Convenience Store Woman

April 1, 2018
A sly take on modern work culture and social conformism, told through one woman's 18-year tenure as a convenience store employee.Keiko Furukura, a 36-year-old resident of Tokyo, is so finely attuned to the daily rhythms of Hiiromachi Station Smile Mart--where she's worked since age 18--that she's nearly become one with the store. From the nails she fastidiously trims to better work the cash register to her zeal in greeting customers with store manual-approved phrases to her preternatural awareness of its subtle signals--the clink of jangling coins, the rattle of a plastic water bottle--the store has both formed her and provided a purpose. And for someone who's never fully grasped the rules governing social interactions, she finds a ready-made set of behaviors and speech patterns by copying her fellow employees. But when her younger sister has a baby, questions surrounding her atypical lifestyle intensify. Why hasn't she married and had children or pursued a more high-flying career? Keiko recognizes society expects her to choose one or the other, though she's not quite sure why. When Shiraha--a "dead-ender" in his mid-30s who decries the rigid gender rules structuring society--begins working at the store, Keiko must decide how much she's willing to give up to please others and adhere to entrenched expectations. Murata provides deceptively sharp commentary on the narrow social slots people--particularly women--are expected to occupy and how those who deviate can inspire bafflement, fear, or anger in others. Indeed, it's often more interesting to observe surrounding characters' reactions to Keiko than her own, sometimes leaving the protagonist as a kind of prop. Still, Murata skillfully navigates the line between the book's wry and weighty concerns and ensures readers will never conceive of the "pristine aquarium" of a convenience store in quite the same way.A unique and unexpectedly revealing English language debut.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from April 9, 2018
Murata’s slim and stunning Akutagawa Prize–winning novel follows 36-year-old Keiko Furukura, who has been working at the same convenience store for the last 18 years, outlasting eight managers and countless customers and coworkers. Keiko, who has a history of strange impulses—wanting to grill and eat a dead bird, pulling down a hysterical teacher’s pants to get her to be quiet—applied to work at the Hiiromachi Station Smile Mart on a whim. Where someone else might find the expected behavior for convenience store workers arbitrary and strict, Keiko thrives under such clear direction, finally finding a way to be normal. In fact, she thinks of herself as two Keikos: her real self, who has existed since she was born, and “convenience-store-worker-me.” But normalcy is not static, as Keiko discovers. The older she gets, and the further she drifts from milestones like having a “real” job, marrying, and having children, the more her friends and family push her towards change. She strikes a sham marriage deal with a lazy and shifty ex-coworker, which, though it finally makes her “normal” in the eyes of others, throws her entire life and psyche into turmoil. Murata’s smart and sly novel, her English-language debut, is a critique of the expectations and restrictions placed on single women in their 30s. This is a moving, funny, and unsettling story about how to be a “functioning adult” in today’s world. Agent: Kohei Hattori, the English Agency.

April 15, 2018

Murata here makes her English-language debut with this 2016 winner of Japan's prestigious Akutagawa Prize. It offers a spare recounting of the life of 36-year-old Keiko Furukawa, a single woman who has worked part-time in a convenience store for exactly half her life. Perceived since childhood as not being "normal" by those around her, Keiko describes how her work at the Smile Mart convenience store brings her a sense of rebirth, allowing her to connect minimally with coworkers and even Miho, a friend with whom she became reacquainted after attending an alumni reunion. Daily life is comfortable and routine for Keiko until she encounters Shiraha, a former Smile Mart employee who was let go owing to his own peculiar behavior. Murata's writing, nicely rendered by Takemori's translation, uses the characters of Keiko and Shiraha to deliver a thought-provoking commentary on the meaning of conforming to the expectations of society. VERDICT While Murata's novel focuses on life in Japanese culture, her storytelling will resonate with all people and experiences. A solid selection for most fiction audiences and fodder for book group discussions.--Shirley Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2018
In nursery school, Keiko pragmatically suggested that the dead bird in the park could become a grilled treat for her father. In primary school, she ended a forbidden brawl by hitting a boy on the head with a spade. She stopped a teacher's hysterics by yanking down her skirt and knickers. Despite having a normal family, Keiko was a rather strange child who learned quiet detachment to avoid further trouble. At 18, she is reborn as a convenience store worker at a newly opened Smile Mart. Donning a uniform, learning the manual, and mimicking her coworkers enable Keiko to become a normal cog in society. Eighteen years later, she remains a top-performing employee, comfortably aware that being a part-time convenience worker is the only way she can be a normal person. At 36, however, her being a single woman in a dead-end job elicits worry and judgment from family and acquaintances. To deflect unwanted meddling, Keiko adopts an arrogant wastrel with both comical and bittersweet results. The prestigious Akutagawa Prize-winning Murata, herself a part-time convenience store woman, makes a dazzling English-language debut in a crisp translation by Takemori, rich in scathingly entertaining observations on identity, perspective, and the suffocating hypocrisy of normal society.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)