Convenience Store Woman

by Sayaka Murata, Ginny Tapley Takemori (Translator)

Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction ― many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual ― and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It’s almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action…

A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Japan, Japanese Literature, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Adult

163 pages, Paperback

First published July 27, 2016

About the author

Sayaka Murata (in Japanese, 村田 沙耶香) is one of the most exciting up-and-coming writers in Japan today.
She herself still works part time in a convenience store, which gave her the inspiration to write Convenience Store Woman (Konbini Ningen). She debuted in 2003 with Junyu (Breastfeeding), which won the Gunzo Prize for new writers. In 2009 she won the Noma Prize for New Writers with Gin iro no uta (Silver Song), and in 2013 the Mishima Yukio Prize for Shiro-oro no machi no, sono hone no taion no (Of Bones, of Body Heat, of Whitening City). Convenience Store Woman won the 2016 Akutagawa Award. Murata has two short stories published in English (both translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori): "Lover on the Breeze" (Ruptured Fiction(s) of the Earthquake, Waseda Bungaku, 2011) and "A Clean Marriage" (Granta 127: Japan, 2014).

Reviews

[s.penkevich · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Unless I’m cured, normal people will expurgate me.’

In 2020 the “essential worker” became a hot topic of conversation. As the world shut down, the essential worker stocked shelves, collected trash, took temperatures and kept society going. Yet, for all the praise justly bestowed upon them, these are often jobs that are disregarded, looked down upon and don’t provide much of a wage. Sayaka Murata’s hit novel from recent years, Convenience Store Woman is a darkly comic look at the life of--you guessed it--a 36 year old woman working in a convenience store and the many ways she is looked down upon by ‘normal society’. Having surpassed a socially acceptable age for the job and to still be single, Keiko is relegated to the fringes of society despite being a model employee. As someone who is also on the autism spectrum, she often has difficulties navigating what is considered normal, wishing there was a manual to life she could study and master the way she has the store manual. In this slim novel, Murata humorously and effectively skewers society for the inherently ableist and often misogynist undercurrents in socially enforced hierarchies and questions perspectives of normality all while also crafting a touching ode to essential employees who are doing their best despite our lack of care and attention for them.

As someone who worked in retail most of my life, this book really hit me. Keiko instinctively knowing exactly how to organize a display for optimal sales, charting your day around busy periods, picking up difficult hours when others leave, all these things are something I’ve lived and breathed my entire adult life. It’s always a pretty thankless job and something where being good and reliable at it usually becomes a sort of self-punishment when you get tasked with the more difficult shifts and added responsibilities and the verbal thank you’s are never echoed in your paycheck. I adored Keiko, and she certainly reminded me of people I’ve worked with, particularly when I was a manager at a Goodwill for a year. Each scene in the store breathed with life and felt true, an authenticity she was able to capture as Murata was working in a convenience store while writing the book. I could place myself in those back offices and felt deep in my heart the various employee reactions to corporate mottos and extreme instances about greeting each customer. While I’ve never shouted ‘Irasshaimase’, which becomes almost a mantra in the novel, the scenes around it’s use in the novel really rang true within me.

It also makes me think of the way we treat essential workers and make it somehow shameful to be working in a role like this. I remember near a decade ago working at a Barnes & Noble and how often customers would condescend us, usually on a supposed “education” basis (for some reason this came up there more than any other retail job I’ve ever worked) which was always odd to me as almost everyone working there had a degree and several were currently working on a Masters. A few years back I was working as a bartender at a wedding when, after spilling a bottle of wine on myself some drunk father commented to his daughter right in front of me “this is why you go to college so you don’t end up serving people” I had a degree and was currently going for another at the time, but I had to smile and hand them their drinks (this sort of thing is undeniably worse when the employee is a woman or PoC and all the intersectionality). So I really felt it when Keiko comments:

‘When you work in a convenience store, people often look down on you for working there. I find this fascinating, and I like to look them in the face when they do this to me. And as I do so I always think: that’s what a human is.’

This is a novel for the retail clerk, the essential workers, and anyone who has ever been made to feel less simply for working a job. Shoutout to you.

‘So the manual for life already existed. It was just that it was already ingrained in everyone’s heads, and there wasn’t any need to put it in writing.’

Keiko is a really empathetic character. While it is never specifically called out, it would seem that she is on the autism spectrum. Right away she recounts a stories from her childhood where taking a literal approach to something someone says lands her in trouble--such as hearing “stop them” when two boys are fighting and therefor hitting one with a shovel--and describes her confusion in not being able to process why people were upset with her. Her childhood is spent visiting therapist after therapist with them and her family attempting to ‘cure’ her, but for the life of her she can’t figure out what she is doing wrong. Luckily her younger sister is there to help her, with Keiko wanting her to tell her what to do, say, and how to act in social situations. And when she turns 18, she gets a job at the convenience store where she still works 18 years later.

The symmetry of 18 years is a nice metaphor for the dichotomy for Keiko as an employee and Keiko as a social being. Outside the store she is an outsider, while inside she is the star employee. The store does, however, give her an opportunity to observe how the “normal” people act and dress, with Keiko often adopting the mannerisms and clothing styles of coworkers she enjoys best. ‘After all, I absorb the world around me,’ she thinks, ‘and that’s changing all the time.’ As employees come and go, so to does Keiko’s mannerism, which she is embarrassed of when it is pointed out to her. In college I was also someone who absorbed close friend’s personalities, so I found the emphasis on this aspect of Keiko to be rather endearing. Keiko is happy working in the store, but society deems it beneath a woman her age and this push and pull between doing what makes her happy and doing what society deems acceptable begins to pull her apart.

The store starts to appear as a microcosm of the world for her. When new employee, Shiraha, shrugs off work, refuses to listen to his female coworkers and complains constantly (we all know this guy), Keiko asks him ‘Um, you do realize you’ll be fixed?’ Keiko sees employees all as cells in the body of the store, and the defective or sickly ones are discarded and replaced. Such is the way of a store. She accepts that her pay is solely to keep her alive enough to keep working and is constantly aware of her need to stay healthy ‘for the store.’ While this subtly points to how jobs don’t provide a living wage and keep employees trapped in the lower classes, it also makes her realize that she too will eventually be replaced.

When you do physical labor, you end up being no longer useful when your physical condition deteriorates. However hard I work, however dependable I am, when my body grows old then no doubt I too will be a worn-out part, ready to be replaced, no longer of any use to the convenience store.

The extreme ableism in a work culture such as this is perpetuating a class of ‘undesirables’ and outsiders. Keiko notes that this is how social life is too, and while she may still be a star employee, in her social life she is constantly exposed as ‘not normal’ and criticized openly for it. Keiko has no interest in sexual relations--shoutout to anyone who is ace, you are valid and I support you--yet constantly told ‘deep down you must be getting desperate.’ To be an outsider, Keiko finds, is also to be bombarded with opinions on how you should live your life and to be always making excuses for yourself instead of able to just embrace your own being. ‘The normal world has no room for exceptions and always quietly eliminates foreign objects,’ she thinks, despairing, ‘anyone who is lacking is disposed of.’ This is, understandably, a difficult impasse of an existential crisis, particularly for one who wants to just be themself and work their job with pride.

‘The specific form of what is considered an “ordinary person” had been there all along, unchanged since prehistoric times I finally realized.’

This perspective is only amplified when Keiko converses with Shiraha who spends all his time ranting about how society discards the outsiders. Shiraha is obsessed with his theory of tribalism and that humans haven’t changed ‘since the Stone Age’ of discarding the weak and outsiders. While he isn’t exactly wrong about society being oppressive, Keiko concedes, he himself is part of the problem (one of my favorite scenes in The Big Lebowski is Jeff Bridges saying ‘You’re not wrong, Walter, you’re just an asshole”) as he reinforces misogyny and he doesn’t want to dismantle the oppressive structures but instead climb them to be an oppressor. Shiraha is essentially an Incel with his combination of sexual predator nature combined with a massive victim complex and is fired after harassing woman employees and then stalking a woman customer. He himself says he only got a job he considers beneath him to meet women. Like a Jordan Peterson fanatic, he views all of life as a masculine hierarchy set against him where the strong men get the spoils and men like him are oppressed, while also claiming women have ‘a cushy time of it’ and regards them only as sexual objects to be obtained for social clout. He goes so far as to compare being an outsider among men as being raped.

