- Date published: July 2016
- Date read: August 2023
- Format read: Kindle
- Why I wanted to read this book: Convenience Store Woman has been popular in the book world for a while, arguably attaining icon status! I have been interested in reading it for years, but for no good reason, just never got around to getting a copy. Now with an upcoming trip to Japan, I knew the time had come to finally read this book.
My review:
I’ll cut to the chase. I LOVED this book. In fact, it’s my first 5-star read in the last couple of months!
With how popular this book is and how much I’ve heard about it the last few years, I was expecting to like it, but not necessarily love it. But somehow, it just really worked for me. I was captivated from beginning to end by Sayaka Murata’s story and dialogue, and I loved the protagonist Keiko. I really liked Ginny Tapley Takemori’s translation from Japanese to English.
The premise of the book is that Keiko is a 36-year-old woman in Tokyo who has been working in the same convenience store for 18 years. Keiko loves her job and is great at it, but no one in her life understands why she is not interested in finding a “better” job, or in finding a romantic partner and getting married.
I was captured and delighted from the first few pages, where Keiko is having a typical day of work at the convenience store. She is perfectly attuned to the needs of the convenience store and its customers, and able to anticipate things before they happen or adjust quickly to changing situations. I found the descriptions of her thought process as she works the till serving customers so satisfying.
Also, the descriptions of the food in the convenience store had me drooling. I want those rice balls and cold barley tea.
Keiko has always known she was a bit different ever since she was young. She often doesn’t have the same emotional reactions as other people, and has no personal interest in conforming to society’s expectations of career growth or marriage. But in reading this, I thought Keiko was a very smart and perceptive of other people’s thoughts and emotions, even if she couldn’t relate to them.
As the book goes on, we clearly see that although Keiko is happy with her life, her family, friends, and coworkers are baffled by her. None of them understand why she is content to stay at this job, and why she has no interest in seeking a partner. Some of the people in Keiko’s life are well meaning and others are less so, but absolutely none of them understand or accept her.
This book explores the society’s narrow expectations of people and how we treat those who decided to veer off society’s beaten path. Murata’s writing is humorous and amusing but tackles serious subject matter and makes strong statements.
I was happy that this book managed to surprise me with certain storylines and kept me on my toes, even though I thought I’d already heard so much about it.
Convenience Store Woman was worth all the hype for me. I loved it even more than I expected. It is one that I’ll be recommending enthusiastically from now on to those that love quirky female protagonists, Japanese fiction and culture, and novels with feminist (but not heavy handed) social commentary.
My rating:
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ (5 out of 5 stars)
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