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Convenience Store Woman Book Review
Convenience Store Woman is a short story written by Sayaka Murata, released in June of 2016. At only 163 pages total this book is a piece of fiction translated from Japanese and has won multiple awards since its release.
Storyline/ plot
This short story takes place within a city in Japan, more specifically within a small Convenience store, where we meet and follow a 35 year old store worker Keiko, who has worked at the store since it opened and she was looking for a part time job to do alongside her studies.
Keiko became comfortable within the store, and found the job to be a lot more tedious than meets the eye, with the routines of the store memorized to the last detail. From knowing by heart the stock that does well at different points of the day, the products that sell the best at specific points of the year, as well as what placements will help the stock sell better Keiko knows the store like it is her home.
Keiko, although happy and content within her role at the store, suddenly begins to feel the pressure from those around her to progress in her career and her life. With constant concerns on when she will get married and start her own family, Keiko feels the sudden urge to move on from the store, but soon realizes just how much she relies on the Store.
After some time Keiko soon realizes just how much the store meant to her, how much she cherished those routines, sounds, duties, but, will she go back to familiarity or embrace change?
Writing style
Sayaka Murata has a very unique style of writing, especially when it comes to her short stories and how she can pack such powerful messages into such a short amount of pages. Her use of very dead pan, blunt humor is what I feel makes her stories and her messages within them so unique to her. The message displayed within this book is how to accept others moving around you but, being happy with what you have currently, it also represents how everyone goes at their own pace and to not rush to move as fast as everyone else, to do what makes your heart happy.
Pros/ cons
I personally felt as though this book was a nice, sweet, fast read. It is of course a short book but it has such powerful messages within it, that you really do feel like you have to read the book and not put it down. The humor is definitely not for everyone but I loved it and felt like I really understood where Keiko was coming from and connected with her blunt, straight forward communication methods.
Conclusion
Overall I thought this was a really good filler book, and rated it a three and a half stars. It was funny, and unique but also did get a little emotional at times and made me really reflect on myself. I thought it was a good, easy read that I definitely enjoyed, I really look forward to reading more translated fiction in future.