Sayaka Murata

"Keiko has never really fitted in. At school and university people find her odd and her family worries she'll never be normal. To appease them, Keiko takes a job at a newly opened convenience store. Here, she finds peace and purpose in the simple, daily tasks and routine interactions. She is, she comes to understand, happiest as a convenience store worker. But in Keiko's social circle it just won't do for an unmarried woman to spend all her time stacking shelves and re-ordering green tea. As pressure mounts on Keiko to find either a new job, or worse, a husband, she is forced to take desperate action..."--Provided by publisher.

Convenience Store Woman

Keiko isn't normal. At school and university people find her odd, and her family worries she will never fit in. To make them happy, she takes a job at a convenience store. But in Keiko's circle it just won't do for an unmarried woman to spend her time stacking shelves and ordering green tea. As the pressure to find a new job - or worse, a husband - increases, Keiko is forced to take desperate action...

Panda Adel

The normal world has no room for exceptions and always quietly eliminates foreign objects. Anyone who is lacking is disposed of.

So that’s why I need to be cured. Unless I’m cured, normal people will expurgate me. 

Finally, I understood why my family had tried so hard to fix me. 

When morning comes, once again I'm a convenience store worker, a cog in society. This is the only way I can be a normal person.

And so, believing that I had to be cured, I grew into adulthood.

Meet Keiko. Keiko is 36 years old. She's never had a boyfriend, and she's been working in the same supermarket for eighteen years. Keiko's family wishes she'd get a proper job. Her friends wonder why she won't get married. But Keiko knows what makes her happy, and she's not going to let anyone come between her and her convenience store... *Convenience Store Woman comes in three different colours; the colour you receive will be chosen at random*

“You eliminate the parts of your life that others find strange—maybe that’s what everyone means when they say they want to “cure” me.”

“After all, I absorb the world around me, and that’s changing all the time. Just as all the water that was in my body last time we met has now been replaced with new water, the things that make up me have changed too. ”

I love this moment. It feels like “morning” itself is being loaded into me. The tinkle of the door chime as a customer comes in sounds like church bells to my ears. When I open the door, the brightly lit box awaits me—a dependable, normal world that keeps turning. I have faith in the world inside the light-filled box.”

“Visible outside the windows, polished free of fingerprints, are the figures of people rushing by. It is the start of another day, the time when the world wakes up and the cogs of society begin to move. I am one of those cogs, going round and round. I have become a functioning part of the world, rotating in the time of day called morning."

howl

If it had been that simple all along, I thought, I wish she'd given me clear instructions before, then I wouldn't have had to go to such lengths to find out how to be normal.

My present self is formed almost completely of the people around me. I am currently made up of 30 percent Mrs. Izumi, 30 percent Sugawara, 20 percent the manager, and the rest absorbed from past colleagues such as Sasaki, who left six months ago, and Okasaki, who was our supervisor until a year ago.

Sanja.

So that why I need to be cured. Unless I'm cured, normal people will expurgate me.

Finally I understood why my family had tried so hard to fix me. 

... but still my parents worried that I wouldn't survive in the real world. And so, believing that I had to be cured, I grew up into adulthood.

My family always loved and cherished me, and that's why they were so worried and wanted to cure me

The English-language debut of one of Japan’s most talented contemporary writers, selling over 650,000 copies there, Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. 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. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction—many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual—and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It’s almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action... A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.

A Novel

Ausrine Blazyte

And so I realized. This society hasn't changed one bit. People who don't fit into the village are expelled: men who don't hunt, women who don't give birth to children. For all we talk about modern society and individualism, anyone who doesn't try to fit in can expect to be meddled with, coerced, and ultimately banished from the village.

I find the shape of people's eyes particularly interesting when they're being condescending. I see a wariness or a fear of being contradicted or sometimes a belligerent spark ready to jump on any attack. And if they're unaware of being condescending, glazed-over eyeballs are steeped in a fluid mix of ecstasy and a sense of superiority. their

betty

‘For the first time, I can think of the being in the window as a being with meaning’

‘I realise now more than a person, I’m a convenience store worker, even if that means I’m abnormal and can’t make a living and drop down dead I can’t escape that fact. My very cells exist for the convenience store […] No, It’s not a matter on whether they permit it or not, it’s what I am’ 

‘She’s far happier thinking her sister is normal, even if she has a lot of problems than she is thinking she has an abnormal sister for whom everything is fine. For her, normality however messy is far more comprehensible’

Denisse Garcia Ramírez 

So that was it: now that she thinks he’s “one of us” she can lecture him. She’s far happier thinking her sister is normal, even if she has a lot of problems, than she is having an abnormal sister for whom everything is fine. For her, normality—however messy—is far more comprehensible.

