A quirky, thoughtful story about trying to fit in? Yes, please. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata seems at first like a slight entertainment, a droll commentary on modern life. But it can stay with a reader, making one wonder just how serious a story this is.
Keiko is 36 years old and has been a part-time worker at a convenience store in her Japanese home town since she was 18. It's the only place she feels normal and feels that she fits in. Descriptions of things she did as a child trying to solve various problems show Keiko really needed a stable, secure place where she could fit in. Her family loves her, especially her younger sister, but they never knew what to do to cure her.
After taking part in the store's training and reading the manual, Keiko is at peace:
It was the first time anyone had ever taught me how to accomplish a normal facial expression and manner of speech.
She feels wanted and needed, no matter that hers is not an exciting existence:
I am one of those cogs, going round and round. I have become a functioning part of the world, rotating in the time of day called morning.
But as with all lives, there is no stasis. Friends no longer accept the old excuses about a part-time job being all her (non-existent) chronic condition allows. They don't understand why she doesn't have a boyfriend or a husband.
A new employee, a disgruntled man approaching middle age, will disrupt Keiko's equilibrium. Shiraha doesn't follow the manual, he isn't cheery, he doesn't stock the shelves and he is a gaunt, unkempt person. Shiraha constantly complains about how human beings have not changed since the Stone Age. Men have a role, women have a role and he just wants to be left alone.
In a way, Shiraha's rigid way of looking at things reminds Keiko of the way she sees she has to act to pass herself off as normal with other people. Her uniform has been a disguise to become a normal person. Ever since she began work, she has felt like she belonged:
At that moment, for the first time ever, I felt I'd become a part in the machine of society. I've been reborn, I thought, That day, I actually became a normal cog in society.
But what does coming across the likes of someone like Shiraha mean?
Without giving anything away, the epiphany is delightful and fits Keiko. She knows that the world is changing all the time, and she's all right with that:
After all, I absorb the world around me, and that's changing all the time. Just as all the water that was in my body last time we met has now been replaced with new water, the things that make up me have changed too.
The strength in this slight novel (which is less than 200 pages) is that at first, Keiko stands out for not being "normal" and for finding ways to navigate the world. Then, as Shihara begins his complaining, the other penny drops. Hang on, how many people feel that way and disguise it? How many people are trying to fit in, even to the point of not calling attention to themselves, to be able to carry on as peacefully as possible. That realization makes Convenience Store Woman a story well worth reading.