Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

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What is it about?

36-year-old Keiko Furukura has been working in a convenience store for 18 years. Perceived as a social misfit by the outside world, her job gives her a sense of purpose.

OK, but what is it really about?

Ever since she was a young girl, Keiko felt like she didn’t belong. When, as a child, she spoke her truth, the adults and other kids around her made her feel like she was different. Only when she starts working at a convenience store, Keiko eventually finds structure - she finally becomes a normal cog in society. But as the years go by and Keiko remains in the same job in the same store, wasting her education and life in the eyes of everyone else around her, she once again struggles with the pressures of living in Japan’s conformist society.

Is it any good?

Convenience stores, or konbini, in Tokyo are such an integral part of my memories as a young adult that the setting of this novel alone was enough to draw me in. Just around the corner from where we lived, there was a MINISTOP, and it was a fixture in my everyday life: I’d buy rice crackers and Cup Noodles there, onigiri and sandwiches, milk tea and lemon-flavored Fanta. Being open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the MINISTOP was a regular stop when I was on my way home after a boozy night out in Roppongi, just to stock up on snacks and fluids for the potential food cravings before going to sleep or the impending hangover the next morning. Convenience stores, usually flooded in neon light, are a beloved fixture in the streets of Tokyo - one simply can’t imagine the city without them.

However, as easily as I remember the MINISTOP close to our Tokyo home as well as the many other stores I have set foot in during my years spent in Japan, I reluctantly have to admit that I hardly can conjure an image of the workers who greeted me with a cheerful Irasshaimase, prepared my crunchy fried chicken to go, or handed me my change at the cashier. This book allowed me to see the convenience store from the perspective of a woman who works there; her dedication to impeccable customer service and everything that comes along with it: from checking the weather report in order to prepare the right food and beverages for the day to anticipating any given customer’s wishes and needs.

The convenience store is Keiko’s whole world. Having felt like an oddball most of her life, she was reborn when she put on her Smile Mart uniform for the first time: there were rules to follow, customers to serve and shelves to fill. The store was her one chance to finally become a part of this well-oiled machine called society. But her sense of liberation only lasts so long: while it is perfectly acceptable as a Japanese woman to be a part-time convenience store worker during college to earn some extra money, it is highly suspicious to keep this very same job for almost two decades; add to that the fact that Keiko is unmarried - she never even had a boyfriend and never had sex - and suddenly her safe space makes her, once again, the odd woman out.

The conflict of holding on to what Keiko knows, loves and excels at compared to what is expected of her makes for a slightly weird, yet intriguing storyline; her deadpan humor when she observes the people around her only adds to the quirkiness of this book. Author Sukaya Murata, who herself used to work in convenience stores for many years, shows a true knack for delivering witty quips, deftly embedding this quirky tale into overall themes she explores: gender roles, capitalism and alienation.

Favorite character?

I admire Keiko’s decision to defy conventional thinking, her sharp observations about norms and normality, her ability to keep cool when family and friends treat her with condescension, or worse, pity. She may be an oddball but that is exactly the reason we keep rooting for her. Or is it perhaps the other way around? Are the “normal” people the strange ones for declaring that anyone who may behave, look or feel different is a misfit and doesn’t belong? I can only say, as long as the oddballs, misfits or however you want to call them, are as quirky and unique as our protagonist Keiko, I’ll take them over normal people any day.

Most memorable quote?

“Anyone who devotes their life to fighting society in order to be free must be pretty sincere about suffering.”

Conclusion?

Besides the fact that this novel was yet another trip down memory lane - oh, what I wouldn’t give to visit a MINISTOP right now and buy all my favorite snacks - it is a peculiar but highly addictive read, and it feels so authentically Japanese that it often made me gasp or nod in recognition. At the same time, it delivers biting social commentary on the pressures of being a middle-aged, single woman in Japan. A feat that couldn’t have been achieved easily, but one that the author masters elegantly.

AT A GLANCE

Title: Convenience Store Woman

Author: Sayaka Murata

Published by: Granta Books (2018)

Pages: 163

Language: English

Katrin Figge