-os-perigos-do-esquecimento/

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