Dignity and Alienation

~ Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata ~

Keiko, the protagonist of this 2018 novella, is in what is generally described as a “dead-end” job, working in a convenience store in Japan for the past 18 year, or all her adult life.

Understanding her misfit status, Keiko is intrinsically happy with what and who she is, except that she realises the society around her wishes her to conform to social norms. Not wanting to worry her loving family, she tries to comply. The result is both comic and poignant, particularly as autistic Keiko approaches the non-rational with her own brand of the perfectly rationale. (In many ways, this novella is a Japanese version of Grame Simsion’s Don Tillman in the Rosie books, and quite as delightful in both form and content despite being in translation.)

This slim volume is beautifully crafted – understated, charming, sympathetic, and surprisingly enchanting in all its details about how Japanese convenience stores are run. The complex and demanding workings of these stores are a revelation, and presented by Murata in her deceptively simply prose, fascinating. The quiet domesticity of the novel belies the sharp social commentary: of Japanese society and its pressures, of communal and familial expectations, of the identity and belonging struggles of those who are different from the mainstream.

Keiko wins our sympathy because she is not at all willful about refusing to conform — indeed, defiance and rebellion is simply not in her character make up — she just does not comprehend the need for conformity, nor quite how to achieve conformity. Her careful, meticulous reading of people’s body language in her lifelong struggle to pick up social cues correctly amuses and moves in equal measures. The world is bewildering to a Keiko Furukuwa.

This is also a story which champions the little roles, the jobs which are usually contemptuously dismissed, but which most people’s lives rely on for smooth running and convenience. Keiko finds tremendous fulfillment in the daily mechanics of running a convenience store and running it so well. She is finely attuned to the entire set up and its needs, and derives considerable personal satisfaction and purpose from being a convenience store worker. Her unorthodox enjoyment of this humble role brings it a new dignity, eliciting a new respect for these jobs.

This is a very short read indeed, but not to be overlooked or missed – a real treat. As a reader, I must thank Ms Murata for the sheer joy of meeting Keiko and sharing the workings of her charming mind.