Very complex and short story, yet powerful one. Magical realism mixed with dash of everything.
Unique read.
When you start reading each page opens more detail creating whole picture at the end.

It was even better than I expected. I will be including it in an upcoming Book Riot piece on most anticipated upcoming titles.

Spare and strange. Many readers will be able to identify with the feeling that their work life is not only repetitive, but without any real purpose. In the end, I felt that some of the themes were not fully developed - I have considered that this was deliberate on the part of the author, though I can't say it meant a satisfying reading experience.

The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada feels like an Orwellian exploration of entities like the Googleplex, Google's massive headquarters. The story follows three different first person narrators who work for "The Factory". Oyamada never reveals what exactly it is the factory produces, but the descriptions of the work reminded me so much of the operations at the Ministries in Orwell's 1984. One character spends his days proofreading documents that are delivered in packets. The packets appear, get corrected, shelved, and then they disappear. He doesn't know who writes these documents or if anything is done with his corrections. It is a distinct task that the individual worker sees no meaning in because he is just one small part of the process. Meanwhile, another character shreds documents, and it seems likely that this is where the results of the proofread work goes. Things are being done, we know how they are done, but we, and the characters, don't know why they are done. There are even colour-coded badge strings to indicate the company hierarchy and nature hikes to promote community.

The Factory explores some interesting ideas about modern corporations. Everyone in this community is somehow linked to the factory, and it is really a town onto itself with businesses like restaurants and dry-cleaning. A person could live at work, and one of the characters does exactly that. The other two characters are contract and temporary staff, and while they keep repeating that they should be thankful to have work, it is clear that they feel unfulfilled and undervalued in their jobs. Even nature is seen to be altered by the factory. There are repeated references to strange birds, and one individual suggests that they are a kind of cormorant found only in the river on the factory's property. The suggestion is that the birds, like the people, can't leave this environment even though it may not be the best place for them.

I really enjoyed the depiction of the factory, and I think overall that this is a brilliant piece of writing. The formatting, though, makes it a very onerous read. There is little to no indication of transitions; the narrative jumps from one character or scene to another with nothing more than a paragraph break. This is disorienting. I think it is an intentional choice to simulate the confusion of the characters as they try to figure out the factory and their purpose, but I'm not sure the effect is worth the strain put on the reader.

Thank you to @netgalley and New Directions for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The Factory is scheduled for release on October 29.

Such a haunting, powerful debut, a very Japanese novella which focuses on the dehumanization and ultimate meaninglessness of corporate life. The story is told in three alternating POVs of workers in a mega-corporation that is slowly taking over their lives; it is not set in any specific city or specific timeline, which gives it surreal, magical realism vibes. There is quite a lot of social commentary packed in these 100 pages, but besides that, it's also wonderfully written and occasionally quite funny. I would definitely recommend it to fans of "Convenience Store Woman" and Hiromi Kawakami.