Convenience Store Woman (2018)-Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori)
It's an odd but charming book
Content Warnings: Ableism, misogyny, stalking
Representation: Japanese, neurodivergent
Favorite Quote: “Here in the convenience store we’re not men and women. We’re all store workers.”
Convenience Store Woman is a short novel following Keiko Furukura, a thirty-six-year-old woman who has spent the past eighteen years of her life working part-time at a local convenience store in Tokyo. Only through this job, Keiko knows how to navigate a society that she doesn’t otherwise fit into. She may not meet the expectations of her to pursue a career or to get married, but she does know how to be a damn good convenience store worker.
When Keiko enters the store each morning, it’s as if the store is speaking to her, telling her what needs to be done. To her, receiving the workers manual was the first time she had been directly told how to behave after having grown up only told what she is doing wrong. So, it is lost on her why those around her express so much concern when she is content dedicating the entirely of herself to this part-time job.
Keiko is coded as neurodivergent, and fears being ostracized from society if people begin to see the holes in her stories for why she’s remained unmarried, working a part-time job. She then encounters a character who also doesn’t meet the typical societal expectations, but unlike Keiko who is simply content with what she is good at, Shiraha is looking to blame those around him for holding him accountable and exploits people for everything he can. Through this character you see that the ableism that Keiko faces comes in many forms and readers can distinguish between the unfairness faced by Keiko and the woes of Shiraha.
The book is very charming despite it’s simplicity. There is no large sense of peril, no heated conflicts, simply a person trying to figure out how to function in a society not built for them. Set in Japan, it offers criticism on the rigidity of social norms surrounding careers and marriage that is specific but not exclusive to its setting.