Reviews - コンビニ人間 [Konbini ningen]

コンビニ人間 [Konbini ningen] by Sayaka Murata

36.4k reviews for:

Quirky and a little dark. As a woman in her thirties, I identified with using any and all ways to get family to stop asking why you’re not married…but the boiled vegetables are what I found the most upsetting.

makens's review against another edition

3.0

emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

hmda's review against another edition

4.0

this is the most bizarre (yet, weirdly enjoyable) thing i’ve ever read.

libraryofthorns's review against another edition

3.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I have mixed opinions about this book. I could relate to the main character in some ways- she definitely is on the spectrum. However that is also one of my issues with the book. While the commentary about societal expectations is certainly relatable as an autistic, Keiko isn’t just autistic. Autistic people don’t automatically jump to like oh just kill them, then they can’t annoy you anymore. That’s straight up psychopathy. It’s disturbing to me that so many people seem to think this is how autistics feel. Also, the character Shiraha also got old fast and deserved to live on the street. No sympathy for that guy. Ending was abrupt.

emjil's review against another edition

3.0

This was a quick and easy read, and I have mixed feelings about it. Our main character, Keiko, lacks social grace and has a hard time understanding others’ emotions. It is implied that she has some sort of developmental disorder that stunts her ability to understand others and understand social cues. Still though, she has sharp observational skills: she is keenly aware of how her speech is influenced by the people around her: “infecting each other like this is how we maintain ourselves as human is what I think.” She is able to identify resentment as projection: “maybe people who thought they were being violated felt a bit better when they attacked other people in the same way.” She is able to observe her social interaction from the outside and analyze them accordingly.

Keiko struggles with the expectations of a “normal” life. It seems like her friends, family, and society at large want her to get better job, or get married and have kids. Keiko rejects this sort of conformity and embraces what she calls her convenience store animal instinct.

There are contours of anti-capitalist ideas – Keiko talks about being just another cog in a machine, about how she has to keep her body well-oiled in order to do her job, and she admits that she has her “human” life and her “convenience store staff” life. But I don’t think "Convenience Store Woman" really functions as a critique of capitalism. If anything, Keiko gains self-worth, independence, and meaning from her rote nine-to-five. In fact, she uses this identity – a “worker” devoid of humanity – to reject the conformist culture that demands more from her. I think Keiko as a character doesn’t really work as the subject of a capitalist critique (although I don’t even know if that’s what Murata was going for.)

I didn’t think this was a funny or quirky or lighthearted novel, like others have said. Only one part made me chuckle. Keiko’s sister comes to Keiko’s apartment, with concern for her. “She kept crying uncontrollably without responding to my request. Lost for something to do I took a custard pudding out of the refrigerator and ate it as I watched her sitting there sobbing.” But even that scene is colored by the tragedy of a woman who struggles to feel human, and her family who doesn’t know how to help.

pogostick's review against another edition

3.0

the message the author tried to convey here felt jumbled and contradictory to me. i liked when the main character thought the most logical way to silence a crying child would be to kill it though