In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three teenagers drawn together by their shared sense of alienation and desire for something different. "Allied in the weirdest parts of themselves," they envision each other as artistic collaborators and embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity.
By the time they are adults, their dreams are murkier. As a performance artist, Giselle must navigate an elite social world she never conceived of. As a coder thrilled by the internet's early egalitarian promise, Jackie must contend with its more sinister shift toward monetization and surveillance. And as a community activist, Ellen confronts the increasing gentrification and policing overwhelming her New York City neighborhood. Over time their friendship matures and changes, their definitions of success become complicated, and their sense of what matters evolves.
Tor the most part, Ko pulls it off ... Giselle’s section, the first, is strongest. It unfurls elegantly with a hypnotic immediacy, starting with her early teen years ... Jackie’s segment, the second, drags at the outset ... The novel’s end, a denouement that’s unexpected, if a bit scattered and overstuffed. The everything of it all diminishes what could’ve been a more pointed conclusion. But there is much to admire in Memory Piece. The originality. The vastness. The main characters’ depth and breadth.
The documenting of life becomes something precious and worth preserving ... She writes with a cool, collected intelligence and is unafraid to wrangle big ideas ... That said, I did struggle with the gear shift into the extremely bleak 2040s. It’s a stylistic jolt.
