Reacting to Convenience Store Woman [Review]

Format/source: Hardcover/Library
Published: June 2018
Publisher: Grove Press
Length: 163 pages
Genre: Literary fiction
Translator: Ginny Tapley Takemori
★★★★   

I’m going to try something new in this post. As I was typing up my notes on this book, I realized that there were so many specific bits of the novel that prompted me to think and respond to Keiko, the protagonist. So this is a ‘reaction’ style review, with most of my comments directed to Keiko.  Spoilers abound (if you want to skip them, you can scroll to Final Thoughts). Is this interesting to anyone except me? I guess I’ll find out!

Reactions

As far I was concerned, though, there wasn’t any difference between Miho’s child and my nephew, and I didn’t understand the logic of coming all the way out here just to see him. Maybe this particular baby should be more important to me than the others. But so far as I could see, aside from a few minor differences they were all just an animal called a baby and looked much the same, just like stray cats all looked much the same.

P. 55, Convenience Store Woman

Okay, I see where you might have trouble functioning in the world at large. It can be difficult to know what we are really supposed to care about.

I looked at the small knife we’d used to cut the cake still lying there on the table: if it was just a matter of making him quiet, it would be easy enough.

P. 57, Convenience Store Woman

Oh, never mind. You have some more serious logic problems than I thought. (I should have gathered that from your childhood ‘Let’s eat the bird!’ story.)

When you work in a convenience store, people often look down on you for working there. I find this fascinating, and I like to look them in the face when they do this to me. And as I do so I always think: that’s what a human is.

P. 65, Convenience Store Woman

But then you have these startling moments where you seem to recognize the truth of the nasty side of humanity. How does one so seemingly disconnected from ‘humanity’ see it so starkly? Perhaps that’s the only way to do so…

[Discussing Keiko’s ‘marriage opportunity’] He looked flustered. “Well, worth trying, the sooner the better. You can’t go on like this, and deep down you must be getting desperate, no? Once you get past a certain age it’ll be to late.” “I can’t go on like this? You mean I shouldn’t be living the way I am now? Why do you say that?” I genuinely wanted to know, but I heard Miho’s husband mutter in a low voice: “Oh, for crying out loud.”

P. 79, Convenience Store Woman

I’m sorry, Japanese women and anyone else who actually have to listen to this drivel. UGGGGGHHHHHHH I’m really annoyed by people who speak so rudely and frankly about getting married. Why do you assume to know what’s best for a person you don’t know?! Why is it so impossible for you to conceive that someone might want different things than what you want?

“Shiraha, if all you want is a marriage of convenience, then how about getting together with me?

P. 91, Convenience Store Woman

Okay, I appreciate your 100% pragmatism but lord help me, he’s the worst of the worst, total hypocrite scum. You don’t need him!!!

[comment after saying she can provide feed for Shiraha] “Oh, sorry. It’s the first time I’ve kept an animal at home, so it feels like having a pet, you see.”

P. 109, Convenience Store Woman.

Hahahahaha. But anyway, Keiko sees the care of a ‘romantic’ relationship no different than taking care of a pet (remember earlier when she doesn’t see why she should care for one baby over another?) She places no value in personal relationships, except perhaps with her sister, it seems.

I was shocked by their reaction. AS a convenience store worker, I couldn’t believe they were putting gossip about store workers before a promotion in which chicken skewers which were usually sold at 130 were to be put on sale at the special price of 110 yen. What on earth had happened to the pair of them?

P. 118, Convenience Store Woman

At this point, you’ve resigned from her convenience store job but this scene shows how much you enjoyed working there and following the protocol and optimizing customer experience. I was devastated when Shiraha convinced you to quit! ;_;

She’s far happier thinking her sister is normal, even if she has a lot of problems, than she is having an abnormal sister for whom everything is fine. For her, normality – however messy – is far more comprehensible.

P. 133, Convenience Store Woman

Is it fair to say, clearly there’s something ‘wrong’ with Keiko? Is this some kind of mental health disorder? Can a person not just be like this? Keiko never harms anyone. She’s just living life as she enjoys it. Even this is addressed in the story. What does it matter if she’s ‘different’ if she’s happy with the way she’s living her life and she’s not doing anyone harm? Of course, especially in Japan, if one is not contributing to society, to the group… so this is a bolder claim to make there, perhaps.

I had judged everything on the basis of whether it was the sensible thing to do for the convenience store, but now I’d lost that standard. There was nothing to guide me over whether an action was rational or not. Before I became a store worker, I must have been following some kind of logic in my judgments, but I’d forgotten whatever guiding principles I’d followed back then.

P. 150, Convenience Store Woman

Awwwwww. You’ve lost your ‘moral compass’! 

For the human me, it probably is convenient to have you around, Shiraha, to keep my family and friends off my back. But the animal me, the convenience store worker, has absolutely no use for you whatsoever.

P. 162, Convenience Store Woman

YOU GO KEIKO DON’T LET ANYONE TAKE AWAY YOUR PASSION. I’m so glad there’s a ‘happy’ ending. Shiraha is an assssss.

Final Thoughts

That ends the reaction part of this ‘review’. Here are some final thoughts: The book turned out to be much more thought-provoking than I anticipated. As my comments above suggest, I found myself contemplating what it means to do as we like and what it means to have a purpose in society. It’s quite a striking story for one so slim. It’s also very Japanese – I originally picked up to the book to recall my memories of Japan, but having been to many a konbini, the story feels even more alarming. Reading about Keiko isn’t exactly like reading about myself, I can feel her ‘frustration’ (though of course she’s not actually frustrated by any of this). 

The Bottom Line

For such a short novel, Convenience Store Woman offers plenty to ponder about societal expectations, definitions of normality, and women’s place in it all.

Further Reading

• Read an excerpt
• Book webpage
• Interview @ LitHub
• Review by Eric @ Lonesome Reader
• Review by Dani @ Perspective of a Writer