Avery’s Reviews > The Memory Police > Status Update

time for a reread :) i just had to after enjoying ogawa’s the housekeeper and the professor!

“‘I remember hearing a saying long ago: ‘Men who start by burning books end by burning other men,’’ I said.”

“‘Your heart is doing everything it can to preserve its existence. No matter how many memories these men take away, they’ll never reduce it to nothing.’”

“In the end, however, it was the old woman’s prediction that turned out to be accurate. No matter how long we waited, spring never came, and we lay buried under the snow along with the ashes of the calendars.” I love the writing in this book so much, the prose is so beautiful yet simple. I can’t quite describe its style.

“I liked the sound of R’s voice through the makeshift speakers. Like a spring bubbling up from far below me. As it traversed the long rubber tube between the two funnels, all unnecessary sounds faded away, leaving only the soft, transparent liquid of his voice. I pressed my ear against the funnel, unwilling to waste even a single drop.” Such beautiful prose!

“Nor did the secret we harbored escape the influence of the island’s oppressive atmosphere. One day, out of the blue, the old man was taken by the Memory Police.” NOOO NOT THE OLD MAN

“Time is a great healer. It just flows on all of its own accord.”