Convenience Store Woman: A Novel Paperback – September 17, 2019

The main character, Keiko Furukura, is someone whom society would consider a bit abnormal, someone who is misunderstood. We see the author press societal norms and present this through a perspective of Keiko’s different thought processes — she is probably a bit mentally unsound. Keiko finds functioning survival because she takes cues from observing others’ reactions to her behavior and mimics their speech patterns, and uses this gift of observation in her position as a convenience store employee, a job she happened on due to a wrong turning from a train station.She completely embraces the position: meeting the demands of the store, plus keeping herself fit for the job (long hours on her feet) enables her to survive, and this is how she lives — essentially wed to the store. The kicker is that even though societal expectations frown on her being unmarried and stuck in a dead-end job, she’s perfectly happy.There is some “punch” towards the end in which she finds herself challenged to find a different way of supporting herself, but she comes through it beautifully once she realizes that society’s traditional expectations are not for everyone, and that even people living on the fringe have a right to be happy and live their lives as they wish.This book was translated from the Japanese. I found certain passages fascinating in terms of word usage — it was understandable although not exactly how we might say certain things. But this added to its charm.It’s a quick read; I found it difficult to tear myself away. I bought another book by this author and look forward to reading it.

Sayaka Murata’s brief, but to the point Convenience Store Woman took me more places than its 163 pages might promise. It is a very easy read and mostly family friendly admitting to a few ‘bad’ words and some mostly negative sexual suggestions. Then there is what happens when you let your mind delve into the depth of the novella. Highly recommend as a good use of a few hours.At various time I thought I knew the deeper meaning of the book only to realize there was more and more ways to think of it. On the surface we have a mid-thirties, underachieving woman who has failed to be much of what society (Japanese) expects of its friends, family and neighbors. Because she does not conform she is held as a sympathetic figure in need of curing or of suspicion.First stop: This is about a very Japanese middle-class suburban world but it is far more universal than one time and place. Anyone one too long single in most countries is going to garner some amount of suspicion. Try being the too long single Uncle and notice the almost unsaid concerns about you being around children. Listen to how you might speak about people who may not be striving for promotion, who are making do in jobs that appear to be beneath them and others who, on the surface do not seem like ‘us’.Our protagonist and narrator Keiko Furukura is, for the last eighteen years and has only ever been a part time employee of the Smile Mart Convenience Store. We cannot be sure that she is happy there as we can be sure she is using it as a safe place where she knows what she is doing and being who she is expected to be. She has never dated, been married has no children or pets. As far as we know she experiences no sexual interests, habits or even private thoughts. She did not complete her education and lives in polite squalor in a tiny apartment. She has family in the form of a very supportive sister and loving mother.Since her childhood people have wanted to cure her and help her become more like what they think would make her life a happy one. Her supportive sister would be relieved to find her sister dating, or seeking a better job. Everyone with whom Keiko comes into social contact either wants her to not be herself, or to get sufficient explanation to determine if she is a threat.If you read no more deeply than that the book is about the how unfair it is of us (Japanese or not) to expect others to live and believe and aspire as we do. But we also have evidence that Keiko is coldly analytical and not very empathetic. Some would place her on some scale of autistic. This point is deliberately left vague. It is possible to argue that left to her uncontrolled instincts, she would be dangerous. Given another theme of the book, it is an instinctive habit of humans and animals to spend a certain amount of time deciding if a stranger is a threat. This is not just a Japanese thing it is universal.The question of Keiko being happy in the Smile Mart is also subtle. What makes this a natural home for Keiko is that it comes with a written set of instructions. There is a correct time and place for everything. There is a evan a requirement to live outside work in such a way to insure you arrive ready and rested, for work. At some point the reader is expected to realize that living in a society also requires living by certain rules. Keiko ultimately realizes this, but the lack of written instructions is what might have left her coldly analytical personality unable to cope.Late in the short story she meets one of the most unsympathetic, unlikable characters in almost any story. Keiko does not like him, but her analytical mind understands that he is a mirror of herself.The ultimate conflict of this book is the problem or choice Keiko must make between a world of people like herself, or a world of people not like her. This is a very different thought problem for the reader than, why cannot we accept people for what they are.Least you conclude that this is a heavy book, darkly philosophical and cerebral- The story is told with a very light hand. We meet many people that we like. We can share Kieko’s frustrations and her victories. She is an admirable person and her world is one that, for all its lack of fairy tale trappings is one not that different from or hostile towards the one we inhabit.

This quick read gives insight into the pressures of society. The unique perspectives in the book open a lot of conversations. If you're into grounded stories with interesting characters then this book is for you!

A protagonist who struggles to fit into normal society, but embraces her true identity as a convenience store worker by the end

I was very fortunate with my immediate family. I knew from the age of eight that I didn't want to have babies. When I played house with the children across the street, I went to work and my "husband" stayed home with the kids. This feeling never changed, and no one in my immediate family ever tried to get me to "see sense". They were willing to let me be me even if it meant no husband and no babies. For several years in my working life, I supervised dozens of teenagers. Perhaps it was my way with them that made everyone think I was married and had at least six children. Even if it wasn't, at least no one bothered me about my lack of marital status and children; they already "knew" I was married. I was very lucky indeed because I saw many others being harassed by their families to conform.Poor Keiko Furukura was not as fortunate as I. She's spent her entire life being the square peg everyone tries to pound into the round hole. Keiko tends to take everything literally, and when Murata described some incidents in her childhood, they made me laugh-- which has to be another indication that I'm a fellow square peg. Keiko is perfectly happy, but her family insists on her being "cured", on her meeting their expectations for her life.Convenience Store Worker is a little gem of a novella that sucked me right in. I knew that Keiko would bow to her family's pressure, and I hated that. I hoped that she would be strong enough to survive her attempt to please others and that she'd be able to return to being her kind of happy. I can see why Sayaka Murata is such a popular writer in Japan, and I will be looking for more of her work. Now if only more people would abide by her message in Convenience Store Worker: Don't stick your nose in someone else's business. Square pegs do have a place and a purpose in this world.