September 21st, 2020
Convenience Store Womanγγ³γ³γγδΊΊιγ, by Murata Sayaka, piqued my interest mostly because it called to my childhood. Convenience stores, or konbinis, were a place I frequented often with my friends. Even today, I tell everyone: in Japan, you could 100% live out of a convenience store and never need anything else: it's that stocked with a vast amount of things that can and will cater to whatever need your mind can whip up. The sound of the greeting bell when the automatic doors would slide open, the smell of the fresh packaging, the cleanliness, the vivid colours, the wafting scent of the oden broth - these are all elements of the book (and konbini) that really grabbed a foothold onto my nostalgia for everyday Japanese life.
Through the artful konbini, Murata highlights the values of collectivism, innovation and efficiency that really underpins much of Japanese culture and ikigai, which loosely translates to 'reason for being'. While Keiko has clearly found her own niche in society, it follows that society remains unbending in how your place is to be found, and who dictates the quality of that place. Keiko is perfectly blasΓ©, unfeeling (almost eerily so) to the criticisms of her peers - honestly, she just wants people to shut up so she can operate the convenience store, her sanctuary, in peace.
I guess that eery/uncomfortable feeling, while extreme, is also Murata pushing us to reflect on our criticisms and judgments of behaviour that seems uncomfortable only because society deems it so. Still, it's interesting to see that Keiko still sees the need to please these people - definitely so that they'll leave her to her own devices, but also because Keiko clearly likes order. She understands that for her konbini to exist, so must the poorly crafted world around it.
4/5 Family Mart Famichikis