Memory Piece

Lisa Ko’s Memory Piece follows three American women of Chinese heritage who first meet in 1983, aged twelve, and maintain a connection into their seventies in a dystopian near future.
Each of the friends has a lengthy section following the very different directions their lives take. Giselle’s thread follows her career as an artist from her early work through to her reemergence as a reluctant cult figure years after her Disappearance Piece which neatly gave the finger to the art world. Jackie guides us through the development of the internet and its eager, rapacious exploitation by big tech companies, developing her own application for people to record their lives in the way Giselle did with her notebooks. Ellen is the inveterate activist on the fringes of their lives, faced with a bleak dystopia which feels not too far around the corner given the current rise of populism. Tough to keep these three narratives from diverging too far - there was a point in Ellen’s when I wondered if Ko might be losing her way but she brings her characters satisfyingly back together with their final project. Her ambitious novel left me both impressed and with a great deal to think about.

Memory Piece by Lisa Ko is an original and engaging work of literary fiction. The novel spans many decades from the 1980’s to the 2040’s. Beginning in the 1980’s three Asian American teenagers, Giselle, Jackie and Ellen are drawn together through a shared sense of ambition, escape and creativity. As adults living independent lives their ambitions have become harder to achieve. Giselle is a performance trying to navigate an elite social world she hadn’t contended with and create art pieces which will generate discussion and impact. Jackie is a coder in the early years of the internets scope and must deal with its shift towards monetisation and surveillance. And Ellen is a community activist looking to confront New York’s increasing gentrification and policing in her neighbourhood. It is from here the fractured friendships become interwoven and shared as each seeks to define themselves in a fast changing world and strive to impact the communities around them. It is fascinating work of fiction with beautiful, clear prose. It is fast paced read with parts of the novel written from different perspectives and in different styles. I wish the narratives had been more interwoven in the same time periods and that towards the end of the book we had gotten greater detail and writing within the futuristic setting of the 2040’s as it was intriguing. A striking novel that felt both intimate and expansive in its scope 4 Stars ✨.

An interesting, thought-provoking read. I particularly enjoyed the exploration of performance art and the feelings of alienation and guilt when not meeting parental expectations. While I didn't relate to the characters personally, I cared about them and their relationships. The portrayal of urban life in New York City worked very well. The dystopian future ending was an original yet realistic twist.
Thanks to NetGalley and Dialogue Books for an e-ARC.

Memory Piece traces the lives of Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong and Ellen Ng as they grow from teenagers in 1980s America, through the technological and artistic explosions of the 1990s, and onto their old age in a dystopian future of the 2040s .Meeting initially because of their common identity as second generation Asian immigrants to America, their friendship becomes an abiding thread that ties the women together throughout their lives.

The novel explores their individual ambitions and aspirations: Giselle's struggle to create original art from her own life experiences, Jackie's rise through her engagement with the development of computer technology, and Ellen's concerns with environmental issues. While their friendship shifts through time, their lives are always intertwined.

Divided into three main sections, each woman's story is told in turn. The opening section, focusing on GIselle, seemed a little slow to me, but as I became more invested in the women's story, the pace picked up. The final section, in the dystopian future, read like a thriller, as Ellen sought to escape from a Manhattan ruled by a repressive political and policing system, and to reconnect with a freer community outside the enclave.

I'd recommend the book to friends, and as a lecturer in Creative Writing at BA/MA level, to students in an informal way. If relevant to future courses, I would certainly suggest it for inclusion as recommended reading.