I considered him one step short of being a sex offender, but here he was likening his own suffering to sexual assault without sparing a thought for all the trouble he’d caused for women store workers and customers. He seemed to have this odd circuitry in his mind that allowed him to see himself only as the victim and never the perpetrator…

This description tracks with philosopher Kate Manne’s analysis on Incel behavior as men ‘looking for an unjust hierarchy to locate themselves on, thereby vindicating their preexisting feelings of inferiority and aggrieved resentment...a post hoc rationalization for an extant, and unwarranted, sense of victimhood.’

Despite Shiraha’s completely repulsive behavior and personality, Keiko sees how he may be useful. She can keep him ‘hidden from society’ in her apartment because having a man live there will raise her ‘normalcy’ in other’s eyes. ‘It appears that if a man and a woman are alone in an apartment together, people’s imaginations run wild and they’re satisfied regardless of the reality,’ she says. Because he is homeless, Shiraha agrees (though adding that he wouldn’t sleep with her because she is so beneath him like the scumbag Incel he is).

‘She's far happier thinking her sister is normal, even if she has a lot of problems, than she is having an abnormal sister for whom everything is fine.’

Here we see how social norms are a frail playacting. ‘I was beginning to lose track of what “society” actually was,’ she thinks, ‘ I even had the feeling it was all an illusion.’ What is sad is how once she has penetrated the illusion, her perceptions on everyone around her crumbles as does her world. The people she respects at work are revealed as gossips more interested in social interaction than doing a job, which is devastating to her, and her plans go inevitably awry. However, I found the conclusion of the novel to be hopeful and empowering, especially as it validates essential workers as being something to be proud of.

All in all, Sayaka Murata has crafted a brilliant little gem that quickly cuts to the heart of society and exposes normality and social hierarchy as a mere facade for oppression. This is one for the outsiders, the “losers” (as Shiraha is quick to call people), those making ends meet while rightfully believing they are still dignified. It is deeply and darkly comical but is written with such an earnest and light touch that it reverberates in your soul like the sun breaking through the clouds as you step out of work. Poignant, hopeful and empowering, Convenience Store Woman is a winner.

4.5/5

‘I wished I was back in the convenience store where I was valued as a working member of staff and things weren’t as complicated as this. Once we donned our uniforms, we were all equals regardless of gender, age, or nationality— all simply store workers.’

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Keiko has worked at the convenience store her entire adult life. But as she nears 40, the pressure to find a “real” job or get married is mounting – what sort of life awaits Keiko outside the comfort zone of the store and will she step out to meet it?

I feel like there’s a good novel somewhere in Convenience Store Woman but Sayaka Murata didn’t realise it. Her commentary on conformist society and the individual is inane and unoriginal though far worse is her muddled placement of the main character within that commentary.

It’s never explicitly stated but Keiko is obviously autistic. She doesn’t understand human behaviour, talks repeatedly about the mask/disguise she wears and takes her cues from her peers, mimicking their body language, speech patterns and dress to pass as “normal” – not that she cares all that much about being “normal” but she feels life is easier if that’s how people perceive her. She comes off as robotic and unemotional. She has no interest in sex or relationships in general. She works, thinks and lives mechanically. She even has her sister come up with lines for her to repeat in social situations to seem like a “normal” person.

She’s practical to a fault. An anecdote from her childhood (which also shows that her behaviour is not the result of working in a convenience store): two boys are fighting in the schoolyard, someone calls to break them up, so Keiko grabs a shovel and smacks one of the boys on the head, nearly killing him. She doesn’t understand – she broke up the fight didn’t she? Later on, her sister’s baby is crying and she briefly thinks that she knows a way to permanently stop it making noise and stressing her sister out. There’s no malice behind the thought of killing a baby, she’s just thinking practically without understanding appropriate social behaviour (though she knows enough not to act on it).

So I would definitely say that Keiko’s autistic, or at the very least somewhere on the spectrum. Not that anything’s wrong with that of course - but then what’s the novel’s point? Murata seems to be critical of a conformist society where certain jobs relegate people to cogs within a machine – dehumanised, essentially – in a society with far too rigidly-defined roles with no room for individual expression, leading to unsatisfied lives.

Except Keiko is happy to be a cog in a machine because of the way her brain is wired. And it wasn’t society that did this to her, she was simply born this way. She fully embraces the role of convenience store worker, as it’s clearly defined and therefore understandable. She could do without societal rules with its grounding in complex human behaviour, which she’s never understood.

Her character arc is non-existent. She knows her place in the world and she’s satisfied with it. She starts and ends as a convenience store worker. Something happens ��� which was completely arbitrary and never explained - along the way that takes her out of that setting but it only confirms her contentment with her lot in life and puts her back where she started. Is the point then that society should accept that some people are fine with/don’t care about “low” status? Or that the rules should be different for someone who’s autistic/on the spectrum, who clearly can’t handle/doesn’t want the complexities that come with more traditional ideas of success – high paying jobs, lots of material possessions, families, etc.?

I found Convenience Store Woman underwhelming as its ultimate message – you’ve got one life to live, it’s yours, don’t waste any time worrying about what other people think and live it the way you want – isn’t just a mundane, obvious observation but is something I took to heart years ago and I think is how most people live anyway. At least that’s what I took the meaning to be seeing as Keiko affirms her place in the world, regardless of what people think, and is more than ok with it. Unless it’s meant to be tragic as she tried and failed to “climb the social ladder” by getting a new job? But if she’s autistic, then she probably wouldn’t be able to handle anything else so isn’t she already doing the best that she can?

And that’s why I don’t think the conformity critique – if that was what Murata was going for – works well alongside an autistic character. Because conformity, regularity, mindless, repetitive labour, etc. actually fits an autistic person who can’t handle change. Maybe that message would’ve been more effective if Keiko had started out as a girl with hopes and dreams for a fulfilling career, a nice house, a husband and kids, and ended up a single convenience store worker. Except the novel is actually about how someone found their place in life right out of high school and has continued to be happy with it; it’s everyone else who has a problem with that.

So the novel is about a character who doesn’t change, a society that doesn’t change, and how both have found comfort in conformity, and the author’s conclusion to all this is… who knows? At any rate it doesn’t add up to much!

People seem to really dig autistic fictional characters these days – like the gay professor in that wildly successful yet desperately unfunny sitcom, and Don Tillman in Graeme Simsion’s bestselling The Rosie Project – so I can see why this would be popular. And Japanese convenience stores really are incredible. Their food culture is light years ahead of what we have in the west. Convenience store food is delicious and the selections are many and mind-bending – if you ever visit, you’ll be blown away with the treasures inside these ubiquitous shops.

Still, it’s generally a well-written book that’s easy to read and, for a novel mostly set in somewhere as ordinary as a convenience store and its day-to-day machinations, it’s never boring so credit to Sayaka Murata for that. Maybe it’s messaging is more relevant to close-buttoned Japanese society but I wasn’t impressed with it and found it left a confused impression. If it had been clearer and more focused, this would be a decent novel; as it is, it’s a jumbled mess.

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

You learn something new every day.

Maybe sometimes that thing is a life skill, like how to drive, or something classically school-related, like how to speak Spanish.

I do not know how to do either of those things, but I do now know that I apparently like reading about convenience stores and the people who are obsessed with them, thanks to this book.

And that counts as something I learned.

I will now commit a necessary evil and use a word I hate but one that is perfectly able to describe this book: This is very "quirky." It is not quite funny and not quite weird but it is somewhat strange in a pleasant way. And that worked for me.

