Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata - Book Review

I picked my diary from the nightstand and the black pen from the penholder carefully so as not to disturb the other elements on the table. I placed them on the study table. I then proceeded to open the diary to the next empty page. The white page sparkles in the wait to be written on it. I opened the lid of my pen and started writing. The words kept pouring on the white page.

Recently, I read the international best-seller "Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata.'' The opening of the book was so animated, I almost laughed. Don't get me wrong, I was hooked. It was a very unique opening to a book and reminded me of anime; how every thought, minute hand gesture/ muscle movement is depicted. The book also reminisced/mimicked them. Japanese people give a lot of attention to details and it was interesting to see so much expressed in the first few pages of the book itself. Nonetheless, I was hooked.

The book is quite slim and you can finish it in one sitting. It's perfect for beginners and new book readers.

Genres - Contemporary Fiction, Japenese Literature

Thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura is a model employee. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. But outside the convenience store, she is the outcast needed to be cured. It is never explicitly stated that Keiko is autistic. I got to know this piece of information after reading a few reviews and then the story made more sense to me.

"Unless I’m cured, normal people will expurgate me."

Keiko was straightforward in her thought but she came out as weird to others. She did things that were logical to her but absurd to others. Things should be in order, like in the manual. Since life has no written manual or hard life, she finds it hard to navigate. (don't we all sometimes) Till our last breath, we keep discussing if what we did was meaningful/right or not.

"So the manual for life already existed. It was just that it was already ingrained in everyone’s heads, and there wasn’t any need to put it in writing."

This book has made many social contemporary through Keiko. In this small section, she has maned to say a lot.

Our value as human beings.

Her work is not reflected in her salary. Keiko has to keep herself healthy for her store. What the author says is nothing new but reminds us again of our place in this society. We are only for the work and when we are not so efficient, we are discarded. Everything is replaceable.

"When you do physical labour, you end up being no longer useful when your physical condition deteriorates. However hard I work, however dependable I am when my body grows old then no doubt I too will be a worn-out part, ready to be replaced, no longer of any use to the convenience store."

The ugly side of the society

Others think they know us better than we know ourselves before considering our thoughts. Keiko is pleased, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and start a good career, prompting her to take desperate action.

Another thing that was subtly expressed is how as a society we see the "essential worker"

‘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.’

Us

We copy others' emotions and expressions to be liked. We are what see, and whom we meet. We are in some way fragments of others.

"After all, I absorb the world around me,’ she thinks, ‘and that’s changing all the time."

This book was not funny or quirky as the blurb described. It was a commentary on life itself. A reflective piece of life from the example of Keiko's life. (I wondered how many of her own stories Sayaka Murata used in this book.) On some pages, it seemed like an exaggerated version of reality.

In all honesty, I felt a little uncomfortable reading the later part of the book when Shiraha, another discard of society was introduced. He seemed creepy and his contemporary was steered from the truth. It was not an easy read sometimes (especially in the end) and I was relieved to read that nothing happened, in the end, Keiko follows what her heart wanted to be.

Give it a read and let me know your thoughts.