A review by dreaminfables
There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

“Nobody's life was untouched by loneliness; it was just a question of whether or not you were able to accept that loneliness for what it was. Put another way, everyone was lonely, and it was up to them whether they chose to bury that loneliness through relationships with other people, and if so, of what sort of intensity and depth.” 

 

I read this one in January, on cold winter mornings, while nursing a crippling dread of having lost my way around life. I speak in large terms of things that were of little consequence but how else do I cajole myself. At its core, the book offers comfort, is serene and thoughtful, leaves room for the reader to translate the narrator’s experiences into their own. 

The main character leaves her highly demanding and equal parts exhausting job in search of one that is mindless and without substance. A job that would meet her financial needs and would not implore her to do anything beyond the daily grind. Throughout the book she switches from one odd job to another only to learn and express that there indeed is no such thing as an easy job. 

Our nameless main character is funny and her deadpan commentary emanating from quiet observation of her workplace and the many people she interacted with had me laughing with amusement and relief. The reading experience was akin to sharing personal anecdotes inspired by the oddities of workplace over an evening meal with a friend. While she was very good at all the jobs that she’d picked up over the course of the novel, she found it hard to do away with the habits and things that had made her quit her previous job. To reject the need of getting involved and feeling affected by the proceedings of an event that consumes much of our life is hardly an easy task. 

There is an unconventional weirdness to this book, a quiet introspection that slowly encroaches sadness buried underneath layers of loneliness and solitary affairs. 

My mind was mercurial, heavily disturbed by matters of the heart and plagued by longing for better days. This isn’t a heartwarming story that could have brought joy to my soul, instead it was more like a soft breeze that would whisper every now and then that you’re not alone to feel this way. Sometimes, it is more nourishing than joy that comes bursting into your life like sun beams of earliest mornings of spring.