The themes here, of how silly and restrictive society can be, how the success of a life should be measured by the happiness within it - however atypical the source of that happiness may be - and not by whether someone has met social benchmarks, really worked for me.

Also they hit me at the right time because I am a single 23 year old who is not working in a field she is passionate about, surrounded by people 10-15 years older who are nonstop having babies. It is as if having babies is actually the job, and I have been maliciously fooled.

This also made me wish a time when I lived two doors down from a 7/11, which is not something I have specifically missed before (due to the fact that things like "being followed" and "being addressed against my will" were constantly happening to me within the confines of that store), but I am constantly to some degree missing that phase of my life so it adds up.

Anyway. This was nice and I immediately bought a copy of it so I can own it.

Bottom line: Life is bizarre and this book is too! But the former in a kinda bad way and the latter in a good one.

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reread update

currently addicted to watching videos about food you can get at japanese 7/11s, so i medically need to reread this

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pre-review

my 100th book of the year! what a good one.

review to come / 4 stars

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currently-reading update

currently in the opposite of a reading slump, when every book sounds good and you want to read all the time

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

The moment I finished reading this story - I immediately wanted to know everything about the author- Sayaka Murata. WHO IS SHE? I was screaming inside about how WONDERFUL she must be.

This book is a GEM!!!!! Awe-inspiring writing — irresistible—and weirdly outlandish!

My gosh...I had the best laugh when I discovered that ‘our author’ —-one of Japan’s most exciting contemporary writers—[I AGREE,I AGREE] —‘really’ works as a part time employee in a convenience store. Talk about material for inspiration— Sayaka has first hand experience. Cracks me up! I love it!

I love Japanese Literature anyway ....and Sayaka’s storytelling is so marvelous- with humor - complexity of conformity- that I just can’t stop smiling about this slim ADORABLE - but ALSO VERY AFFECTING....( with sad undercurrents)...novel.
Who WOULDN’T enjoy reading this? I can’t imagine anyone not being consumed by it.

What stands out to me about our main character -Keiko (self- acclaimed different )- who has worked in the convenient store for 18 years, watching other university students come and go....and managers come and go....
is how deliciously self aware Keiko is. This girl is ‘not’ stupid.
I felt that even when Keiko copied the styles of fashion - and language
-jargon of others - demonstrating that she ‘could’ blend in—that mostly she was at peace with herself exactly the way she was. There are many ways to look at this story — the illusions about what society calls normal - and our human agreements about what’s considered a successful life or not...etc.

I adore Keiko. I hope the author writes more books about her. I’d love to continue to follow Keiko again. I miss her already. Honestly- I can imagine a dozen stories centered around Keiko!

The other thing that makes this book so special is ‘THE FEELING/THE AURA’ we ‘experience’. A GEM I tell ya, a precious gem! ......leaving us with much to think about!

*HIGHLY RECOMMEND*...it’s a quick treasure of a read!

Thank You Grove Atlantic, Netgalley, and Sayaka Murata ( I’m a new fan!!!)

[Barry Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am somewhat taken aback by the quotes plastered around this novel that reiterate just how funny it is. I have a dangerously weak spot for deadpan humour, but I do have to...worry about those to read Convenience Store Woman and found humour in it. This has to be one of the most relentlessly depressing tales ever put to print. It's practically Dostoyevskian. I'm going to have double my mirtazapine tonight.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick and easy read with an endearing narrator who doesn't fit societal expectations of what an adult "should" be. There were lots of funny deadpan moments (like her constant shade at the incel dude), but ultimately it reflects conformist society and how people impose their ideals for marriage and success onto others. I think due to the simplicity of the story though, it hasn’t stuck with me as much as another book would.

[Roxane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quirky novel about a 36 year old woman who works in a convenience store and cannot conceive herself beyond her job. But this is also about a woman who doesn’t know how to be human in the way others expect her too. At times funny, at times sad, always compelling.

[Federico DN · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irasshaimase!

Keiko Furukura is the perfect convenience store worker. Ever since she read the employee manual she knows exactly what she needs to do, how to behave, what to say, and when. Sadly life doesn’t come with a manual, and Furukura outside of work doesn’t know what to do with her life. Never knowing how to behave, she survives by mimicking others to blend in, but when she meets someone as broken as she is, she is at a loss. Relationships neither come with a manual.

Boy this was weird! A quirky story about the pressures of society, norms, traditions, and how they weight on everyone’s shoulders. A biting critique on job employment, marriage, procreation, and everything that is 'expected' to happen in one’s life, especially in Japan. I didn’t love Furukura, but could certainly relate to some of her struggles. Been there and still am in a way. Fortunately I’ve been blessed with the gift of indifference regarding what people may think of me, yet you still feel the weight sometimes. And man I HATED Shiraha! What an insufferable parasite. Sometimes two wrongs don't make a right.

Weirdest book ever, but wildly original, refreshing, darkly amusing and memorable. Recommendable. Wouldn’t mind being a convenience store worker for a time.

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PERSONAL NOTE :
[2016] [176p] [Fiction] [3.5] [Recommendable] [Sublimely weird]
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¡Irasshaimase!

Keiko Furukura es la perfecta trabajadora de tienda de conveniencia. Desde que leyó el manual del empleado sabe exactamente que tiene que hacer, como comportarse, que decir, y cuando. Lamentablemente la vida no viene con un manual, y Furukura fuera del trabajo no sabe qué hacer con su vida. Sin saber cómo comportase, sobrevive imitando a otros para pasar desapercibida, pero cuando conoce a alguien tan roto como ella, se siente perdida. Las relaciones tampoco vienen con un manual.

¡Vaya que esto fue raro! Una historia muy peculiar sobre las presiones de la sociedad, normas, tradiciones, y como pesan sobre los hombros de todos. Una mordaz crítica sobre la vida laboral, casamiento, procreación, y todo lo que se espera que debe suceder en la vida de uno, especialmente en Japón. No amé a Furukura, pero pude empatizar con varios de sus problemas. Estuve ahí y sigo estando en cierta forma. Afortunadamente fui bendecido con el don de la indiferencia con respecto a lo que la gente puede pensar de mí, pero aun así se siente el peso a veces. ¡Y dios cómo ODIE a Shiraha! Qué parásito insufrible. A veces dos errores no hacen un acierto.

Uno de los libros más raros que leí jamás, pero alocadamente original, refrescante, oscuramente divertido y memorable. Recomendable. No me importaría ser un trabajador de tienda de conveniencia por un tiempo.

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NOTA PERSONAL :
[2016] [176p] [Ficción] [3.5] [Recomendable] [Sublimemente raro]
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[Jim Fonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a popular new book you have probably heard of. It’s short, almost a novella, by a Japanese woman author. The blurbs call it ‘darkly comic.’

Keiko is 36 and she has been working part-time in a convenience store in Tokyo for 18 years. She’s an excellent worker – a dream employee who loves her job – so much so that she even comes in on occasion, unpaid on her time off, to help out. She can’t even help herself from straightening things out in other stores she doesn’t even work in.



Keiko has always had issues – some would say she is mentally challenged or ‘lacks commons sense.’ Ever since she was a child she did things like this: at school her teacher was trying to break up a fight among some boys, so Keiko, wanting to help out, grabs a nearby shovel and hits one of the boys in the head. She doesn’t understand what she did wrong.

Yet she’s quite intelligent, good with numbers, and bright enough to understand how different she is. She thinks: “I still don’t have a clue how to be a normal person outside that manual.” [The store employee manual that she was trained with about how to treat customers and what to what to say in various situations.]

Keiko is socially awkward and has few if any real friends. Her sister gives her lines to repeat by rote when people ask her why she still has a part-time job after all these years or why she has no male friends.

But suddenly she is befriended by a male former employee who was fired for laziness and a bad attitude. He talks her into letting him live in her apartment and she supports him with food and doing his laundry. There’s no sexual relationship -- he’s happy as a clam sitting in her bathtub listening to music all day. He talks her into quitting her job to find a higher paying one and of course she is lost.



A good story with a predictable ending.

