Review: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (Spoiler-Free)

She's far happier thinking her sister is normal, even if she has a lot of problems, than she is having an abnormal sister for whom everything is fine. For her, normality—however messy—is far more comprehensible.

If I had to boil this book down into one phrase it would be: Why can't everyone just leave me the fuck alone?

I wasn't expecting to resonate so deeply with this strange, cathartic satire, but I couldn't help myself from inhaling the whole thing in two sittings. This simple story follows Keiko, a single, 36 year-old woman who's worked in a convenience store her whole life. She is very content with her situation and identity; the problem lies in the fact that everyone else isn't.

What this book conveys so well is that the practice of nonconformity isn't inherently uncomfortable—what's uncomfortable is the obligatory defense of it. One might not be worried about the decisions they make, but are worried about how they are going to have to justify them. If we could remove that last hurdle, remove input from orbiting parties (or our regard of it), we'd be so much freer. It's infuriating to realize that you are not holding yourself back, your concern for how much about yourself you will have to defend or explain to others is.

Murata observes that like Keiko, if you don't have a "career job", aren't married, aren't interested in sex, etc., you don't have to fix your life by doing or getting all of those things. Because for you, those things aren't problems. The problem is that they're problems to everybody else. Thus, a potential solution might not be to actually change those things about yourself, but to give everyone vague, noncommittal answers about your life that they'll fill in with the details they want and expect! Perfect :)

No, but seriously. Let's stop perceiving each other. Not everything needs to be analyzed. Thanks <3