"Convenience Store Woman" by Sayaka Murata

"Convenience Store Woman" by Sayaka Murata is/was the October pick for my Gateway Women book club (in which we read & discuss books where pregnancy & children are not main plot points). 

Keiko Furakura -- single, childless and 36 years old -- has spent half her life working part-time in a convenience store. If Japan is a society of conformists, Keiko is at once both a misfit (no husband, no children, no proper job) and -- on the job, at least -- the ultimate conformist --  happily absorbing the speech patterns and dress styles of her co-workers as well as the contents of the training manuals and even the food -- to the point where it's hard to tell where Keiko ends and the store begins, and vice versa. “When I think that my body is entirely made up of food from this store,” says Keiko, “I feel like I’m as much a part of the store as the magazine racks or the coffee machine.” 

This is not a long book (almost more of a novella), but it presents a lot of food for thought about identity, belonging, "normalcy," the pressure to conform, the working world (being a "corporate cog") and what society expects of us.  Kirkus notes in its review: 

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.

It's quirky and comical in parts -- but there are also some dark undercurrents. The Guardian review calls it "sublimely weird";  the New Yorker, in its review, calls it "eerie" and remarks on "the creepiness of [Keiko's] cheerful obedience to the manual." (Someone in our GW book club discussion suggested Keiko might be autistic, while others saw parallels to "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.")  In part, it's a love story -- where the romance is not with a man (although there is a potential love interest in the story -- of sorts...!) but the store itself. (This is made abundantly clear in the essay written by Murata that follows the main text at the end of the book.)  

I gave "Convenience Store Woman" 3.5 stars on Goodreads, rounded up to 4 -- because it's so original and it made me think. 

This was Book #37 read to date in 2020 (Book #2 finished in October), bringing me to 123% of my 2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 30 books. I have completed & now exceeded my challenge goal for the year by 7 books, and am (for the moment, anyway...!) 13 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2020 tagged as "2020 books."