Photo of a 7-11 in Tokyo from www.ft.com/__origami/service/image
The author from wantedonline.co.za

[Emily (Books with Emily Fox) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the beginning but I felt like the author could have gone further with the social commentary.

[Justin Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actual heart emojis burst from my aura the whole time I read this book. Hilariously quirky, full of social commentary that’s nothing short of brilliant. Savvy author to deliver a great conclusion just when the premise starts to wane. It’s a 3 hour read that will stay with me forever. Genius!

[Taryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keiko Furukura lives an atypical life. At thirty-six-years-old, she's a virgin and completely disinterested in romantic relationships. She has worked part-time at a Japanese convenience store for eighteen years. Her family was thrilled when she was first employed because they saw it as a sign of her growth as a person. Keiko has always been considered peculiar, but the job helped her finally become an "ordinary person." The convenience store is "a dependable, normal world" where she's valued as an equal amongst her coworkers and receives no scrutiny about her personal life. Best of all, there's a written manual that tells her exactly how she needs to behave! She absorbs the personalities of her coworkers and uses them to construct her own "normal person" identity: "Infecting each other like this is how we maintain ourselves as human." Everyone assumed that the convenience store was just the first step in Keiko's journey to bigger and better things, but she's still in the same spot almost two decades later. The biggest sign of her evolution has become additional evidence of her deficiencies.

I absorb the world around me, and that’s changing all the time. Just as all the water that was in my body last time we met has now been replaced with new water, the things that make up me have changed too.

Keiko's atypical lifestyle causes discomfort for everyone around her. She's such an anomaly! Her family and friends are always trying to fix her, but she feels perfectly fine the way she is. The only thing that causes her discomfort is everyone else's judgment! She has a stockpile of vague prepared answers to defuse awkward situations, but those answers aren't working anymore as she ages. Keiko values her relationships and doesn't want to be cut off from her social groups, so she decides that it might be easier to just meet their demands. She doesn't even have to lie! She announces a life change and everyone fills in the blanks based on the standard story. Sadly, she realizes she never really belonged at all, even with the people she felt the most comfortable. As she takes a single step into normalcy, even her safe places become places of scrutiny.  Succumbing to one societal demand just leads to more expectations. Keiko notices that having a troubled normal life is more acceptable than having a content abnormal life.

“Look, anyone who doesn’t fit in with the village loses any right to privacy. They’ll trample all over you as they please. You either get married and have kids or go hunting and earn money, and anyone who doesn’t contribute to the village in one of these forms is a heretic. And the villagers will come poking their noses into your life as much as they want.”

At 176 pages, this darkly quirky novel is a quick read. Japanese convenience stores sound amazing! I never thought I'd want to visit another country and immediately run to a convenience store! The language is plain and some of the concepts were mentioned repetitively, but I adored Keiko. She has a cold, logical attitude, but I felt so warm towards her (despite some of her darker inclinations)! I really liked the relationship between Keiko and her sister and how it evolved throughout the story. This little novel also tapped into some deep rage! Keiko encounters frequent misogyny throughout the story. Keiko's experiences triggered memories of rude comments I received when I was a romantic late bloomer, during a brief stint at Taco Bell, and while I was pursuing an art degree. Even when I got a great design job right out of college, one of my professors responded, "Oh well! We all have to start somewhere!" Those experiences made me feel extra empathetic towards Keiko. The awkward scenes where Keiko is singled out made me cringe!

The normal world has no room for exceptions and always quietly eliminates foreign objects. Anyone who is lacking is disposed of.
So that’s why I need to be cured. Unless I’m cured, normal people will expurgate me. 
Finally I understood why my family had tried so hard to fix me.

The convenience store mirrors life; the parts change, but the whole stays the same. Perhaps we're still trapped in old-fashioned social paradigms, even though we tend to see ourselves as more evolved than people from past eras. An innate "manual" is passed on to everyone for centuries: get married, have babies, make more money. Anyone who doesn't meet those standards must be persuaded to take the correct path or be ostracised. Of course, even if you meet those standards, there's always something else to obtain. When it comes to making everyone happy, the goalposts are constantly moving! Keiko also notices there's always someone lower in the hierarchy. People who feel attacked find their own people to lash out at. Everyone, even her equals, is vocal about what's wrong with Keiko and what she needs to do to succeed. Will Keiko be able to drown out all the voices and accept her true calling or will she conform to societal demands?

Convenience Store Woman is a strange little book with an interesting protagonist! If you like this book, I think you might also like Nineveh by Henrietta Rose-Innes.

_______________
I received this book for free from Netgalley and Grove Atlantic/Grove Press. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. It will be available June 12, 2018.

[Annet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad I picked this book up at Schiphol airport. Loved this book. Something else. Haven't read anything like it. I guess it is all about what is the expectancy of society of what people are and should be. If you are different, you don't fit in and people simply won't accept. Keiko is a convenience store worker for years. And she seems to really like it and is good at it. But people don't understand and don't accept it. And they don't understand she does not have a boyfriend. Admittedly, she is a bit weird. But she loves her job. What's wrong with that? Do we all have to pursue top career paths? Is it weird when women are not in a relationship? Do women have to become mothers? Those are the questions I got when reading this book. Loved it. So out of the box, yes, indeed, quirky, even surrealistic in atmosphere. And sweet. Great story & food for thought. 4.4. More to follow as usual.

[Nataliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

“At that moment, for the first time ever, I felt I’d become a part in the machine of society. I’ve been reborn, I thought. That day, I actually became a normal cog in society.”

Some may view 18 years spent working in a convenience store next to those who will move on to other jobs pretty soon a failure in life. Add to that being a 36-year-old single and childless woman in Japan - and you can just imagine the pitying whispers of those judging you behind your back. But for Keiko Furukura this seemingly dead-end job represents the essence of life itself, the place where she feels she can successfully imitate being “normal”.

You see, Keiko has always been a bit different from others. Somewhere on autism spectrum, or so it seems, she has not been able to pick it subtle societal cues and arrive at societally acceptable actions (for instance, she logically assumes that to break up a fight the most efficient way is to hit the fighting kids in the head with a shovel, which admittedly works but does not earn her praise). It is only in the store, dressed in a uniform, following a routine and cheerfully repeating memorized customer service phrases that she feels like she blends into supposed “normality”, finally becomes a cog in the machine like everyone else, and forges her identity as the titular Convenience Store Woman. Keiko is excellent at her job, and in the rest of her life she relies on copying the manners and dress of her “normal” colleagues and on exasperated advice from her sister on how to navigate life situations.

“When I first started here, there was a detailed manual that taught me how to be a store worker, and I still don't have a clue how to be a normal person outside that manual.”

All in all, Keiko is satisfied with her life. The issue is that the society isn’t satisfied with letting her go on this way. Society would like for her to be someone else - not single, not childless, not employed in a dead-end job. And if Keiko wants one thing in life it’s to be “cured” just like her family longs for her to be.

“The normal world has no room for exceptions and always quietly eliminates foreign objects. Anyone who is lacking is disposed of.
So that’s why I need to be cured. Unless I’m cured, normal people will expurgate me.
Finally I understood why my family had tried so hard to fix me.”

From glancing at the reviews prior to starting this book, I noted a few references to its dark humor, and the GR book description went even farther in promising “laugh-out-loud moments” — and that’s where I’m taken aback a bit as it wasn’t as much “lol” as “wtf”. To me, there was no humor - just angry seriousness of a woman forced to mold herself into something acceptable to others (and to a point it’s ok - the point that excludes the head/shovel combo) and yet it’s not enough to fit into those rigid norms that have been deemed to be okay.

“She’s far happier thinking her sister is normal, even if she has a lot of problems, than she is having an abnormal sister for whom everything is fine. For her, normality—however messy—is far more comprehensible.”

And to add to that all, she comes across a pathetic self-pitying parasitic guy who’d be labeled an “incel” pretty quickly by anyone even peripherally familiar with the term, who does not mind speechifying to manipulate Keiko while hiding his ineptitude and general awfulness under endless angry rhetoric directed at the society that supposedly oppresses him so much. And yet he still sees himself as vastly superior to Keiko, a woman, despite her being infinitely better than him navigating this weird thing called life.

