Convenience Store Woman
Ratings602
Average rating3.7
I get the point of this book but in the end I just thought it was a little... odd? I did enjoy Keiko's commentary on society and how everyone conforms to the same made-up rules though!
I honestly related to the main character a lot more than I'm comfortable admitting. Sayaka Murata really captured what it's like to feel “disconnected” from society and that's something I haven't come across in a book before.
I enjoyed this book overall, and found Keiko to be surprisingly relatable. It was Shiraha that I found unpleasant and disturbing, and I was glad to be rid of him at the end. The idea of living for something, and finding your place and purpose to the point where it both consumes and fuels you was oddly inspiring, even if the setting was a tad on the depressing side.
Ah! So good! “I don't care what makes you happy, just stop being weird and do something I understand!?”
A celebration of weirdos and misfits. A call to follow your dreams, even if that dream is working at a convenience store.
I loved the representation to what I believe is Asperger's.
Things I loved
- The character being very likeable
- Not a typical story in the book world
Things I didn't like
- I wasn't a fan of the writing
- There were some really slow parts and it's only 4 hrs.
I so needed this happy ending! I was really rooting for Mrs. Furukura. By the end I was cheering. It was wonderful!
An atypical slice of life a out people who don't fit into society, and how society treats them... A very Herzogian story.
After watching Soul, this is the not Disney version of purpose, raison d'être and the whole caboodle. My heart goes unconditionally for the misfits who just want to know how the hell they are supposed to fit, at the same time I'd love for the world to be a place where they just didn't have to. The sheer stupid arrogance of every single soul trying to be the boss of Keiko... arghh! Sometimes I think we don't deserve to be on this planet.
A quick and thoughtful read. I enjoyed this story and I find the main character endearing.
This was a bit of a weird one to rate and categorise for me. It's billed as being ‘darkly comic' but I didn't feel anything like that coming through. It's a tale of a woman who does not fit in and trying to fit in the only ways she knows how. It explores ideas of normalised behaviour within society and how these normalisations can make anyone who doesn't adhere to them feel alien or, in Keiko's example, not human.
She goes from trying to be normal based on what her family and sister want or react to, to people she's known from school, to her colleagues at the convenience store, including Shirara, who also falls outside social norms but is equally no good for Keiko.
This is a story about following your instincts whether or not that makes you appear ‘normal' and ultimately trying to shake off the restrictive expectations that are placed upon us by societal and cultural norms.
Keiko is a well-written, neurodiverse character in a story that does not focus on naming and parading her differences. The author has successfully made a sympathetic character and does an excellent job of telling the story through the eyes of someone who feels out of place and as if they don't understand the world swirling around them. Keiko's slice of normalcy as a ‘Convenience Store Woman' feels tangible and provides an excellent opportunity to explore the difficulties she faces getting on in life.
‘'It is the start of another day, the time when the world wakes up and the cogs of society begin to move. I am one of those cogs, going round and round. I have become a functioning part of the world, rotating in the time of day called morning.''
Keiko has been working in the same convenience store in Tokyo for eighteen years. She is not interested in finding a new job, she doesn't particularly want to hang out with her few acquaintances, and having a family of her own or even a relationship has never crossed her mind. And even though her family loves her, they are afraid she's not going to ‘'make it'' in the ‘'real world''. Whatever that means, anyway. Keiko needs instructions so as not to be ‘'different''. Working in the Hiromachi Station Smile Mart allows her to function under an umbrella of specific patterns of behaviour. When a (disgusting to the core) young man comes to work in the store, he unwittingly provides Keiko with the chance to understand that the problem lies with the others, not herself.
‘'From now on, we existed only in the service of the convenience store.''
Sayaka Murata creates a superb story, set in a vivid urban setting, in the heart of Tokyo. Within the boundaries of the store, we understand that rules dictating what to wear, how to speak, how to smile need to be obeyed. So there is no room for individuality, and there are limited opportunities to advance. And that's fine. Let's face it, most jobs are the same. We can't just walk right into our classrooms, our private practices, our shops, our offices and start dancing naked, screaming profanities. We all wear our ‘'work'' uniform every day, we all obey to job rules, strict or less strict, and this is completely understandable. For me, and for Keiko, the dangerous territory is the world outside, the terrain of obligatory socializing and social rules that have no basis anymore, yet need to be fulfilled. Why? Don't ask me, I don't know. Ask those who enjoy mingling and getting married...
