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.

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!!!)

Based on this cover, and the fact that it's a Japanese novel (does this count as a light novel?), I expected something that was a pleasant slice of live piece or a surreal magical realism story. It was neither of those. It starts pleasantly enough but then unfolds into a story of what seemed like a case of undiagnosed autism, or just plain old social awkwardness finding their niche in a corporate handbook and meeting the Japanese equivalent of an MRA loser. Not the most inspiring thing, but this is what happens, I suppose, when you write a quirky story with relatively unlikable characters. At the core of what the characters rail against or try to comply to is that yes, Japanese society has certain expectations that one cannot escape.

Keiko is different. When she was a child and the other kids found a dead bird and wanted to have a funeral for it, she suggested that they take it home and cook it. At 36 years old, she has lived alone and worked part-time in a convenience store for 18 years. Can she ever conform to what society wants a woman to be? Is having a man in her life, even a parasitic loser, better than living alone? Will she ever fit in? Does she even want to? A reflection on society’s expectations, particularly of women, this novel, translated from Japanese, is undoubtedly one of the most unusual and thought-provoking books I have ever read.

Keiko Furukura is an unusual character.

Really, she's almost sociopathic at times. She truly has no idea how to behave as a social human being. She only knows that she makes people supremely uncomfortable. She's not completely cold - she doesn't want others to be uncomfortable and she wants to blend in, so she becomes a mimic.

She mimics the way people dress, laugh, and talk - all in an effort to disguise herself as being just like everyone else. However, she laughs a little to hard. Her demonstration of anger she doesn't really feel (but thinks it may suit an occasion) - over the top and exaggerated.

Her most successful mask? That of the convenience store woman.

In the confines of the store, Furukura is the perfect mimic. Her voice is at the right tone. Her smile just right. Her nails, her purse, everything is simply perfect.

And she's content.

But Furukura realizes that people still find her odd because at her age, she is supposed to have a man. So just like she arranges her clothes, voice, and hair into a perfect mimicry, she arranges this...and it isn't at all what she thinks it will be like.

In this odd little book, author Sayaka Murata looks at the roles played by both women and men in modern Japanese society...and forces us to look at the roles we play in our everyday lives. Are you the perfect office worker? The perfect parent? And how much of it is real and how much just our own form of mimicry.

The book is both ephemeral and horrifying. Expect that some moments will be shocking and others strictly bizarre, but it's a wonderful read.

This one just didn’t work for me. A third of the way into it and this story is a detailed study of the Japanese convenience store. Didn’t finish this one.

This is such a strange and unexpected little book. It’s focus is a an awkward 36 year old woman who works at a convenience store while trying to perfect an outward appearance of normality. Murata’s book delves deeply into issues of societal and gender expectations and the people who don’t fit into that mold. I was surprisingly pleased with this book and it’s strange “happy ending”.

Could You Scream A Little More Quietly, Please?

Many of the Japanese books I've read in translation follow a similar pattern - they can be mild and rather delicate, making points obliquely and without much fuss. Sometimes they are almost apologetic, and it may be their spare indirection and subtlety that makes them so interesting and enjoyable. Well, this book starts out very much in that style, but then it circles back to a cry of, what? - pain, anguish, stubborn individualism?

The book opens with Keiko. In her thirties, she is unmarried, a virgin, and perfectly content in her all-consuming role as a worker in a convenience store. Keiko, literal-minded, lacking even a scrap of ambition, and totally uninterested in community or social norms, is, if not happy, at least content and satisfied to have her life defined exclusively by her role as a convenience store worker. In one brilliant passage she realizes that every meal she eats is either at or from the store, and every sip of water she drinks is either at or from the store, and for all practical purposes her physical body has been made entirely from the items for sale at the convenience store. She is, literally, the store.

SPOILERS. Keiko's world is shaken up by the arrival of a lazy, angry, confused young man who is happy to blame all of his personal failures on the unreasonable demands of society that one conform to standards of marriage, work, success, and parenting. He plays on Keiko's fear, or suspicion, that maybe she should conform as well, and so insinuates himself into Keiko's life as a sort of "beard". Here's where the book, despite not in any fashion changing its calm and modulated tone, becomes riveting. Will Keiko buckle under to society's expectations; will one of these characters transform into someone different and perhaps grander or lesser? Who really knows what's going on and who is using whom? All becomes clear in an ending that feels like a scream, but before that we are treated to a wide range of withering sketches of the people inside the norm who berate those on the outside. (And all that aside, just as a workplace comedy, which this is for the first half, Keiko's observations about work and interactions with co-workers are just priceless.)

As I say, a far cry from pastel flowers and mild murmurs. This book is witty, insightful, vinegary, and bracing, while always presenting a modest face. Keiko is sort of an idiot-savant of social norms and personal relationships, and she ends up as a fascinating character.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

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.

Keiko's unconventional 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.

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 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.

With Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata delivers insightful commentary on how individuals connect with both their roles as workers and members of their given society.

Loved everything about this. The writing flowed naturally and Furukura was such an interesting character. Over time her realizations were quite alarming, as were those little peeks into the depths of her mind (like how to silence her crying infant nephew).

This book says a lot about how society expects everyone to be and how everyone should not be pigeonholed into certain molds of people.

I would love to read more by this author.

Keiko Furkura has never really fit in anywhere. While attending college she takes a job at a local convenience store. Her family assumes that after she graduates, she’ll move on to a new and exciting career. But 18 years later, Keiko is still working at the same store. Life there is easy, it’s predictable and she doesn’t have to step out of her comfort zone. The fact that she doesn’t have a lot of friends or a boyfriend doesn’t bother her as much as it bothers other people. Then the store gets a new employee, one with “quirks” of his own, and Keiko’s life changes forever. I really liked this quirky little story about happiness vs. society’s expectations, it was a real “feel good” story