Booklist Reviews
Bored and alone, three Asian American girls stumble upon one other at a Fourth of July barbecue in 1983. As the world proves tough and overbearing, their paths continue to intersect in brief but unforgettable moments. The award-winning author of The Leavers (2017) takes readers through the 1980s to the 2040s in New York, often interweaving art and technology. The first part of the book centers on Giselle Chin, a performance artist who struggles with the harsh expectations of the greater art world as she gains recognition. Then there's the sharp and charismatic Jackie Ong, a pioneer of the dot-com era—until she discovers the dark side of monetization and data collection. Meanwhile, Ellen Ng starts a squat in her community to fight gentrification and policing. But in a bleak future, she wonders if her efforts even matter. The novel serves as an archive of our past and a vision for what's to come, hauntingly beautiful in a way that's both nostalgic and dystopian. In essence, Memory Piece is about the power of remembering, especially when it's painful. Copyright 2024 Booklist Reviews.
Kirkus Reviews
Three girls walk into a bedroom in the New Jersey suburbs in 1983...and many decades later, into a dystopian future. Soon-to-be seventh graders Giselle Chin and Jackie Ong are hiding from a Fourth of July party, making prank calls in the host's bedroom, when Ellen Ng walks in and asks if there's anything else to do for fun around here. The three wander across the street into a parallel gathering and help themselves to someone else's hamburgers. "This was the beginning, what Giselle would describe, years later...as...the SEEDS of our aesthetics...we saw each other for who we were // masked weirdos, undercover pranksters." This ominously pretentious-sounding observation appears in one of the year-long conceptual artworks Giselle eventually becomes famous for: Mall Piece, 1995-96; Memory Piece, 1996-97; and Death Piece, 1999-2000. Meanwhile, Jackie grows up to be a visionary software developer, creating a site where people keep online diaries for public consumption and taking part in New York City's Silicon Alley dot-com boom. Ellen continues her rabble-rousing ways, publishing a zine and then establishing a squat on the Lower East Side. Though they lose track of each other from time to time, the three come to realize that "friendships were circular, that you could never fully lose touch." After moving their stories across the bridge to the new millennium, the narrative leaps ahead to the 2040s, where the political situation has become a nightmare, though not a particularly intriguing one, and supporting characters proliferate while ones we care about fade from view. Though full of interesting action and sharp observation, Ko's follow-up to The Leavers (2017) fails to whip up much narrative tension beyond the mystery created by the photographs that appear from time to time, captioned with complicated archival labels. In the end, the book's elaborate conceptual structure dominates the characters who inhabit it. A socially conscious novel of art and ideas. Copyright Kirkus 2024 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Reviews
Following Ko's National Book Award finalist, PEN/Bellwether—winning
LJ Express Reviews
Ko focuses on three friends who met in the 1980s as part of a network of Asian American families. Raised in New Jersey, Giselle eventually finds international success as a performance artist. Jackie, a computer wiz, enters the dot-com world, makes a fortune, and ends up disenchanted. In her role as a community activist and publisher of zines, Ellen organizes the takeover and rehabilitation of an empty building on the Lower East Side. The novel moves from the 1980s through the early 2000s to a dystopian police state in 2040, which limits access to food, housing, and travel. Throughout the decades, the three women's enduring friendship sustains them as they deal with familial expectations and the pressures of negotiating careers, romantic relationships, and the social and political upheaval around them. Some readers might find that the sections appear disjointed, and historical background occasionally overwhelms the narrative.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Ko (