Book Club Book Review: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

This month's book club choice was Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman, a book that challenges the expectations of capitalism and traditional gender roles and women making choices for themselves that may not seem the norm to others. It follows 36-year-old Keiko Furukura, who has been working in a convenience store for half her life at this point, as she navigates social customs she herself does not understand yet others seem to want to enforce on her.

It is made clear from the start that Furukura is "different" from other people - she doesn't understand normal human emotion or social cues and customs. A lot of people would likely immediately think she's autistic but I am no expert on these matters, I can only suspect that she may be on the spectrum. However, there are occasions referred to from her childhood where she seemed to use excessive force and did not understand why people were outraged when she used a shovel to break up a fight between two boys. Yes, that did happen. Read it if you wish to know why that happened. She has a routine she has become comfortable with, working the same days of the week all the time, using her two days off to see a friend or her sister, buying the same but different bottle of water from the convenience store every day as well as having almost all her meals come from it. Furukura seems content with the hand life has dealt her, or the hand she has dealt herself.

And then in come the invasive questions about why her life has remained the same as ever. Her sister begrudgingly helps her navigate these situations with tailored answers - why she's still working in a convenience store at 36 and not in a job that will advance her career if she isn't a mother or if she's ever fallen in love. All these questions and expectations from her friends, family and colleagues about where she is in life is not just a feminist issue - it's a capitalist issue. The book challenges the expectations capitalist society has put on women that if they are not mothers they should at least be in high flying jobs where their careers are accelerating as quickly as men's do. When someone is in a part-time job in a store, capitalist society sees it as a failure or something mother's do to keep them busy or make some extra money for the family but not as the primary breadwinner.

It's interesting how Furukura sees these things herself, how she is aware of why people act certain ways but also does not understand why some things are so important to them. She adopts behaviours and takes inspiration from those around her about how she should dress and act and, though she is aware that she does it intentionally, in a very unique way she notices how the people around her subconsciously do the same. Though it was at the prompting of the awful Shiraha, it was good to see that she was willing to take herself out of the normal routine and life she had settled into to try and find out if she was suited to something else. It was uplifting to see her try not to be a convenience store woman and choose that for herself when she realised it was what made her happy, that it was what she was good at and it made her happy. She didn't feel like the failure everyone else sees her as. And that's okay.

This choice of working part-time in a convenience store being what she wanted to do and was meant to do reminded me of all the people I've met working in retail and were happy and content in the job. People who others wondered why they hadn't gone for a full-time role, advanced to supervisor or manager because that was the expectation. But so many were happy and content with the position they were in. For them, it was enough. And that is who I believe this book is for. It's for the people out there who don't think lesser of themselves and others for choosing a job that capitalist society sees as temporary. For those that actively choose it for themselves and are happy and content with their choice.

Reasons to Recommend:

• A protagonist who is happy not to fulfil other people's expectations of her
• Lots of important messages delivered in a short 89-page book
• A character who sees the world around her as it is seemingly without bias
• An interest in international literature, particularly Japanese
• Challenges and subverts capitalist expectations
• I haven't told you half of what goes on in those 89 pages so you might as well have a look

I'd rate this book a 7.5/10. I think it was the jarring realism of working in mainstream retail, too much of it reminded me of my first job while I was in uni myself and it was all literally the depressing side of it. This accuracy obviously comes from Sayaka Murata's own time working in a convenience store. That and the aggressive anti-society stance of Shiraha. I generally like to hear from people who challenge the norm but not when it's so aggressive that in the end, it's just for the sake of non-conformism and an excuse to have someone else pay for your livelihood. Keiko Furukura is a wonderful character to follow the story of, she's the impartial voice at the centre of this story with power over where her life takes her. And that is admirable.