“In other words, you play the part of the fictitious creature called ‘an ordinary person’ that everyone has in them. Just like everyone in the convenience store is playing the part of the fictitious creature called ‘a store worker.’”

Maybe people who thought they were being violated felt a bit better when they attacked other people in the same way.

For all we talk about modern society and individualism, anyone who doesn’t try to fit in can expect to be meddled with, coerced, and ultimately banished from the village.”

He seemed to have this odd circuitry in his mind that allowed him to see himself only as the victim and never the perpetrator I thought as I watched him.

A convenience store is a forcibly normalized environment where foreign matter is immediately eliminated.

Leisha Chadwick

after reading ‘earthlings’ which i absolutely loved, i was so excited to read more from the author! however, i read ‘convenience store woman’ in one sitting, i couldn’t put it down for the simple reason that i was waiting for something to happen, anything to happen?? i’m disheartened that i didn’t enjoy it but i do love the author so i won’t let this put me off reading more of her books✨

linhie

Shreya Punj

An interesting read...I'm not sure whether I use that adjective as a compliment. It's short, but I don't quite know what to make of it. 

The book, which went on to become a literary sensation in Japan, is offbeat. The inner workings of Keiko's mind did fill me with mild existential dread. I could feel her pain in trying to "fit in", to appear normal, but I also felt uncomfortable at how cloyingly oppressive this need to be "a useful cog" was. I did feel happy when she stood up to Shiraha and gave him a polite metaphorical middle finger.

With the current lockdown in place, the book also made me deeply appreciate once again the effort that goes into making a convenience store convenient for the customer.

Shay

I don't think I've ever been *seen* by a book the way I feel like Sayaka Murata sees me. Convenience Store Woman was a novel about a woman who has been working in a convenience store since she was 18. She's hit that time in her life where people are starting to move on, have families of their own, reach these grand career accomplishments, and Keiko is in the same place she's been for her entire adult life. 

I relate to that hard. The feeling of wondering if you've accomplished enough. The feeling of seeing all of your friends and family pass you by and take pity on you for being comfortable with where you are. The thought of the clock running out for you to do something else but despite it all feeling reluctant to do anything about it because change is so uncomfortable. 

And although it's not said in this book it's very clear that Keiko is some brand of neurodivergent, if not autistic. The way she describes her troubles with socializing, the ease with which she fits in at the convenience store because she feels like a cog in a machine, the way she thinks about society and jobs as a whole - these are all thoughts I've caught myself having at one point or another. And that made this book even more valuable for me. This is great rep. 

But the grandest part of this book, for me, was the ending. I learned from Keiko that it's okay to be who you are. It's okay to be content with what you're doing even if other people don't view it as 'enough' or even view it as a job. You don't owe anyone else an explanation and you can't let someone else take the reins of your life. Even if the people in your life aren't happy about it, you have to put yourself first and make yourself happy, and if you're good at something and you love doing it then you don't owe anyone else anything. You have to make your own decisions. 

And Keiko did. 

I loved this book. I needed this book. 


  

  

  TW's for ableism, misogyny, sexism, toxic relationships (familial, friendships, and romantic,) and abandonment.

Beatriz Aguiar

livs

this is how i imagine my life being when i grow older

Midori Kobayashi

4/5 stars


This society hasn't changed one bit. People who don't fit into the village are expelled: men who don't hunt, women who don't give birth to children. For all we talk about modern society and individualism, anyone who doesn't try to fit in can expect to be meddled with, coerced, and ultimately banished from the village.

This book is a jab at the "societal expectations" and the pressure that builds on people to achieve certain goals or else they are considered unworthy/abnormal. It is an account of a woman who is deemed "unfit" and "not normal" by society because all she wants to do is work in a convenience store. Although it has never been explicitly mentioned in the book, Keiko (the main character) is obviously autistic. And in her late 30s, the pressure of becoming "normal", getting a "real job" and settling in life is rising by the day. 

The normal world has no room for exceptions and always quietly eliminates foreign objects. Anyone who is lacking is disposed of.

So that’s why I need to be cured. Unless I’m cured, normal people will expurgate me.


I cannot talk more without giving away spoilers but it is a fairly short read (under 200 pages) and if you have ever felt left out or misfit, I'm sure you will be able to relate and enjoy this read. Even if you have not been diagnosed with ASD. Also, if you loved the TV series Atypical, this is kinda on the same track. Do read!

People who are considered normal enjoy putting those who aren't on trial, you know.


  Book Trigger Warnings- Mention of ASD, Poverty, social awkwardness, abusive relationships etc

i want to like this more than i actually did bc i get it.... i get it. and yet!

margo

Joycelyn Ghansah

I have nothing to say other than Keiko is relatable. From her unconventional solutions to her annoyance. I love her inner voice.

