Convenience Store Woman (Japanese: コンビニ人間, Hepburn: Konbini Ningen) is a 2016 novel by Japanese author Sayaka Murata. It captures the atmosphere of the familiar convenience store that is so much part of life in Japan. The novel won the Akutagawa Prize in 2016. Aside from writing, Murata worked at a convenience store three times a week, basing her novel on her experiences. It was first published in the June 2016 issue of Bungakukai and later as a book in July 2016 by Bungeishunjū. The novel has sold over 1.5 million copies in Japan and is the first of Murata's novels to be translated into English. The translation, by Ginny Tapley Takemori, was released by Grove Press (US) and Portobello Books (UK) in 2018. The book has further been translated into more than thirty languages.
Convenience Store Woman (Japanese: コンビニ人間, Hepburn: Konbini Ningen) is a 2016 novel by Japanese author Sayaka Murata. It captures the atmosphere of the familiar convenience store that is so much part of life in Japan. The novel won the Akutagawa Prize in 2016. Aside from writing, Murata worked at a convenience store three times a week, basing her novel on her experiences. It was first published in the June 2016 issue of Bungakukai and later as a book in July 2016 by Bungeishunjū. The novel has sold over 1.5 million copies in Japan and is the first of Murata's novels to be translated into English. The translation, by Ginny Tapley Takemori, was released by Grove Press (US) and Portobello Books (UK) in 2018. The book has further been translated into more than thirty languages.
This book (as well as another of Sayaka Murata’s books, Earthlings) kind of makes you wonder if the author has done deep research on sociopathy or has some other way of getting inside that world…
I wonder if Keiko is generally considered a relatable character or not. Her logic and the survival choices made to avert being labeled 'a foreign object' were incredibly relatable to me at least. The narration provided an air of dry humor which balanced out the general sense of tragedy this story left me with. What is someone who cannot believably play the parts societally delineated and policed by peers to do?
I wonder if Keiko is generally considered a relatable character or not. Her logic and the survival choices made to avert being labeled 'a foreign object' were incredibly relatable to me at least. The narration provided an air of dry humor which balanced out the general sense of tragedy this story left me with. What is someone who cannot believably play the parts societally delineated and policed by peers to do?
per a totes les fellows obsessionades amb Japó, aquí una petita novel•la on reviure la vida en un combini a Tòquio i personatges inadaptats. Ideal pel tren.
The book was frustrating to read, even though some parts were interesting. I liked our main character, someone who genuinely enjoys her job at a convenience store, even though most people don’t see it as a respectable or “normal” job for her age. Her personality feels honest, neutral.... She doesn’t seem to care much about what society expects, but still looks to others for clues on how to behave. I understand why many readers interpret her as autistic or having autistic traits. What I found frustrating was how the story itself feels unsure whether it wants to be a slice-of-life or a “find your purpose” type of book, and that lack of focus weakens it. The character Shiraha was especially frustrating. He comes across as an incel-type who also doesn’t fit into society, but he doesn’t bring anything meaningful to the story. His presence feels mostly negative, and he doesn’t …
The book was frustrating to read, even though some parts were interesting. I liked our main character, someone who genuinely enjoys her job at a convenience store, even though most people don’t see it as a respectable or “normal” job for her age. Her personality feels honest, neutral.... She doesn’t seem to care much about what society expects, but still looks to others for clues on how to behave. I understand why many readers interpret her as autistic or having autistic traits. What I found frustrating was how the story itself feels unsure whether it wants to be a slice-of-life or a “find your purpose” type of book, and that lack of focus weakens it. The character Shiraha was especially frustrating. He comes across as an incel-type who also doesn’t fit into society, but he doesn’t bring anything meaningful to the story. His presence feels mostly negative, and he doesn’t grow or contribute in a deep way. I guess he was there to push Keiko to discover her own purpose, but it felt flat and disappointing. I hoped that part of the story would go somewhere or have some resolution, but it didn’t.
I enjoyed this! I think everyone has the routines in life they get joy from and wants to do them well. Some things just come naturally to others. Personally I enjoy more variety and change (and social life) and so it was slightly harder to relate to Keiko, but I appreciate the aspects of having a calling, whatever that might be. The societal stuff got kinda incel/red pill-ish at times, especially with Shiraha and I don’t really understand the point of his character and ultimately what purpose he served other than to be a person I rooted against in the book. It’s a quick read and I pretty much knocked it out in one sitting.
The most absurd book I read in a while... it's amazing how such odd character puts everything in check. All the things we take for granted. I get the "job" of shiraha, but what a horrible man...
The most absurd book I read in a while... it's amazing how such odd character puts everything in check. All the things we take for granted. I get the "job" of shiraha, but what a horrible man...
Recommend if you love your little life and routine
Surreal and deeply enjoyable. Couldn't put it down.
Surreal and deeply enjoyable. Couldn't put it down.
