I didn't realize that this was such a short book. At 69 pages, this is a novella. I decided to read it in its original Japanese too. This is 'Convenience Store Woman' (2016) by Sayaka Murata. 村田沙耶香氏の「コンビニ人間」. The English translation by Ginny Tapley Takemori was released in 2018.
Protagonist Keiko Furukura has always been an oddity since she was a kid. I didn't think she's odd. She's neurodivergent and marginalized. She can't decode human social cues. She's certainly got opinions that aren't shared by her family or society at large. I was laughing at her choice of action as a kid. At so many points in the story, I wanted to shout 'Leave her alone!'
She decided to work at the local convenience store/konbini for some 18 years after graduating from university. She is uninterested in a romantic relationship or marriage. She likes the corporate employee handbook because it gives her a soul; she doesn't see it as restricting her freedom. The konbini trains them how to smile and what to say to customers. She likes that. After 18 years, she seemed to have no interest in getting promoted to be a store manager either. She welcomes feeling like a normal cog in the wheel.
When I first started here, there was a detailed manual that taught me how to be a store worker, and I still don't have a clue how to be a normal person outside that manual.
Keiko proposed a co-living arrangement to fellow worker Shiraha, who sounds like some giant loser of sorts. They do not have a relationship or a friendship. Living together posed a different set of problems. She had to feed him, and she considers this as 'adopting' him. This was purely an arrangement of convenience. But it wasn't convenient to anyone. Their families wished to see them get married.
Keiko quit her job at the convenience store to apply for a better-paying regular corporate job. She felt miserable. She rejected having to live according to society and family's expectations. She decided that she would return to it. She broke the agreement with Shiraha too. Her one ambition in life is to be an excellent employee at the konbini. Those are bright and predictable aisles. She had pride in her job, and seemed to be able to do it well. To be honest, she was the best corporate asset as a tool, as a devoted worker.
I don't know how far you want to read into capitalism and exploitation here. There's a illusion of choice. Yet, she is totally bound up in it, comfortable in it. She surrenders her humanity to a konbini.
I was wasting time talking like this. I had to get myself back in shape for the sake of the store. I had to restructure my body so it would be able to move more swiftly and precisely to replenish the refrigerated drinks or clean the floor, to more perfectly comply with the store's demands.