Brittany Jenkins

I liked Keiko most of the time (slightly reminiscent of Eleanor Oliphant), but I did not like Shiraha and thought that whole situation was very odd. I enjoyed the reflective moments at certain points and found Keiko funny/strange in her own unique way, but overall the story didn't seem to go anywhere and I don't think I would have finished it were it not such a short read.

kyahluka

Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world, so when she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers' style of dress and speech patterns so that she can play the part of a normal person. However, eighteen years later, at age 36, she is still in the same job, has never had a boyfriend, and has only few friends. She feels comfortable in her life, but is aware that she is not living up to society's expectations and causing her family to worry about her. When a similarly alienated but cynical and bitter young man comes to work in the store, he will upset Keiko's contented stasis--but will it be for the better?

violet clare

this deserves a higher rating than it currently has on goodreads--i read it with a book club, and we agreed that keiko was neurodivergent, but i think cultural relativism is important--see e.g., this review by a japanese reader: This is not a quirky story. It's a very realistic story, happening to many Japanese people every day. The protagonist might have a minor learning difficulty, but not harmful to others, actually she is a very diligent and valuable worker (outstandingly smart in a certain way)--and yet she gets bullied around, not by hate but by benevolent people who step into her life uninvited. like, frequently "is [character] neurodivergent?" is just not the right way to engage with a text.

this book was good. it was funny. however the ending felt very rushed and i didn’t feel a connection to any of the characters. i do feel that the message of the book is important though and it did have some interesting points. 

mili

3.75⭐️

The book includes the adjective of comical, darkly comic or hilarious, however I object to that notion. Yes the book has been written in a very simplistic and quirky way but perhaps it got lost in translation. The english version isn’t funny. 

Talking about my favourite book cover (https://www.amazon.in/Convenience-Sto...) it shows the face of a girl built with food. The protagonist of the story, Keiko, who’s 36 for most of the story (and a target of ageist comments) works in a convenience store. She eats convenience store bread for breakfast, eats convenience store rice balls with something from the hot food cabinet for kunch and buys something from the convenience store for dinner. She realises her entire body is made of the food from the convenience store, perfectly giving the basis of the book cover.

Although never explicitly mentioned what, Keiko isn’t ‘normal’. While she was 18 and had started university, The Smile Mart outside Hiiromachi station had opened. She joins the job, is trained to behave & able to copy mannerisms of her peers and finally, feel like a functional cog of the society thus considers it to be her rebirth.

Fast forwarding 18 years, we find Keiko to be 36 but without any other change within her. She works at the same place, doesn’t dwell upon the topics of love or relationship, let alone marriage or having children unlike her peers. None of her peers who started working in 1998 still work there, even the store manager is the 8th, however the customers mention how the store never changed, quite much like Keiko.

Although written simplistically, the book carefully considers highlighting alienation, individualism or rather, lack of such, conformity, capitalism and misogyny. Everyone thinks she’s odd for ‘not having a rEaL job’ despite being 36, never being in love, not interested in getting married or having a child. 
Other people, she realises as she becomes the target of her university acquaintance and their husband’s GoOdWiLl, finds the rest if the convenience store workers gossip about her instead of performing their duties, and realises that no matter how messier someone’s life is, nOrMaL is always more comprehendible. Keiko struggles even emulating people since then, she could be said that she was copying so she observes and reads blogs etc. to emulate but also not look or behave the same as another person. The book also throws light upon how none of us, even the ‘normal’ ones, aren’t anyone without the people surrounding us.

While not finding comical, there’s quite a bit of irony. Keiko has no idea of fashion whatsoever but she knows when a woman dresses flashily. A man believes human societies haven’t progressed since Stone Age while himself being a major asshole.
Kudos to the author for ace representation and the detailed description of convenience store.

Ivy X

What a likable character!
I love how this book showed the struggle of needing to conform to societal norms & how Keiko was faking it till she made it despite knowing she didn’t want to live like those around her expected her to.

what a strange book. an interesting social commentary on capitalism and conformity; admittedly, i was more interested on the narrator's journey as she struggled molding herself to fit into society's standards, but it's interesting how closely linked the cogs are between capitalism and slotting into society's expectations. it's always something when you see that people are more concerned on what it means to be associated with someone who is not 'normal' (as it was in the last scene that had the narrator's sister) and masking their concern as fretting for the other's wellbeing, and it felt like a little victory, in the end, when the narrator was content and embraced that she was different.

Micah

Aiming for a quiet and simple life is okay and perfectly acceptable.

