My Take - Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Reading Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata was a novel experience for me. I have never read anything like this before. I didn’t know anything about this book until a few days ago and picked it up on a spur, and, I must say, this is one of the best decisions that I ever made.

It’s very difficult to classify this book. It can either be labelled as a dark comedy or an existential novel. However, it defies all attempts of labelling and classifying it, and which I think is the main purpose of the novel, that is defying all classification. The novel is a first person account of a thirty six years old, misfit convenience store woman, Keiko Furukura. She doesn’t fit into any of the roles assigned by the society and therefore she is termed a misfit who is ought to be cured.

The novel, just like Keiko Furukura herself, is apparently simple and mundane. But one has to look beyond this façade of simplicity to comprehend the real gems that the novel has to offer. The novel is replete with symbolisms, analogies, and through the seeming uncomplicated reasoning of Furukura it hits hard at the hypocrisies and duplicity of the ‘normal’ society. I am amazed to see how the author had explored complex and controversial themes through simple and mundane objects.

After reading this novel, I wonder how many ‘abnormal’ yet happy Furukuras are out there who are forced by the ‘well-meaning’ society to lead a miserable but ‘normal’ life. As Furukura says of her sister, “For her, normality – however messy – is far more comprehensible.” While Furukura is a misfit and unfazed by the societal norms, Shiraha, though a social outcast cares a lot about fitting into the society. While society has failed to make Furukura hate herself but it has successfully made Shiraha hate himself for failing to adhere to the rules prescribed by society. Thus, Shiraha wants to instil his own bitterness into the unfazed Furukura, who according to him has fared even worse than him.

It was so sad to read how individuality, uniqueness and quirkiness of a person are dismissed by society. If anyone is somehow able to retain his/her quirkiness, they are mercilessly persecuted by the society and are eventually expurgated if they don’t conform. Nevertheless, the novel didn’t become oppressive or suffocating with the sadness, rather it is written in so light a vein that an undiscerning reader could very well mistake it for comedy, which is also alright, I suppose. After all, life is not a noble tragedy as we would like to think but merely a farce.

The novel represented Furukura’s quest of making sense of her life. I am glad that by the end of the novel Furukura accepts and embraces her ‘abnormality’ and does not yield to the rules set by society. She realizes that more than a human being she is a convenience store worker, and more importantly, that there is nothing wrong with that. Thus, the novel and her quest end with acceptance of who she really is.

This novel considerably changed my view of life. I am so glad that I stumbled upon this gem of a book. This novel has become one of my all-time favourites. I will recommend it to anyone who wants to view life from a different, novel angle.

I would end my review with one of my favourite quotes from the novel:

“The normal world has no room for exceptions and always quietly eliminates foreign objects. Anyone who is lacking is disposed of.”

My Rating – Imperfect, abnormal 5 ⭐

Irasshaimasé!