Book review: The Memory Police

Posted on August 5, 2019 by WordsAndPeace

The Memory Police
by Yōko Ogawa
Translated from the Japanese by
Stephen Snyder
Penguin/Harvill Secker
08/15/2019
密やかな結晶
was first published in 1994
Science Fiction/Dystopia
Japanese Literature
288 pages
Goodreads

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I have enjoyed a lot The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa. The Memory Police, her latest novel to be available in English, is in the dystopia genre, so I thought I would try it.

The main idea of the book is simple: on this little island, a special police arbitrarily decides that things should disappear, one at a time.

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Book review: Killing Commendatore

Posted on October 23, 2018 by WordsAndPeace

Killing Commendatore

by Haruki Murakami
Knopf Publishing Group
10/09/2018
Genre: Literary fiction
688 pages
Goodreads

***

In just a few days, I devoured this new 680 page novel by Murakami, and I’m still a bit stunned by its beauty, and disappointed I’m done. So far, I kept saying 1Q84 was my favorite by him, but now Killing Commendatore replaces the top place in my chart.
There’s something in Murakami‘s writing (or I should say, in his translator’s, kudos to Philip Gabriel!) that I have not find in any other writer to that extent: I will call it a flow.