Convenience Store Woman - Gadis Minimarket

Stef

Bagaimana jika untuk hidup normal di lingkungan masyarakat merubah seorang perempuan menjadi terobsesi dengan toko waralaba?

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Review baca ulang nya will post it soon ~~~

Kavana Anklekar 

Short, sweet and great to escape society. The main vein of this novel is exactly that too: being content with not being considered ‘one of them’ I.e the majority. The human characters were so inhumane in this novel that it read more like an allegory.

I was intrigued and discombobulated for the entirety of this. Would recommend for those looking for a quirky Japanese escapade.

Kelly Kim

Short, sweet and great to escape society. The main vein of this novel is exactly that too: being content with not being considered ‘one of them’ I.e the majority. The human characters were so inhumane in this novel that it read more like an allegory.

I was intrigued and discombobulated for the entirety of this. Would recommend for those looking for a quirky Japanese escapade.

Antonia Murabito

Murata Sayaka è una delle più promettenti autrici giapponesi contemporanee, con uno stile fresco e un’intelligenza vivida che vi ricorderanno la Banana Yoshimoto di Kitchen. «Il romanzo di Murata è una svolta decisiva. La ragazza del convenience store è un exploit su una corda tesa. Uno dei migliori che ho visto realizzare da una scrittrice così giovane». John Freeman, Literary Hub La trentaseienne Furukura Keiko è single e molto introversa. È sempre stata una ragazza strana, ragion per cui ha deciso di provare a conformarsi alle aspettative della società e della famiglia abbandonando gli studi per lavorare in un konbini, un piccolo convenience store giapponese aperto 24/7. È qui che è impiegata da diciotto anni, con un contratto part-time. I suoi genitori e le poche amiche d’infanzia sono preoccupati per lei e sperano che presto o tardi possa sistemarsi e mettere su famiglia. Keiko, però, sembra incapace di adeguarsi alla norma, si è sempre comportata “in modo diverso”, per usare un eufemismo. Ed è con questo spirito anticonformista che paradossalmente affronta ogni cosa nell’universo circoscritto del konbini, al quale si consacra nella maniera più assoluta. Il suo posto nel mondo lo ha trovato proprio qui, dove tutto accade come se fosse scritto in un manuale ed è sufficiente attenersi alle regole per essere efficiente, la migliore commessa possibile. Finché non incontra Shiraha, un nuovo e strambo collega trentacinquenne in cerca di moglie, il quale è convinto che il mondo si sia fermato all’epoca preistorica... Per Keiko potrebbe trattarsi dell’occasione per lasciare il suo amato konbini e creare finalmente una famiglia, soddisfacendo le aspettative dei suoi cari? O il mondo del konbini, con le sue precisissime regole e il suo singolare valore simbolico, avrà la meglio?

La ragazza del convenience store

Carlotta

Ho amato la scrittura, lo stile narrativo asciutto, il punto di vista della narratrice che vede tutto con distacco, ma vede davvero tutto. 
Brillante, spiritoso e dolce, dice il blurb in copertina. Io l'ho trovato terrificante. La protagonista è letteralmente circondata di gente che andrebbe trattata col lanciafiamme.

Shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award Longlisted for the Believer Book Award Longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation A Los Angeles Times Bestseller The English-language debut of an exciting young voice in international fiction, selling 660,000 copies in Japan alone, Convenience Store Woman is a bewitching portrayal of contemporary Japan through the eyes of a single woman who fits into the rigidity of its work culture only too well. The English-language debut of one of Japan's most talented contemporary writers, selling over 650,000 copies there, Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. 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. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction--many are laid out line by line in the store's manual--and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a "normal" person excellently, more or less. Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It's almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action... A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.

Haylie

I read this book in what looks to be about five hours with breaks. Such a strange novel, but I couldn’t put it down. Midway I HAD to know how it ended so I just kept going. Props to Murata and her translator — the way in which the convenience store is written about left me transfixed. It feels almost like you gain a comfort with the store like Keiko and that transportation to such a setting is amazing. I feel like I’ll be thinking of this novel for a long time.

Also, this book really made me crave rice balls/nigiri/sushi.

Sanika Palande

Most thought-provoking book I’ve ever read. The narrator is unusual and unsettling in the best way possible.

My greatest takeaway from this story is that no matter what lengths we go to in order to please society, in the end there’s no pleasing anyone and the demands only continue to grow so listen to your own voice and if it makes you happy, it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else. Clichéd truth that still seems to escape us doesn’t it? True normality lies in the “abnormality” that exists within all of us and that’s the end of it 

I’ve realized I really gravitate towards stories with themes of normality/conformity vs. individuality.

Convenience Store Woman

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