Memory Piece

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NAMED A VOGUE BEST BOOK OF 2024
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY BOOKRIOT, THE MILLIONS, LITHUB AND MORE!

The award-winning author of The Leavers offers a visionary novel of friendship, art, and ambition that asks: What is the value of a meaningful life?

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. 

Moving from the predigital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different from the one they were promised.Praise for Memory Piece:

“A moving, strikingly evocative exploration of New York’s art, tech, and activism scenes across the decades.”–Vogue, “Best Books of 2024”

“Lisa Ko has brought us one of those rare, sumptuous tales of art and friendship that feels both universal and inimitable.”–Elle, “Best (and Most Anticipated) Fiction Books of 2024”

“A moving, sharply observed portrait of friendship and discovering what it means to live a worthwhile life—whether or not it’s anything like what we’d hoped.”–Town & Country, “Most Anticipated Books of Spring”

“Ko’s prose is beautiful and sharp, and her ability to shapeshift through a range of tones makes the novel a pleasure to read. . . a compelling, often chilling and beautifully observant novel about what connects us to, and disconnects us from, each other.” –BookPage

“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.”–Booklist

“Ko spans past, present, and future with the astute story of three Asian American women from the New York City tristate area over the course of their lives…A worthy follow-up to Ko’s striking debut.” –Publishers Weekly

“Wild and wonderful, punk and propulsive, Memory Piece is about three friends growing from girlhood into a sinister new world. It is about authenticity, surveillance, capitalism, queerness, and the internet. It is about—it is—everything.” –Julia Phillips, National Book Award finalist author of The Disappearing Earth

“Evocative and luminous. Ko once again introduces us to people we want to know deeply, then as always, delivers that and beyond. A glorious writer.”—Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award winning author of Red at the Bone

“Remarkable . . . vividly captures the urgency of youth, and becomes a heartbreaking elegy for a communal, almost utopian approach to urban life.” –Rumaan Alam, National Book Award finalist for Leave the World Behind

“Dazzlingly inventive and knowing, Memory Piece is a bold and affecting novel about resistance, solidarity, and friendship.”—Dana Spiotta, National Book Award finalist and author of Eat the Document

“A group portrait of three women who wrest meaning from a world that is closing down around them, Memory Piece is bright with defiance, intelligence, and stubborn love. To spend time with these characters is a gift.” —C Pam Zhang, bestselling author of How Much of These Hills is Gold Lisa Ko is the author of the nationally bestselling novel The Leavers, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Ko’s short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and her essays and nonfiction have been published in The New York Times and The Believer.

1. The novel tells the story of three main characters: Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng. While they each pursue their own creative and professional pursuits, what common threads do you see among them that tie them together as friends? Why do they grow apart later, and what makes them reconnect? Were these shifts in their friendships inevitable?

2. What do you think the book is saying about the roles that friendship and art play in making a meaningful life? What constitutes a meaningful life? Was it different in the eighties or nineties than it is now? How might it be different still in the future?

3. Consider the title. What is it about memory that interests the novel or its characters? Consider how each main character thinks about the concept and qualities and value of memory.

4. The novel emphasizes various modes of communication—letters, photographs, emails, texts, instant messaging applications, phone conversations, and in-person interactions. Did you notice this? What might the book be trying to say about communication, technology, and progress?

5. Race, gender, and class are introduced as integral factors of the characters’ upbringings, including the different countries of origin of their Asian immigrant parents. How might race, gender, and class intersect with one another, and how do these factors affect how you understand the characters’ stories? How much do you think Giselle, Jackie, and Ellen would say their family backgrounds influence their expectations or choices?

6. The characters celebrate the end of the century as the year 2000 begins. What is the effect of pinpointing this particular moment? How does the Y2K culture echo or contrast (and impact how you see) today’s world?

7. The novel explores multiple romantic relationships, some straight and some queer, some casual, some serious, and some blurring the line between romance and friendship. How do the characters grow from each? What do you think the author is saying about the roles that these relationships play in our lives and figuring out who we are?

8. As Jackie invests time in her coding career in the early days of the internet, she encounters societal issues of monetization, including consumer data privacy and data hacking concerns. How do you understand Jackie’s character when she comes face-to-face with such conflicts? How do her values or morals come into play as she is forced to make consequential decisions? How do her career decisions affect her own private life?

9. As a community activist, Ellen bears the burden of tackling the problems of gentrification in her neighborhood. What motivates her to keep building toward a better society? Why do you think she remains attached to her neighborhood and community despite her sense of loneliness and abandonment? How does she treasure family versus friendship?

10. The book is narrated through multiple points of view. How do the overlapping and contradicting outlooks of each character shape your understanding of the book as a whole? For Giselle, Jackie, and Ellen, how do their lifestyles interweave and intercept one another’s? How does it influence your interpretations?

11. The book moves from the pre-digital 1980s well into the mid-2000s. How are these early years portrayed, and how is nostalgia an element that influences/alters the way you view these time periods? Reflect on the story as it moves into the imagined portrait of the 2040s. Consider the setting of New York City and the changes it has continuously witnessed.

12. Success can be measured in many ways. How do Giselle, Jackie, and Ellen define and strive toward success? How do you see these characters’ goals and aspirations materialize, or unfold, throughout the novel?

13. Toward the end, Ellen reflects on her aging body and the moments that have passed by. She thinks to herself: “What would I remember; what would I be remembered for; who would remember me?” (p. 197). How might this quote bring the reader back to the beginning of the book? How might these questions be reminiscent of earlier motifs about creative endeavors, self-preservation, survival, freedom, and collaboration?

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