J's Musings

Book Review

by Janx 🙂

I am back with my love for Japanese books and their heartwarming ways of capturing the regular life. Today I’m introducing “The Convenience Store Woman.”

Sayaka Murata’s story about a convenience store woman and her devotion towards the store is a calmly narrated account of the hardships and troubles she faces in her life.

I love how we get to see a full account of where everything started and how deeply rooted the prejudices against our heroine are. It adds a sense of connection and comfort that keeps the reader hooked and feeling relaxed at the same time.

The storyline is varying and even lost to a point. There is really no saying that this book had an end. It was just as if one of the people in a conversation decided to stop talking.

Mainly because the narration is as if we were reading a diary or as if we were the diary. The entire book is just a web of thoughts and questions that come up in the narrator’s mind.

Speaking of the narrator, Keiko is a delightful heroine to follow along any narrative with. The way her behaviour is completely acceptable and understood for her and by her makes her confusion towards people’s worries seem quite genuine. Her character does not change much throughout, except for the fact that she no longer lets people tell her how to live. But the character not changing themselves is what gives the book its stubborn yet subtle rebellion towards society’s norms.

The people in question being her friends and family, gives the book a soft melancholy. I don’t wish to pass a comment on any “shortcomings” lying in how loose the story or the characters seem, because for me this book is just a tool to look at the world from the eyes of what is considered abnormal. And no one simply expressing thoughts bothers to give an in-detail account of the people and world around them. This also further enhances the hyperrealism of the book’s conversation-like style. Making the book easier to slip into.

Any claims about this being a feminist work, aren’t wrong, but rather based of a really subtly woven in theme. Hidden deep in layers hard to find unless you re read the book 3 times.

Lastly, Murata’s writing style complements the unnerving and slightly disturbing narrative of the book in its vague but intriguingly strong acceptance and knowledge of the world. While still rebelling against the “laws of society” stubbornly.

On a whole, the book is a charming account of the life of what seems abnormal.

Rating: 5/5

Hope you have a delightful read and an enjoyable Wednesday…

Picture Credits: Booknightouts on Pinterest