Le personnage principal de notre roman s’appelle Keiko Furukura. Elle a, depuis 18 ans, un petit boulot à temps partiel dans un konbini, ces « convenience store » typiquement japonais ouverts 24h/24 et 7j/7. Ce qui inquiète son entourage car ce n’est pas « normal » : à 36 ans, il faudrait un emploi « stable » ou, à la rigueur, être marriée, avoir des enfants. Or Keiko, en plus de toujours bosser au Konbini est aussi célibataire, et ses amis comme sa famille ne lui ont même jamais connu aucune relation… non, vraiment, c’est très inquiétant.
Racontant sa vie quotidienne, Keiko racontera aussi quelques anecdotes de son enfance qui expliqueront au lecteur comment elle est arrivée à la conclusion qu’il convenait de se « fondre dans la masse » et quelles stratégies elle use pour cela.
Dans ce monde régi par la normalité, tout intrus se …
Le personnage principal de notre roman s’appelle Keiko Furukura. Elle a, depuis 18 ans, un petit boulot à temps partiel dans un konbini, ces « convenience store » typiquement japonais ouverts 24h/24 et 7j/7. Ce qui inquiète son entourage car ce n’est pas « normal » : à 36 ans, il faudrait un emploi « stable » ou, à la rigueur, être marriée, avoir des enfants. Or Keiko, en plus de toujours bosser au Konbini est aussi célibataire, et ses amis comme sa famille ne lui ont même jamais connu aucune relation… non, vraiment, c’est très inquiétant.
Racontant sa vie quotidienne, Keiko racontera aussi quelques anecdotes de son enfance qui expliqueront au lecteur comment elle est arrivée à la conclusion qu’il convenait de se « fondre dans la masse » et quelles stratégies elle use pour cela.
Dans ce monde régi par la normalité, tout intrus se voit discrètement éliminé. Tout être non conforme doit être écarté. Voilà pourquoi je dois guérir. Autrement, je serai éliminée par les personnes normales. J'ai enfin compris pourquoi mes parents désespéraient tellement de trouver une solution.
Ce qui m’a frappé dans ce roman, c’est que Keiko est manifestement atteinte d’un trouble du spectre autistique, mais que dans son enfance comme dans sa vie d’adulte, personne ne semble ne serait que s’interroger sur cet état de fait, pourtant assez évident semble-t ’il. Ce que veulent sa famille comme ses amis, c’est qu’elle soit « normale », donc bien intégrée à la Société.
C’est un roman que j’ai vraiment aimé et qui m’a beaucoup touché car c’est un éloge émouvant à la non-conformité autant qu’une critique de la pression sociale pour épouser la norme et une invitation à s’interroger sur la notion même de normalité et d‘acceptation de soi.
Content warning spoilers
I felt like there was much joy in how Keiko had found her place in life, and fulfillment through doing a good job at the convenience store. Nicely critical of the way the people around her -- her so-called friends -- can't accept the choices she's made that make her happy and keep trying to push her into something else. The only sour note for me was Shiraha; I get why he's in the story, but every page with him on it was so unpleasant (perhaps I'd become weirdly protective of Keiko?) that I enjoyed the last third of the book much less than the preceding two-thirds.
When you live in another country and its culture is less diverse than your own, you become aware of trends and fads not dissimilar from those of where you're from but that you were too close to to see. Japan, where I lived for some years decades ago, is known for having crazes over things—usually cute things—that often got international coverage by journalists on the interesting-things-done-elsewhere beat. (When I was there, koalas and "Jesus Christ lizards" had their time.)
It's the only way I can explain the success of [a:Sayaka Murata|8816506|Sayaka Murata|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1522684114p2/8816506.jpg]'s 2016 novel, [b:Convenience Store Woman|36739755|Convenience Store Woman|Sayaka Murata|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1680105376l/36739755.SX50.jpg|51852264]. It's awful. The translated version is badly written, and I found no new ideas or moments that I haven't seen expressed better elsewhere many times. What I can't explain is why this short novel (I'm a very slow reader, but I read it in under three hours) has …
When you live in another country and its culture is less diverse than your own, you become aware of trends and fads not dissimilar from those of where you're from but that you were too close to to see. Japan, where I lived for some years decades ago, is known for having crazes over things—usually cute things—that often got international coverage by journalists on the interesting-things-done-elsewhere beat. (When I was there, koalas and "Jesus Christ lizards" had their time.)
It's the only way I can explain the success of [a:Sayaka Murata|8816506|Sayaka Murata|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1522684114p2/8816506.jpg]'s 2016 novel, [b:Convenience Store Woman|36739755|Convenience Store Woman|Sayaka Murata|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1680105376l/36739755.SX50.jpg|51852264]. It's awful. The translated version is badly written, and I found no new ideas or moments that I haven't seen expressed better elsewhere many times. What I can't explain is why this short novel (I'm a very slow reader, but I read it in under three hours) has over five pages of gushing blurbs in the front. It's like they're trying to brainwash readers into seeing every scene in it as deeply profound, and if you don't get it, you're being culturally bigoted. But guess what: the emperor has no clothes.
