Irasshaimase, and welcome to the convenience store life in Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. This is a strange and quirky novel, but efficient and decisive in its opinions about societal norms and pressures, examining how it affects Keiko and those around her. It is up there with the list of strangest novels I’ve read in terms of tone and some dark moments, in addition to sad revelations. It holds up a lense to the world and its expectations, and what effects that has to someone on the outside edge, trying to navigate the path forward.
“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.”
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BLURB:
Meet Keiko.
Keiko is 36 years old. She’s never had a boyfriend, and she’s been working in the same supermarket for eighteen years.
Keiko’s family wishes she’d get a proper job. Her friends wonder why she won’t get married.
But Keiko knows what makes her happy, and she’s not going to let anyone come between her and her convenience store…
REVIEW:
Being in her mid-thirties Keiko’s life is strange and atypical to those around her, causing great concern for her family. She lacks close friendships, lacks a life partner, has only ever worked one job (one she is very good at!) for which is focuses her life around. It causes others great discomfort at her situation, despite Keiko being satisfied herself with her life. She doesn’t know what it means to be normal, so mimics those around her, doing what they want to please and ease their view of her. Despite her strangeness and otherness, she is likeable, and you want to root for her to be happy and find her place.
“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.”
Shiraha was an awful character, but a great representation of parts of society that are in conflict with how Keiko observes her place in the world. It made me angry at one point seeing his influence bring Keiko down, because despite her life not being the world’s ideal, it was working for her. He was lazy, greedy, entitled and grim. But despite his horribleness, his character and relationship with Keiko highlight how the world is okay with Keiko being in a shitty but typical situation, as apposed to being unusual but stable, content and functioning in life.
It’s a short read with not a lot of action, instead focusing on characterisation amongst the mundanities of daily life. Yet the mundane is made compelling through the perceptive examination of them in relation to society and its place within it. The convenience store is transformed into a new, safe world, ordered and right. I’ll admit, our convenience stores in Australia are nothing like the way they are described in this book. If Japan truly has stores like this, I can imagine they are very fine indeed.
Reading this book it hit me the most how much society pressures us to always be progressing. And when you don’t, when you step off that trajectory by choice or circumstance, you are looked down upon. We have an obsession that a person must always be seeking the next bigger, better thing. Better job, better partner, more children, bigger house, the list goes on. Keiko doesn’t subscribe to that. She takes pride in her identity as a convenience store worker. It is a symptom of capitalism I think that we have such a harsh attitude to anyone who finds a space to exist in but doesn’t fit expectations.
This leads into the other major issue the book touches on. As a society we tell people to always move onto bigger and better jobs and earn more and more money. But if everyone were to do that, who would be left doing the jobs you don’t want to do but want to enjoy the services of? Shiraha’s character represents this. He thinks it is awful to work in a convenience store at their age, that the work is beneath him, that they should do better, work elsewhere. But Keiko takes care and respect for the work she does, recognising the place it holds in the lives of her customers.
“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.”
Convenience Store Woman was a fascinating yet sad read that highlighted frustrating aspects of society and how we treat people. The straightforward writing of Keiko’s character was refreshing. The commentary clear and loud. It examines what it means to be different and how to find acceptance. Odd but short, it is well worth reading.
Until next time,
Rating: 4 Stars
Genre: Fiction – Japanese Translation
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