Sayaka Murata - Convenience Store Woman

Sayaka Murata - Convenience Store Woman 

5 ⭐

Genre:  Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Japanese Literature, Asian Literature, Translated Fiction, East Asian Literature 

Translated by: Ginny Tapley Takemori 

Original Title: コンビニ人間  Konbini Ningen 

Original Language: Japanese 

Pages: 107

Format: Kindle (Digital) 

Publisher: Granta Books 

Date Published: 1st January 2018

Book Blurb: 

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...

My Review: 

I love Japanese Literature, so I don’t know why I waited so long to read Convenience Store Woman or any of Sayaka Murata’s books for that matter. It didn’t disappoint. Loved the storytelling, love the narrative, loved the story setting. It was just superb. My only negative thing was that this book was so short and I read it in one sitting in less than 45mins.

The story follows Keiko, who is 36 and for the last 18 years worked part-time in the same convenience store. She loves the routine, loves her job is happy with her life. However, her family and friends think that she needs to be ‘cured’ and that she needs a family, a husband and a kid. Keiko notices that both her family and friends act differently around her and usually look down on her because she is different and because she isn’t married. Keiko knows she is different and she happily embraces that in her work that she adores, even if it angers her family or friends.

I loved Keiko’s character. She is so bright, kind and lovely. She takes her work seriously, but she also knows that it's the only thing that makes her happy and the only thing that she can do without faking. She doesn’t want the so-called ‘normal life’, which is prescribed to her by her culture. She just wants to be herself, and that is working at a convenience store.

I also loved the social commentary in this book about expectations in societies and certain cultures, especially what is seen as a ‘normal life’ that everyone needs to strive for. For Keiko, her friends and family pressure her into thinking that she isn’t normal because she is 36 without a family of her own and works in a dead-end job. They also judge her and look down on her like she is less than them. However, none of them asks what makes her happy.

Overall: Amazing book! The writing and storytelling capture so much in such a short book. The book itself also explores deeper issues ingrained in our society, as well as in Japanese culture. It also looks at certain expectations that society has of women and people with disabilities. I will be reading more of Sayaka Murata’s books but also, but I will be re-reading Convenience Store Woman, too. 

About the Author: 

Sayaka Murata (in Japanese, 村田 沙耶香) is one of the most exciting up-and-coming writers in Japan today. She herself still works part time in a convenience store, which gave her the inspiration to write Convenience Store Woman (Konbini Ningen). She debuted in 2003 with Junyu (Breastfeeding), which won the Gunzo Prize for new writers. In 2009 she won the Noma Prize for New Writers with Gin iro no uta (Silver Song), and in 2013 the Mishima Yukio Prize for Shiro-oro no machi no, sono hone no taion no (Of Bones, of Body Heat, of Whitening City). Convenience Store Woman won the 2016 Akutagawa Award. Murata has two short stories published in English (both translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori): "Lover on the Breeze" (Ruptured Fiction(s) of the Earthquake, Waseda Bungaku, 2011) and "A Clean Marriage" (Granta 127: Japan, 2014). 

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