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A review by pingi444
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
5.0
i read this book in a couple hours since it’s pretty short, but also, because it was hard to put down!
the main character, although never explicitly stated, seems to be on the autism spectrum and generally has an incredibly difficult time “being normal” (she takes the way people speak and the way they contort their faces to express different emotions and memorizes them to make up her own blend of communicating). she’s been a worker at smile mart for 18 years and she’s Good at her job. scratch that, she’s pretty amazing at it.
this book deals with the way society belittles service workers and as someone who worked customer service during the height of the covid-19 pandemic AT WALMART. it was almost painful to read, relating to the way keiko (the main character) had every little detail of her 5 days at the convenience down to the T, even calling herself a cog in the system of the store.
she’s constantly questioned (even keeping track, 14 times…. 12 times….) about why she’s still “just a convenience store worker”, why she isn’t married and when she’ll be having kids. this book brings forward an important discussion to be had about the way society regards women’s importance, how it uses women and spits them out after. in its hierarchy of many gender roles, of course, being married and having kids is the most highly regarded, as if that’s what every woman aspires to, instead of supporting them in what makes them happy.
side note: shirahi should just choke and fall off a cliff. what an absurd & pathetic little man (literally).
in the end, i hope keiko ends up becoming the manager of the smile mart she’s worked at for so many years because she more than deserves it. she deserves it all!!!!! she always knows exactly what the convenience store wants, without a single second of hesitation, after all.
the main character, although never explicitly stated, seems to be on the autism spectrum and generally has an incredibly difficult time “being normal” (she takes the way people speak and the way they contort their faces to express different emotions and memorizes them to make up her own blend of communicating). she’s been a worker at smile mart for 18 years and she’s Good at her job. scratch that, she’s pretty amazing at it.
this book deals with the way society belittles service workers and as someone who worked customer service during the height of the covid-19 pandemic AT WALMART. it was almost painful to read, relating to the way keiko (the main character) had every little detail of her 5 days at the convenience down to the T, even calling herself a cog in the system of the store.
she’s constantly questioned (even keeping track, 14 times…. 12 times….) about why she’s still “just a convenience store worker”, why she isn’t married and when she’ll be having kids. this book brings forward an important discussion to be had about the way society regards women’s importance, how it uses women and spits them out after. in its hierarchy of many gender roles, of course, being married and having kids is the most highly regarded, as if that’s what every woman aspires to, instead of supporting them in what makes them happy.
side note: shirahi should just choke and fall off a cliff. what an absurd & pathetic little man (literally).
in the end, i hope keiko ends up becoming the manager of the smile mart she’s worked at for so many years because she more than deserves it. she deserves it all!!!!! she always knows exactly what the convenience store wants, without a single second of hesitation, after all.