It might been an alright short story, but even then, it wouldn't show you anything you haven't seen by [a:Haruki Murakami|3354|Haruki Murakami|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1615497402p2/3354.jpg].
Excerpt:
For breakfast I eat convenience store bread, for lunch I eat convenience store rice balls with something from the hot-food cabinet, and after work I'm often so tired I just buy something from the store and take it home for dinner. I drink about half the bottle of water while I'm at work, then put it in my ecobag and take it home with me to finish at night. When I think that my body is entirely made up of food from this store, I feel like I'm as much a part of the store as the magazine racks or the coffee machine.
Très bien écrit, à tel point que l'autrice arrive à rendre dynamique n'importe quelle séquence de supermarché et à faire de la description d'une aliénation capitaliste un vrai souffle de vie paradoxalement naturelle pour son personnage, incompris dans sa singularité et face à la pression patriarcale.
L'irruption de l'incel en puissance m'a un peu flippé mais le final ne m'a pas déçu !
Très bien écrit, à tel point que l'autrice arrive à rendre dynamique n'importe quelle séquence de supermarché et à faire de la description d'une aliénation capitaliste un vrai souffle de vie paradoxalement naturelle pour son personnage, incompris dans sa singularité et face à la pression patriarcale.
L'irruption de l'incel en puissance m'a un peu flippé mais le final ne m'a pas déçu !
What a weird book. I'm writing this at a time when I haven't really wrangled my feelings about it. It's very well written/translated and it took me very little time to finish it. It's also a really well realized dark comedy in the sense that its exaggerations and caricatures all scratch at something real, whether it's the weight of societal expectations, the way people give themselves to the capitalist machinery or the need for structured behavior in general - and I didn't know whether to feel bad or laugh. It's argument is also complicated further by the existence of Shiraha, someone who, to me, represents the person who can kind of see the system for what it is but reacts to that by seeking to bypass it or benefit from it, and connects it to an extremely toxic worldview as a result. I think I liked this?
What a weird book. I'm writing this at a time when I haven't really wrangled my feelings about it. It's very well written/translated and it took me very little time to finish it. It's also a really well realized dark comedy in the sense that its exaggerations and caricatures all scratch at something real, whether it's the weight of societal expectations, the way people give themselves to the capitalist machinery or the need for structured behavior in general - and I didn't know whether to feel bad or laugh. It's argument is also complicated further by the existence of Shiraha, someone who, to me, represents the person who can kind of see the system for what it is but reacts to that by seeking to bypass it or benefit from it, and connects it to an extremely toxic worldview as a result. I think I liked this?
Keiko's life and thoughts are a simple but effective satire of gender roles and heterosexual expectations under patriarchy.
Keiko's life and thoughts are a simple but effective satire of gender roles and heterosexual expectations under patriarchy.
An expert convenience store worker and Robert D. Hare-level psychopath and possible ace or aro (asexual or aromatic) adopts a pet rat—actually a men’s rights activist/incel type—to reduce people’s discomfort with her lifestyle, which apparently everyone around her in 2016 Japan condemns for failing to include either a full-time job or a family.
This is the setup used to criticize a common habit of society. If people can’t tell some linear combination of socially-common eigenstories about you, they often question the evidence their eyes present them with: even if you’re the perfect worker, the model worker in every way, but you don’t have a respectable life story, you might never be recognized as a valuable colleague or employee or person. Even if you, like the narrator, win over your new bosses and coworkers by being exceptionally skilled and dedicated to your craft, any hint of conventional respectability (full-time job or …
An expert convenience store worker and Robert D. Hare-level psychopath and possible ace or aro (asexual or aromatic) adopts a pet rat—actually a men’s rights activist/incel type—to reduce people’s discomfort with her lifestyle, which apparently everyone around her in 2016 Japan condemns for failing to include either a full-time job or a family.
This is the setup used to criticize a common habit of society. If people can’t tell some linear combination of socially-common eigenstories about you, they often question the evidence their eyes present them with: even if you’re the perfect worker, the model worker in every way, but you don’t have a respectable life story, you might never be recognized as a valuable colleague or employee or person. Even if you, like the narrator, win over your new bosses and coworkers by being exceptionally skilled and dedicated to your craft, any hint of conventional respectability (full-time job or family) rewires their attitude towards you as they automatically extrapolate stories about you. Professionals stop being professionals and start being stupid men and women eager to help you along your way towards a respectable life (remember: a job or a family).
The book is helping me stop attributing people’s foibles to one deeper character flaw so readily. Yes, often a set of often-paired life problems has one common root cause, but unless I’m going to get all scientific about it, it’s better just to take the diversity of unrespectabilities as-is, and strive to see the person rather than the role they or I think they should play.