“I considered him one step short of being a sex offender, but here he was casually likening his own suffering to sexual assault without sparing a thought for all the trouble he’d caused for women store workers and customers. He seemed to have this odd circuitry in his mind that allowed him to see himself only as the victim and never the perpetrator I thought as I watched him.”
————
“Up until now he’d been ranting about people meddling in his life, yet here he was attacking me with the same kinds of reproaches that were making him suffer. His argument was falling apart I thought. Maybe people who thought they were being violated felt a bit better when they attacked other people in the same way.”

If you’ve ever spent any part of your life working retail, you’ll recognize the attitudes Keiko has to put up with over her choice of work and life (I will never forget people who’d be either dismissive or speak with that exaggerated clarity that one puts on when talking to someone presumed stupid when I was helping them in a store in my last year of college, about to head off for my medical training; same people would sometimes advise me to enroll in college so that I could get a better job, assuming that retail was the best I could do). Same if you have no kids, or no partner. It’s not even judgment but that condescending pity that is doled out by those thinking that of course you should aspire to something else than what you are and conform to the expectations without questions. It’s that assumption that you are defective in some way, even if you are doing quite well as far as you are concerned.

So all I want to say at the end of this story is - go be what you are, Keiko, don’t fit your life into someone else’s mold, don’t allow malodorous incels into your place — and don’t bash anyone in the head with a shovel or consider knifing a baby to make it stop crying. You’ll be just fine. You are a convenience store woman, and that is just fine.

Shine on, you crazy diamond, as Pink Floyd would say. Shine on. Because what the hell is “normal” anyway?

4 stars.

“When you work in a convenience store, people often look down on you for working there. I find this fascinating, and I like to look them in the face when they do this to me. And as I do so I always think: that’s what a human is.”

————

Buddy read with Stephen.

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

A conveniently funny, conveniently quirky, not-so- conveniently sad, yet overall close to being a remarkable quick read, by this seemingly great writer. I often bemoan the lack of 'new stories' being published; well, this clever yet simplistically told tale, told in the first person, with a dead pan styled narrative - the tale of sociopathic woman who uses her job in a convenience store as a control mechanism to appear civilised/normal - is all about new story! 18 years into her ultra-self-controlled life, something happens to destabilise her routines! A convenient must-read for all, I kid you not. A convenient and solid 8 out of 12 from me :)

This one's a no-brainer. A book that I think pretty much any fiction reader would like; it is also a very accessible entryway to Japanese fiction for those that haven't tried it. If anything, we need to get Sayaka Murata's nine(!) other books translated into other languages asap!

2023 and 2018 read

[MarilynW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an interesting and different book. Keiko is different, not considered "normal" by friends, family, and co-workers so she tries to mimic what is supposed to be normal, just to keep everybody off her back. She loves her convenience store job, of eighteen years, her head and life hum with the love of her job. It's only when she feels she must change herself even more that she goes too far out of her way to be "normal" and her life falls apart. Yes, everyone else thought her life was meaningless and worthless but it was everything Keiko could want. And then she lets go of what makes her happy and it almost kills her. Thank goodness that Keiko finds herself and what is important to her, in the end.

Thank you to my library for the loan of this book :-)

[Paul Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Britain these things are called corner shops, even if they aren’t on a corner. My local convenience store is really not convenient at all. It’s small and cram full of groceries and all kinds of crap in teetering towers so you can hardly edge your way inside. When you are in if there’s anyone else there it becomes an uncomfortably intimate experience if you try to get past that person to the thing you want. Then there is the owner. He fixes you with a baleful death-glare from the moment the broken bell goes click clack as you shuffle inside. He is expecting you to rob him or shoplift or perhaps just knock down one of these towering piles of crap. When you make it to the fridge and grab the only thing you ever want from this shop (milk) he switches from baleful to mournful in a second and pours on the how can my family hope to survive when all you loathsome creeps only buy milk or a packet of biscuits or a packet of chewing gum? Do you consciously want us to starve to death? Is this your desire? He sighs sorrowfully over your single purchase. Then while cashing up he will begin his monologue which is entitled Why I Hate Running this Corner Shop. (You have to work 26 hours a day and it’s frankly no longer worth it but as he’s being doing this for 28 years now he’s not fit for anything else anyway no one will buy this business, he’s tried selling it, no takers, so this is his living death prison). You will stumble out (over the bags of cat litter by the door expressly put there to trip up the unwary) into the daylight swearing never to go back. But you do, when the milk runs out. It’s convenient.

Corner shops in Japan are not like this, not at all. They have aisles and are well lit and have friendly staff and special promotions which the friendly staff have been told to announce regularly throughout the day in loud but jovial tones : “10% off white chocolate all day today! Thank you for your custom!” with manic big smiles. Actually I’m not sure what’s worse, my miserable corner shop or the enforced Brave New World utopian stores of Japan.

In this teeny novel which I read in one day and still had time to do other things we have an Eleanor Oliphantish mid-30s woman called Keiko who finds she needs the rigid cultlike structure of her stupid dead end job in order to provide an exoskeleton of normality as she was born without the ability to figure out how to be a human being. Eventually though her family decides she has to grow up, get a proper job and get married. That part of normal is not, unfortunately, addressed in the Store Manual and so the fun begins. It’s a sad kind of fun.

But I do like novels I can read so quick that I finish them before I've listed them as "Currently Reading". Tolstoy could have taken a leaf from Sayaka Murata.

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

✒ 4.5 stars 💜

Convenience store woman is strange, absurd, audacious , a bit quirky but definitely a really nice and short read.

I personally think this book is not funny at all. It's dark and depressing. Its a character driven book because the plot events were mundane but that's where author's flair of perceptiveness come into play. It's like she's taking something mundane and making it compelling.

I love Keiko so much like she is sharp, observant, logical, talented and perceptive. It's like she can just exist there and still be likeable. In order to fulfill social expectations she try to absorb the mannerism and speech of people around which we all do. But when we read about it in such a raw manner we all behave like she's different. I connected to her.

I really like how she talks about the store. It puts such vivid image in your head. Her relationship with store was delightful. Like she can perceive events and predict the future events based on weather like which things will sell most today and what will happen next. Nobody appreciates the system because she was just a convenience store woman and not some doctor or lawyer or detective.

Read this book it won't do you any harm. Plus it's short.

[BlackOxford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revolutionary Conformity

The Bob Dylan song ‘You’re Gonna Have to Serve Somebody’ comes to mind when reading this deceptively simple story. In fact, like Dylan’s lyrics, it is a highly sophisticated commentary on the need for human beings to belong to a social group, to have a role, and what happens - good and bad - when they do.

Miss Furukura is acutely aware of the details of human behaviour and speech but she has no emotional reaction to what she experiences. She must learn to fit in by copying from those around her, which she does expertly. She is concerned about her lack of emotional reaction but only because others seem to find it strange. Actually she simply does not make judgments unless necessary. She sometimes does inappropriate or extreme things in unfamiliar situations; but she is also punctilious on following corrections. Mostly she wants to be left alone to follow what she perceives as a happy and rewarding life as a single woman making her way as a shop assistant with no ambition and no serious worries. Except one - Miss Furukura finds the world frightening because it might deprive her of her way of living.

Shiraha is an alienated thirty-something, left behind in the credentials-race. He perceives the world as a jungle in which only the aggressive hunters survive. He is a prototypical Incel - an involuntary virgin who resents women because they prefer aggressive males. He also hates the society which considers him less than normal for not fulfilling his manly role. Shiraha is the inverse personality to Furukura. He is touchy and sensitive and judgmental of everything. But he makes no effort to conform or even to be civilly pleasant. He too wants to be left alone, to hide from the society which He wants to escape; she wants to avoid being ejected.