‘'When something was strange, everyone thought they had the right to come stomping in all over your life to figure out why. I found that arrogant and infuriating, not to mention a pain in the neck. Sometimes I even wanted to hit them with a shovel to shut them up, like I did that time in elementary school.''
Keiko is my spirit animal. Enough said.
She is tremendously perceptive. Her observations on people's behaviour and facial expressions are spot on. The insults are constant, coming from ‘'friends'', but Keiko doesn't respond. She doesn't know how. Until she finally lifts her head and strikes back, exhausted by the abominable behaviour of a man who embodies all that is fake, cheap and toxic in the construction of a society where women and men believe they have the right to meddle with one's life just because she doesn't want to ‘'find someone''. This is a society that will cast you out if you're not interested in sex or money. This is a society with an orgasmic fixation on age, motherhood, social status and wealth. This is superficiality in its most extreme, tormenting, tyrannical form. And Keiko sends each one of them to Hell because she can.
Clever and funny, and quite unsettling, even shocking at times, this gem of Japanese Literature is a quirky, yet poignant story of individualism, choice, expectations and a monstrous society. Absolutely wonderful!
‘'No. It's not a matter of whether they permit it or not. It's what I am.''
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
Keiko was odd. Even when she was a child, she was odd. As an adult, she took a job at a convenience store and she stayed there for years and years, and no one stays at a job at a convenience store. She loves her job at the convenience store.
You won't meet a person quite like Keiko and you won't read a story quite like this one.
Okay, this was a weird one and not the usual kind of book I read. I picked it up because it was an interesting synopsis, I saw it on a few book lists, it is on the shorter end so I knew I would be able to get through listening to it (audiobook challenge!), & finally: I miss Japanese convenience stores!!
I liked the audiobook narrator and the way she voiced Keiko I think really gave the character life and made me understand her more. She is a difficult character to connect with, though– but I think that might be the point. I don't want to say too much and ruin the book.... honestly, I'd love to talk with someone about it and examine it – so, I definitely recommend this one for book clubs!
Honestly, give this one a try and keep an open mind.
“Hilarious”? “Quirky”? I only found it rather sad. If I was supposed to find it “exhilaratingly weird and funny”, then that can only be in a mawkish way.
My rating may be unfair, because if this book had not been packaged in such a way that promised so much humour, I would have enjoyed it more as a poignant piece. I didn't think Keiko's outlook was so weird as to make it laughable. I simply felt sorry that everyone wanted to change her.
This was a strange book and yet somehow was weirdly relatable. The protagonist Keiko is someone who doesn't feel ‘normal', but manages to pass as a normal person through her job at a convenience store. At 36 and unmarried, her life revolves around her job and the people who she works with, who she tries to mimic in order to appear more ‘normal'.
Everything is upset when a new pessimistic employee starts at the store and forces Keiko to face her life, her job and how others view her head on.
Her ultimate realization and decision about her life and future was actually surprising and refreshing. It was definitely unexpected and I think I really liked that.
If you've ever felt ‘out of place' or questioned how you ‘fit' into the normal world's expectations, I think you'll enjoy this. It was actually quite thoughtful, even if you don't directly understand Keiko. A short read, it still manages a punch and will have you flipping pages easily.
Definitely a worthwhile read.
Interesantísima novela corta sobre la sociedad y su capacidad de aceptar al diferente.
Do you follow society or go against society and risk being seen as a foreign object? This story provides an interesting take on these questions.
I do like stories about misfits and outsiders finding an unexpected place in the fabric of humanity. Is this story one of those? Yes. And no. I found a great deal of intriguing tension here about what it means to “fit in” to the human fabric. I felt ambivalent but mostly sympathetic to the narrator, who is perhaps best described as a very pro-social sociopath. If someone is very different and didn't get hard-coded with society's operating manual, what are they to do? This contrasts a couple different approaches which enable examinations of ape-derived social norms, capitalism, sexism, and personal freedom.
A quirky sad slim novel, about how we're fitting ourselves into boxes in order to fulfill the norms and expectations society and other people are projecting onto us.
Keiko, the protagonist who clearly registers on the autism spectrum, finds fulfillment in her work as a convenience store clerk. The store's rules and repetitive tasks please her, by giving her life clear guidelines and goals. She copies other people's behavior in order to appear as human and normal as possible. Yet her friends' and sister's expectations of what the life of a woman her age should be like, weigh on her and she approaches it like a puzzle to solve.