Convenience Store Woman
by Sayaka Murata
Nomination: Dublin Longlist 2020
Date Read: April 24, 2022
Keiko Furukura is different. She is what some might call “on the spectrum” and has a hard time knowing how to act as a human being. She has become adept at copying others’ mannerisms, forms of speech and clothing. Particularly in Japan, where uniformity and conformity are highly valued, nothing represents this better than the convenience store worker.
The convenience store is where Furukura finds her home. Everything is dictated to her – from the uniform, to the way to greet customers, to a schedule that offers no surprises. The store is where she feels safe and valued.
All of this is turned on its head one day when the store hires Shiraha, a man that loathes a schedule, a job, and believes convenience store workers are losers even though he has become one. Shiraha proves to be lazy, tardy and a general slacker and is fired after only a few days. Furukura is glad to see him go.
One night as she is making her way home, she runs into Furukura and he explains to her how he is now homeless, harassed by “society” to get married and produce offspring and most repugnant: to get a job. Furukura offers to let him move in with her and after some consideration, he accepts. In not too long a time, he has decided that she can have the privilege of supporting him while he hides out in her apartment. He also determines that she will need a better job with which to support him.
After 18 years at the Happy Mart, Furukura submits her resignation and she becomes untethered. Although she is spending some of her days filling out applications and sending out resumes, she doesn’t know what time to wake up. She is eating poorly. She forgets what day it is. Her sense of purpose and identity has been stripped from her completely. Furukura comes to the realization that she is a Convenience Store Woman, regardless of what others expect her to become.
I enjoyed this novella for a glimpse into the inner workings of the convenience store which are ubiquitous to Japan. When I lived in Tokyo, there was hardly a day that passed that I didn’t enter one whether to pay a utility bill, buy a snack or procure cold water on a sweltering day. Murata has written an indictment on the role of women in society, the narrow slots all people are shoved into and how those who are perceived as “different” instill fear and an urge to shepherd people onto the “correct” path. All in 163 pages.
Comments
Post a Comment