Book Review Sayaka Murata Convenience Store Woman

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2018 – Granta Press – Spoiler Alert Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori A bittersweet comedy novel about a virginal Japanese woman who works in a convenience store for eighteen years, defying peer group pressure to pursue a better career or marriage. Keiko Is a troubled young lady, and though it is never stated, she appears to be autistic. She finds the routine and uniformity of store life comforting and easy to follow. She enjoys the regulations and constantly getting goods out in order and pleasing patterns. Even when not in work she thinks about what the staff do at certain times and starts yelling out store slogans in her sleep. She is troubled when family and others try to get her to change what she is happy with, to the point at which she fakes a relationship (of convenience) with a lazy young man who has been fired from the store for not working well and stalking customers, an arrangement he is quick to exploit though he has no interest in her well-being. The writer spent eighteen years in such store work while developing her writing skills and produced this quirky and beautifully insightful look at how we lose our individuality to consumerism and through conforming to the will of others. Arthur Chappell