Remarkably, they each find an apparent solution to normality in the other. By allowing friends, family and co-workers to believe that there is a relationship between them, they suddenly appear to have the same social aspirations and mores as everyone else in Japanese society. They become normal. But instantly normality doesn’t become them. She quits her job; he gets serious about career and bread-winning. He also starts to exhibit Japanese machismo. The relationship between Miss Furukura and Shiraha, meant to be a ruse of convenience, entirely destroys their routine adaptations to the world. They have been absorbed.

The world accepts the couple because it believes that the couple has the same ambitions and problems as they do - children, money, advancement. And, if only briefly, the couple accepts the world in light of this acceptance. Until, that is, Miss Furukura understands that, however she got there, she is what she is - a convenience store woman, and proud of it. Sayonara Shiraha as well as the fears of her past and worries for her future. Maturity has arrived with a bang when you find it’s a necessity to choose well:

You may be rich or poor
You may be blind or lame
Maybe livin' in another Country
Under another name
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When something was strange, everyone thought they had the right to come stomping in all over your life to figure out why."

Convenience Store Woman is about Keiko, who has worked at the same convenience store for 18 years. As she approaches her 40s, she's receiving greater pressure from her friends and family to be “cured", namely, to marry and settle down, and leave her part time job. Keiko, however, is happy in her life.

I savoured this small book. It's simply written and easy to fly through, so I was super careful not to read it all in one sitting. I love Keiko's world. She's very intelligent, adopting the characteristics of her ever revolving co-workers, believing that copying their way of talking and dressing will make her "normal". Keiko is incredibly endearing.

One thing that really stood out for me in this book is that Keiko is genuinely happy. Though everyone around her is telling her that "surely she can't be happy being 36, unmarried, childless and working part time in the same convenience store you worked at when you were 18". But she is, she really is happy. And I loved that. She knows exactly how the store works, and she thrives off that. I think it's a perfect way to show that it doesn't matter what other people say, that if you're happy with what you're doing then do it. Don't listen to other people trying to tell you how to live your life.

What an absolute little Gem of a book. I highly recommend 👌🏻

"After all, I absorb the world around me, and that's changing all the time. Just as all the water that was in my body last time we met has now been replaced with new water, the things that make up me have changed too."

[Greta G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Keiko Furukura is a 36-year old woman who works part-time in a convenience store and lives in an old, tiny apartment. She has never fallen in love and isn’t interested in a sexual relationship.
Although she’s perfectly content with her life and with the daily routine of her job as a store worker, people in her little social circle find her odd and put pressure on her to become more ‘acceptable’ by finding a decent job and by getting married.
Keiko realizes she’s considered a ‘foreign object’, but she doesn’t know how to be more ‘ordinary’ outside of the convenience store ; unlike a convenience store, life has no written manual.
”The convenience store worker mask is the only one I’m fit to wear. So if people don’t accept that, I have no idea what I can do about it.”
To be honest, I didn’t care much about this story. Most of it takes place in the convenience store, and the daily routine of a store isn’t all that interesting. The dialogues were repetitive and it also felt to me that the author tried a little too hard to put her message across, namely non-conformity, diversity is okay.

However Keiko isn’t just a nonconformist, odd or eccentric person. She seemed mentally impaired - possibly autistic - which made the message rather confusing to me. The way I see it, people usually have lower expectations of a mentally impaired person, and would be more than happy if that person has a satisfactory job and is able to live independently, so the message didn’t ring true to me and I agree with Sam Quixote’s statement in his excellent review on the book :
“I feel like there’s a good novel somewhere in ‘Convenience Store Woman’ but Syaka Murata didn’t realise it. Her commentary on conformist society and the individual is inane and unoriginal though far worse is her muddled placement of the main character within that commentary.”

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 quirky stars to Convenience Store Woman! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Keiko was always a little different in her parents’ eyes. When she went to college, she got a job at a local convenience store. She tried her best to fit in by copying the other employees there, from their clothing to their mannerisms. Life passes by, and many years later, Keiko is still working at the convenience store. No one around Keiko is comfortable with her choice to stay there, but she is content...until she tries her best to change.

The messages here about conforming are profound. Poor Keiko goes down the rabbit hole of trying to meet everyone else’s expectations.

This is a short book, an easy read, and there’s a character to try to understand who will probably work her way right into your heart!

Thank you to my Goodreads friend, Taryn, for the recommendation to read Keiko’s story!

Many thanks to Grove Atlantic, the publisher of the most unique and quirky, well-written books, Sayaka Murata, and Netgalley for the copy. Convenience Store Woman will be published on June 12, 2018.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, rounded up (but with MUCH internal turmoil)

I don’t know about you, but I never think about convenience stores. (Except, wait, right now I’m thinking about the fact that 7-11s don’t have bathrooms. How is that convenient I want to know.) Convenience stores are all Cheetos and lottery tickets, in and out in a matter of minutes. Hit the road, jack, head on out to your next stop.

Well, when you read this book, the convenience store is front and center. The customers hit the road lickety-split, like they’re supposed to, but one of the workers, Keiko, is almost a shut-in. Basically she’s married to the store, and the relationship has been going on for 18 years. Or you can think of the convenience store as her addiction, her God. This store, oh this store is her everything. She follows the rules and is obsessed with stocking shelves and creating signs to promote the special of the day. When she’s not in the store, she is thinking about it. She carries the store’s sounds around in her head—all the clicks and clacks that most of us never tune into. To her these sounds are like lullabies. And she feels like she is part of the store:

“When I think that my body is entirely made up of food from this store, I feel like I’m as much a part of the store as the magazine racks or the coffee machine.”

To say the least, Keiko is a weird duck. We get to see a little of her life as a kid, and it confirms that she has been a weirdo forever. It’s a buzz phrase these days, but I’m guessing Keiko is “on the spectrum.”

Keiko is robotic and passive, which made it hard for me to feel much for her. She did entertain me—many of the things she does and thinks are pretty funny. And she fascinated me—I definitely wanted to see what she would do next. In terms of a character study, the book gets an A-plus. Well, I’ll change that to a B, because there are two times when Keiko shows a dark side. One is an action and one is a thought, very brief. I just didn’t buy it. For a few minutes, I wondered whether the book was going to turn into a thriller. I don’t get why the writer went there. We know Keiko is weird. It’s not necessary to throw in an odd trait that doesn’t fit with her personality.

This book is all about conformity. Keiko wants to conform so much that she imitates people’s mannerisms and speech patterns, which becomes comical. Family and friends want her to act normal, and they won’t drop it. They want her to be married and they want her to have a better job. The pressure is on.

The story gets infinitely more interesting when a guy comes into her life. Their relationship is totally bizarro. Keiko and the guy have conversations about conformity, mostly meaning the guy spews his ideas. He’s a little pedantic and the ideas seem sophomoric at times. Also, the ideas are repeated too much. In those cases, the writing seems amateurish.

I loved the originality of the plot and the character and liked that it was told in first-person. It was a kick learning so much about Japanese convenience stores (I wonder if they have restrooms?!), and I loved getting the picture of the work scene there. Of course, I just loved getting a peek at Japanese culture in general. As often happens when I read a book from a different land, I wish I could beam myself up—and in this case, land in Tokyo. I would definitely head for a convenience store. Would I be greeted when I entered, like in Keiko’s store?

This is a fast, entertaining read by a popular Japanese writer. (A cool fact: The writer worked in a convenience store when she wrote this book!) The language is simplistic, which I sometimes liked but sometimes made me crave sophistication. I was going to say this book is lightweight, but actually it’s not because it drills home how society’s expectations affect your life and shows how people treat those who don’t conform.

I’m giving this book 3.5 stars. I’ve been hopping madly back and forth, trying to decide whether to round up or down. Even while writing this review, I’ve changed my mind twice!! For now I’ve settled on rounding up. The book is definitely way more than a meh, and because it’s so original, I don’t think I’ll forget about it. Meanwhile, I can’t believe I’m spending so much time worrying about (and moaning about) a stupid number! I liked the book—just get over it, Debbie!

