sunken lands (gareth rees)

The subtitle of Rees’ waterworld is “A Journey Through Flooded Kingdoms and Lost Worlds”. The author notes how, since his childhood, he has been fascinated by the idea of lost underwater worlds, and in this book, part historical exegesis, part travel guide, part eco-warning, he gets to explore this fascination in more depth. The author skilfully interweaves mythic lore to substantiate his theories about how previous moments in humanity’s history have been impacted by rising sea levels and tsunamis. We are, at the end of the day, the servants of Mother Nature, not her masters, as some from the techno-industrial world would like to believe. Rees ranges across Britain to Italy to the southern states of the USA to make his case and it is a fascinating one. There are times when one longs for his scope to have been less anglo-centric, but there is nevertheless a great deal of scholarship in his integration of mythic history, geological data and gut instinct. 

the memory police (yōko ogawa, tr. stephen snyder)

Several people have brought Ogawa’s novel to my attention. I had anticipated something moderately cute. An unreliable but engaging female narrator, coping with an extraordinary situation, assisted by neutral but sympathetic secondary characters. Set in a world which is removed from ours, but still recognisable and just about plausible. The Memory Police delivers all of this, but then shifts to become one of the more nihilistic texts you might come across. The Memory Police are a totalitarian body who disappear people and objects at will. People flee into hiding to escape them. This much is already reminiscent of Latin American or Arab dictatorships. (On the day of writing there are images of Syrians who have been incarcerated for years finally being released following the fall of Assad.)  The unnamed female narrator, a novelist, takes in her editor, as objects as disparate as flowers and photos are disappeared. The editor clings to his memories. At any point we anticipate that the Memory Police will be confronted, that the world will turn, that the struggle will have been worth it. But what the novel delivers is almost the opposite, in spite of a tsunami and a new ice age. The novel is as mannered as I had imagined it might be, only Ogawa then adds a layer of bleakness that is completely unexpected.