Ginny Tapley Takemori's Novel "Convenience Store Woman": An Insightful Exploration of the Human Condition

Frank D. Taff: One of the most amusing books I have read. Well worth the purchase. An unusual setting for a story and an unusual first-person telling of the story.

United States on Dec 01, 2023

estela: I really liked this book. It reads easily, captures you early on, and paints a good portrayal of low end jobs, gender roles, the inflexibility of societal expectations in Japan, and how some people in the autism spectrum perceive and adapt to social interactions. Being a migrant who has lived in different places and has had to adapt to various roles, I was thinking that I’ve behaved like that and followed the same strategies myself (observing and mimicking others, so I was not marked as an outsider).
Sihirasha (sp?) is the thing I liked least about the book. I found his obsession with the Stone Age cartoonish.

United States on Oct 13, 2023

Areli Meza: Buena historia, de fácil lectura y si eres neurodivergente puede que te sientas identificado.
Mi libro llegó con un poco de pegamento en la portada (supongo que es de la etiqueta de precio o algo así) pero fuera de eso todo estuvo perfecto (a tiempo y protegido)

Mexico on Jul 24, 2023

Cliente Amazon: Es un ensayo de crítica a la sociedad, expectativas, lo que "debería de ser" escrito en una novela donde hace muchas analogías a la zona de comfort, autoestima y seguridad con el supermercado. Un libro que invita a cuestionarnos si hacemos lo que hacemos porque queremos o porque "así debe de ser". Me gustó bastante, la historia es sencilla pero funciona perfecto para explicar los puntos de la autora.

Mexico on Jan 27, 2023

ambrose: This book provides a fascinating and sometimes sad and unsettling look at what it's like to live as a neurodivergent person in Japan. Modern Japanese culture has a strong emphasis on conformity, even more so than over here in North America. Minimum wage retail and restaurant jobs are looked at as temporary stepping stones to the "good jobs" and there is a lot of societal pressure on young folks to rise up the wage ladder, get married, and have children before a certain age, and Furukura's story is unfortunately all too common among Japan's neurodivergent community. Thank you to Sakaya Murata for writing this story.

Canada on Jul 24, 2022

The Eye that Reads: After reading Yoko Ogawa’s ‘Revenge’ and being blown away by it, I became interested in contemporary Japanese women writers. There was an article about Sayaka Murata in the New York Times that intrigued me, so I decided to pick this remarkable little jewel. Having worked for several years at a convenience store herself, Sayaka Murata is intimately familiar with her subject, and the reader is rewarded with an unusual story about an unusual character, set in the most pedestrian of locations, a convenience store in Tokyo. Keiko Furukura is the protagonist of this story, a woman in her mid-thirties who doesn’t want to get married, doesn’t want to have children, doesn’t want to make money, doesn’t want to have a career, doesn’t want to party and socialize with her peers, doesn’t want to become the best at anything. All she wants in life, to the puzzlement of relatives and strangers alike, is to spend her days at the convenience store where she works, a place that she finds wonderful and magical. The novel and its protagonist are deceptively simple. However, underneath the spotless surfaces of the counters and the shiny packages of the products sold at the convenience...

United States on Sep 03, 2021

Alejandro: Esta es la traducción de la primera obra de Sayaka Murata. El libro cuenta el punto de vista de una persona que es incapaz de actuar de manera natural en la sociedad, la cual nos presiona para lograr ciertas cosa en la vida (tener una carrera, trabajo, hijos y ser felices); sin embargo ella se siente muy cómoda siendo la empleada de una tienda de conveniencia.

La edición de pasta dura tiene una presentación muy bonita, aunque el cubre polvos le queda un poco grande. Es un libro bastante corto y muy fácil de leer ya que es de letra grande.

La historia puede resultar familiar para muchas personas que tienen el problema existencial de no saber que hacer con sus vidas. Creo que pueden sentirse identificados con la protagonista y encontrar la manera de empezar a encontrar la respuesta a esos problemas que les aquejan.

Definitivamente lo recomiendo y espero que Sayaka Murata se convierta en una de mis autoras favoritas.

Mexico on Nov 20, 2020

Stuffing's Mommy: While I’m sure this story is more than 3 stars, the language is very stilted in English. Amazon doesn’t allow for half stars so I just want to note this was 3.5 for me.

Keiko is neurodivergent and takes things literally. Through observing the reactions of family and teachers, she cobbles together a life that is easy for her to blend into society and keep expectations at bay. She absolutely shines in her convenience store job but because of conformity, she never goes full time or promoted to management.

Watching her adapt to fit in with friends and pulling cues from coworkers on how to behave whilst with the people she considers friends is painful. The author writes it subtly and you know Keiko thinks she has succeeded but the reaction of her friends lays bare that they find her behavior odd.

In an attempt to fit in even more, she acquires a former convenience store work to act as a boyfriend stand in. This is when Keiko realizes all of her connections, even with her sister, are not what she assumed.

United States on Sep 20, 2020

Damian Lacombe: I had finished reading this book around April 3rd and I was really surprised how good it was!

This book was originally released in Japan two years before it was released for English language readers, in 2016. It sold really well because the story holds a fascinating take on a person, who is considered strange and weird, working on a convenience store in Japan.

I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end because it intrigued me, and I was really surprised to hear some adult language in a book written by a Japanese author. Also, it made me wanna go to a convenience store in Tokyo if I ever have a chance.

I totally recommend this book for those who are interested in Japanese literature or you want to have a short fun read after reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles (which I could try out, despite being a popular book and a long one by another Japanese author, Haruki Murakami)

Rating: 10/1

Canada on Jul 09, 2020

Phred: Sayaka Murata’s brief, but to the point Convenience Store Woman took me more places than its 163 pages might promise. It is a very easy read and mostly family friendly admitting to a few ‘bad’ words and some mostly negative sexual suggestions. Then there is what happens when you let your mind delve into the depth of the novella. Highly recommend as a good use of a few hours.

At various time I thought I knew the deeper meaning of the book only to realize there was more and more ways to think of it. On the surface we have a mid-thirties, underachieving woman who has failed to be much of what society (Japanese) expects of its friends, family and neighbors. Because she does not conform she is held as a sympathetic figure in need of curing or of suspicion.

First stop: This is about a very Japanese middle-class suburban world but it is far more universal than one time and place. Anyone one too long single in most countries is going to garner some amount of suspicion. Try being the too long single Uncle and notice the almost unsaid concerns about you being around children. Listen to how you might speak about people who may not be striving for promotion, who are making...

United States on Apr 12, 2020