I’m so sorry I didn’t show the contents of the Joy Jar and Complaint Board in easy-to-read lists, like I usually do. It might have made my rating problem easier! But I’d say the Joy Jar ekes out a win. Although the book isn’t a wow, I would recommend it, especially to those who enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

[Tazmyn-Mei (TeaBooksAndTazmyn)]

If I see one more white person call this book quirky I’m going to lose my shit.

This is a devastating books about a woman who is only 36 and forces herself to be something she is not TO THE POINT OF SUFFERING A DEEP DEPRESSION to fit into society’s norms.

Fuck you Sally Rooney for calling this “weird and funny”. She is fucking autistic and is struggling to get by with every single person in her life judging her and telling her how to live.

And fuck you The Times for saying “Quirky... It could only be Japanese”. THIS BOOK DISSECTS EAST ASIAN SOCIETY’S STANDARDS OF WOMAN. DON’T YOU DARE DEGRADE OUR CULTURE TO NOTHING MORE THAN YOUR MEASLY ENTERTAINMENT.

[EDIT: I have removed my rating because it wasn't reflective of the book as I was so angry about the reviews I'd read. I will probably reread it in the future and give a more accurate rating then <3]

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very strange little book, Convenience Store Woman, is one of those stories that linger in your subconscious. You continue to think about it and ponder its meaning. I think the author is very good at putting herself in a different type of consciousness. The protagonist, Keiko, has never understood people and has trouble fitting into society. She finds her purpose in life when she takes a job at a convenience store. The store's manual gives her instructions on how to behave when greeting customers and in difficult situations. Life finally makes sense to her.

Keiko is a strange person. She doesn't understand relationships, or violence, or why it is not nice to kill a cute little bird or her nephew if he is making noise. She is a sociopath, I think, but she doesn't act on these ideas. She is not malevolent, she just does not comprehend human connection and empathy. For her, the convenience store makes her feel like she has a purpose. If only, we "normals" could feel as purposeful as she does. This is a comic novel, dark comedy, but you are not going to laugh our loud or chuckle, this is more the smile to yourself type of comic novel.

[Stacey B · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.4
Loved this book and believe I have a different take on this story.
For me, this book is a sensitive and fragile story about an innocent woman lacking life experiences but owns the reputation as an outcast.
Keiko recognizes her limitations at the age of 38 as she is pushed out of her comfort zone working the same job at a convenience store for the past eighteen years.
Miss Furukura ( Keiko) has been coached and told by her family since childhood that if she would follow instructions to play the game of being a people person she would fit in. Try as they might, they couldn't mold her or convince her to want to be accepted in their community. It is evident they feel it is a reflection on them, and.. it is also evident "who"has the issue while Keiko continues to refuse their efforts.
At her job, she believes she is needed and truly accepted by her co-workers being safe in her environment.
In reading other reviews on GR's, the words "funny" and "humorous" are used often in many of the descriptions. I saw no humor in the daily life of Keiko and found nothing funny about this story.
What I found was a cast of characters having an absence of empathy while engaging in sarcastic conversations with Keiko, gossiping behind her back that takes advantage of her good nature.
In this respect, Keiko thankfully doesn't recognize bullying or sarcasm as an undercurrent. She has no clue these cruel remarks are meant to be mean spirited- made from adults no less. Nor would she recognize these comments would never be tolerated by anyone or those having fun at her expense.
I was extremely upset that not one person; anyone- with some semblance of empathy would jump in her defense.
My take is the reverse.
If Keiko cannot recognize negative feelings from what is said to her, she misses out on nothing. Lucky her.
There are many who think their own wants and needs are necessary for everyone and so the
"everyone-else's" will never understand or possibly agree that Keiko's choice is to live a life for herself in what makes her consistently happy.

[Antje ❦ · Rating 5 out of 5]

SAYAKA MURATA IS A GENIUS!
I have read "Earthlings" before and loved it, this one was maybe even better. Easily becoming one of my favorite authors.
She writes with such an ease, gives her books so much depth.
It feels like reading something super simple, but once you finish it, you realise just what a gem you have read!
I love books about everyday people and their everyday lives. This is at the same time one of those books and not at all. There is something that makes the protagonist of this novel a misfit. Is it the way she dresses, talks, her workplace? And the more she tries to fit in, those changes only enhance the fact that she's an outcast. Where is the line between normal and crazy and why do we feel entitled to draw it?
Such an amazing read, I ATE IT UP.

[Repellent Boy · Rating 5 out of 5]

¡Vaya gozada de lectura! Todas mis expectativas iban perfectamente encaminadas. Lo primero que tengo que decir es que quizás este libro no va a ser entendible por todo el mundo. Es muy peculiar y es de esos libros que a primeras parece ser sencillo, tanto en su trama, como en la forma de contarla. Sin embargo, esconde en su interior algo mucho más profundo. Si te has sentido alguna vez diferente, poco entendido por los demás y, sobre todo, te ha costado entenderlos a ti, es tu libro.

Keiko es una protagonista atípica y nos irá narrando su día a día en su lugar de trabajo, un konbini. Estos son tiendas abiertas veinticuatro horas donde se puede encontrar todo tipo de artículos. Nada más empezar sabremos que Keiko es una persona diferente, bastante alejada de lo que la sociedad suele considerar <> y se verá constantemente obligada a fingir una personalidad falsa que irá imitando de las personas que la rodean, con la intención de no destacar. El único lugar donde se siente ella y cree encajar es en su puesto de trabajo.

La trama, como os digo, puede parecer sencilla, pero cuenta mucho más de lo que una lectura superficial conseguirá rascar. El libro es una crítica a la sociedad japonesa, y a las pautas marcadas por esta para que un individuo sea considerado como un ciudadano útil y como es rechazado por ella cuando se sale de la media. Y, como no, nuevamente la mujer se lleva la peor parte. Cuestionada por su trabajo, por sus estudios, por su edad, por no ser madre aún, por no estar casada todavía... Como digo es una irónica crítica a la sociedad machista nipona, pero curiosamente, y salvando los elementos culturales propios de cada país, no veo mucha diferencia en estas pautas establecidas socialmente con las de España o el resto de Europa.

Por otra parte, lo sentí como un canto a la libertad de ser difertene ya poder disfrutar de nuestras diferencias, a ser lo que somos y no tener miedo a serlo, ya que si dejamos de serlo aunque solo sea un segundo, nos volvemos vulnerables. Keiko es de esos maravillosos personajes que se van a quedar conmigo para siempre. El libro completo es una cita interminable. ¡Qué maravilla!

[mwana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most popular book I'd never heard of. It popped up on my list of recommendations after I finished reading that ghastly book about poo and "hibernation".

The story follows Keiko, a young girl who grows up into becoming a convenience store woman. When Keiko was young, she didn't understand the basic tenets of... well, life. When she was young she provided very er literal solutions to problems that required nuance. One that had me cackling was

There was also that big commotion soon after I started primary school, when some boys started fighting during the break time. The other kids started wailing, “Get a teacher!” and “Someone stop them!” And so I went to the tool shed, took out a spade, ran over to the unruly boys, and bashed one of them over the head.

Perhaps I am supposed to be horrified but she's technically not wrong. And all the adults around her had to tell her was, "We don't go around hitting people to stop a fight. We can also ignore the fight" But maybe that's the Nairobian in me. Another instance where she made me laugh was a conversation she once had with her mother while at a park

I saw a dead bird in the park. It was small, a pretty blue, and must have been someone’s pet. It lay there with its neck twisted and eyes closed, and the other children were all standing around it crying. One girl started to ask: “What should we—” But before she could finish I snatched it up and ran over to the bench where my mother was chatting with the other mothers. “What’s up, Keiko? Oh! A little bird … where did it come from I wonder?” she said gently, stroking my hair. “The poor thing. Shall we make a grave for it?” “Let’s eat it!” I said.

And I'm sorry, but why couldn't they eat the thing? It was already dead. And if they cooked it really well, there was no risk of salmonella.

