One of my goals in 2022 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.
Another brilliant and unexpected LFL find, I really really enjoyed Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata!
Keiko works in a convenience store, she has for the last 18 years. She’s good at her job, she does it well and she enjoys the benefits she receives: doing a good job, providing a service, good customer interaction, training fellow employees, making the store presentable. She is happy in her routine. But outside pressures, from her family and friends, are threatening her routine and pleasant existence. Why doesn’t she want a better job, a husband, a change?
I really connected with this book. I love to work in the service industry and find the jobs I do rewarding, fulfilling and important. I love to have a happy customer and a clean store. It is a valid and chosen career. I loved that the main character in CSW felt the same and it was heartbreaking to see her confused and unsettled by “well meaning” friends and family. Although this book doesn’t outright say that she is neurodivergent, it’s pretty clear that she is. I think we are not straight out told by this book is completely from her perspective and since she hasn’t been diagnosed in that manner and since she knows no other way to be, it doesn’t occur to her that people might see her state of being as being afflicted. I really enjoyed that, bc that’s true! We say nuerodivergant, but if that is the way a person’s brain works, that’s the way it works. Just because it is not statistically “normal”, doesn’t mean there is something wrong with that person. It was an interesting look and commentary on that fact. And on the idea that social norms don’t work for everyone. Not everyone needs a significant other to a “real” job to be happy and whole. It was interesting to see this contrasted with a rigid socially structured culture like in Japan. This is a story of someone who knows them selves well and fights to keep their identity. I would highly recommend this for people looking for stories about outisiders or characters who strike their own path, readers interested in stories where nuerodivergence plays a role, and anyone who has even been told a job they enjoy doesn’t matter.
Have you read this story? What were the major themes that you picked up on?
This book can be seen in my July 2021 Wrap Up.