THE CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN by Sayaka Murata

Keiko Furukura is 36 years old. She has worked in the same convenience store since she was 18 - half her life. She is beginning to feel the pressure from her family that what she is doing is not quite normal, that here she is with no qualifications, working a blue collar job, no man, marriage or babies in sight. What to do? However nothing about Keiko is normal, so it's hardly surprising that although vaguely aware of her family's concerns, she is not terribly concerned or stressed about. Her life revolves around the convenience store: her personality and skills perfectly matched to the heavily prescribed manual and procedures that keep the shop ticking along. Highly valued, very much liked, Keiko is perfectly happy in her life and in her work. None of what bothers her family bothers her.

Nevertheless, with the arrival and subsequent sacking of a quite awful young man, Shiraha, Keiko weirdly sees a way to make herself normal. And so begins a very peculiar relationship which to the reader is a little alarming and not at all satisfactory. Shiraha is a lazy, misogynistic useless bully, gradually eroding away Keiko's uniqueness and self-possession. Until one day she is out shopping and has an epiphany.

Keiko is most intriguing - is she slightly aspergers? Possibly sociopathic? Does she have some sort of intellectual disability? Her need to fit in with the store culture, her strict adherence to the manual and shop routines, to be the best employee she is expected to be, in fact surpassing the expectation would make many of us uncomfortable and want to fight the system. But for Keiko she thrives in this environment - she is happy, content, recognised, acknowledged and rewarded in her job. Is this not what we all want in our working lives - a job we love, in an environment we love, and with people we relate to and like being with. Who are we to say that Keiko, in the eyes of her family and society is not normal?

This small and captivating book, translated from Japanese, is only 160 pages long, but every page is intriguing. The convenience store itself is a major character - the type of shop we do not really have in the West, much more than a corner store or 7-Eleven. For NZers more like a miniature The Warehouse where you can also buy your groceries, fast food and convenience foods. It's a delicious little book, funny, curious, and rewarding to read.