Keiko strikes me as the person who needs to be told exactly what to do in "normal" situations or left alone. Aka me but turned up to eleven. I related to Keiko's eccentricities to an alarming degree. The difference is, I don't care to mollify those who question my life choices. Are we paying taxes together? Do I own a share in your oxygen? No? Then mind your business. I remember when an auntie asked me why I am not married yet. I told her I'd hold the wedding on the date of her choice if she was going to pay for everything.

But for Keiko, life isn't that easy. Dismissing those who seem to care about her isn't an option. Keiko wanted to be "cured". At 18, she found a job at the convenience store. The convenience store is considered a stepping stone for people entering the job market, immigrants, housewives etc. At that moment, for the first time ever, I felt I’d become a part in the machine of society. I’ve been reborn, I thought. That day, I actually became a normal cog in society. This makes me sad because I can't tell whether it's conditioning from capitalism (though you could argue that in our hunter gatherer past lives we still had to contribute) or Japanese culture.

The store and its idiosyncrasies and routines became a lifeline, a purpose for Keiko. I still don’t have a clue how to be a normal person outside that manual. It meant everything to her

I think about the transparent glass box that is still stirring with life even in the darkness of night. That pristine aquarium is still operating like clockwork.

If this isn't a subtle take on how work defines us, I don't know what is. (I probably don't. See, I happen to be an imbecile). Keiko won't let you forget the convenience store is her reason for being

The tinkle of the door chime as a customer comes in sounds like church bells to my ears. When I open the door, the brightly lit box awaits me—a dependable, normal world that keeps turning. I have faith in the world inside the light-filled box.

She felt under pressure to be "productive". To be a functioning member of society. People who are considered normal enjoy putting those who aren’t on trial. A woman with a well-paying upwardly mobile job. Or a wife with a few kids on the way. Even the men in her circle chimed in. Usually in Kenya, men don't bother themselves with women's affairs. However, you can see how "out of it" Keiko is when it comes to interacting with the human race. When her sister's baby won't stop crying,

The baby started to cry. My sister hurriedly picked him up and tried to soothe him. What a lot of hassle I thought. I looked at the small knife we’d used to cut the cake still lying there on the table: if it was just a matter of making him quiet, it would be easy enough.

Eventually Keiko gets into an entanglement with former store worker Shiraha where they agree to be each other's shelter from the onslaught of expectations. It doesn't end well. Or maybe it does. Only Keiko could ever tell us. And where the book ends, it's fairly certain that Keiko is a Convenience Store Woman™️ down to her cells. By the author herself, Keiko is a true hero.

According to an interview Murata (which means "friend" in Kikuyu lol) did with the Financial Times, the purpose of the book is to eviscerate three of Japanese society’s most sacred cows: marriage, the workplace and the strained concept of the “normal” life. I would say that's mission accomplished.

EXTRAS

The author's letter to a convenience store.

[luce (in the doldrums & very behind reviews) · Rating 4 out of 5]

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“The normal world has no room for exceptions and always quietly eliminates foreign objects. Anyone who is lacking is disposed of.”

Having read Convenience Store Woman 4 times in 2 years it is safe to say that I find it to be a really ingenious work. Convenience Store Woman's slender size, its genial yet absurd storyline, and its deadpan humor belie just how subversive a novel it is. An easy, if I admit somewhat lazy, description of Convenience Store Woman and its narrator would include words like ‘weird’ & ‘quirky’. Case in point, in my original review for this novel I used words such as bizarre & outlandish when talking about some of Keiko’s thoughts & views…now that I am more familiar with the text however I found her voice and inner monologue to be far more 'normal' then the supposedly 'normal' people around her, people who have painfully constricting worldviews and rarely question why they think or behave in a certain way (mimicking normalcy for normalcy’s sake). But it is Keiko who is labelled ‘abnormal’ & a ‘foreign object’, and routinely othered by the invasive questions and comments made by the ppl in her life (on why she is single, why she doesn’t want to marry or have children, why doesn’t she have a ‘proper’ career, why she reacts 'differently' from others, etc). Murata however allows us to make our own impression of Keiko and shows us how superficial & thought-less the people who brand her ‘abnormal’ are.

Autistic-coded Keiko Furukura is a thirty-six-year-old woman who has been working part-time at the same convenience store for the past eighteen years. While her peers are married and/or have ‘proper’ careers, Keiko is quite content to remain at her convenience store. Other employees have moved on to other jobs, Keiko however has no desire to change (herself or her job). She appeases her school acquaintances and colleagues by emulating their language and behaviours, but she does so not because she actually wants to fit in or due to peer pressure but because she doesn’t want others to question her or the lifestyle she leads (for example that she has never been, nor does she wish to be, in a relationship). I loved that although Keiko is aware of how others see her as ‘odd’, she doesn’t question why that is or believes that there is truly something wrong with her (rather she realizes that it is her society who deems her ‘abnormal’ simply because she is neither interest in pursuing a ‘proper’ career nor does she wish to become a housewife).

Her clipped yet enthusiastic narration manages to both amuse and bewilder. In the very first pages, she recounts a childhood episode in which she asks her mother whether they could grill and eat a dead bird they found in the park, and her recollection manages to be both upbeat yet somewhat uneasy. Despite living in a deeply alienating society, her voice retains a certain optimism that counterbalances her often depressing, ambivalent, or unsettling experiences.

We follow Keiko as she performs the ordinary tasks that make up a shift at the convenience store: welcoming customers, filling shelves, store cleanliness, serving customers at the till...while I personally have hated and still hate doing these kinds of things, Keiko seems to genuinely like and be actually good at her job. That she is happy to be a ‘cog’ in the capitalist machine is certainly disquieting but readers will have a hard time envisioning a future in which Keiko is content not to be a convenience store worker (since being a store worker seems an integral part of her identity). Curiously enough, while the novel clearly has a strong anti-capitalist message, Keiko is by no means Marx’s ‘alienated worker’ as feels deeply satisfied and connected to every aspect of her job.

Through Keiko’s perspective ordinary moments, interactions, conversations and ideas are presented to us in a way that challenges established binaries. While most of the people, with the exception of a misogynistic male colleague who spouts the kind of sh*t you’d expect from an incel or a manosphere enthusiast (he is of the belief that women have it easier today but also reminds keiko that her ‘unmarried’ status and job make her the ‘lowest of the low’). I loved how non-plussed & unruffled Keiko is by his infuriating remarks. I appreciated the reversal of the usual roles (so he is shown to be emotional, with his bursts of anger etc, whereas she is far more unbothered and doesn't take things as personally as he does).

Despite the clarity of her inner monologue, certain facets of Keiko’s character remain unknown to us. This lends the story a peculiar quality, as we don’t always understand why she has certain stances. Nevertheless, we also do come to understand her devotion to the store and her attempts to ‘cure’ herself of her ‘difference’ despite not understanding or believing that she needs ‘curing’ to begin with. In many ways, the store insulates her from a reality that is othered, as it is only at the store that she feels like a ‘person’, even if this ‘person’ is a construct of sorts (as she adopts the mannerisms, styles, way of speaking of her colleagues). She raises some valid points on the way most people imitate each other without realizing, on the dangers of ‘herd mentalities', on the way labels & norms can stifle us, and so forth. Keiko’s voice struck me as irreverent yet lucid, and her observations on Japanese social and gender norms, existing notions of normalcy, and the wide reaches of misogyny were incredibly insightful. Sure, the ‘village’ metaphor was rather on the nose, but I found that it fitted with the story’s playful yet sharp tone. Through the course of Keiko’s narration, Murata emphasized the absurdities of our modern age (in particular today's work culture, social conformism, the pressure Japanese society places on single women, and alienation).
Boasting a snappy prose and a thought-provoking social commentary, Convenience Store Woman makes for a deeply engrossing novel. Keiko’s slightly 'off-kilter' reality is bound to appeal to readers who enjoyed Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer, Hilary Leichter’s Temporary, books by Hiromi Kawakami, or the recently released Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier.