
Convenience Store Woman
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Narrated by:
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Nancy Wu
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By:
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Sayaka Murata
About this listen
Meet Keiko. Keiko is 36 years old. She's never had a boyfriend, and she's been working in the same supermarket for eighteen years. Keiko's family wishes she'd get a proper job. Her friends wonder why she won't get married. But Keiko knows what makes her happy, and she's not going to let anyone come between her and her convenience store.
©2020 Sayaka Murata (P)2019 Sayaka MurataCritic reviews
Witty, wily, and astonishingly sharp.
-- Lisa McInerney, author of "The Glorious Heresies"
An exhilaratingly weird and funny Japanese novel. Unsettling and totally unpredictable.
-- Sally Rooney
A haunting, dark, and often hilarious take on society's expectations of the single woman.
-- Elif Batuman, author of "The Idiot"
[A] short, deadpan gem... This is a true original.
-- Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail
A sure-fire hit of the summer... quirky [and] profound.
-- Irish Times
Delightful and eccentric
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A gem of a book
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wtf did I just listen to?
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I went after "Convenience Store Woman" after seeing it recommended on a list of books for people who loved "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine," which I adored. CSW not only lacks the lovable characters, unique perspectives, and gripping storyline of EOICF, but it lacks a basic plot.
CSW follows Keiko, a 36 year old woman living in Japan who has struggled with passing as "normal" her whole life. She cares about no one and nothing but being valuable to society as a "cog" in a smoothly working convenience store... and that's it. The story goes nowhere. Random characters ranging from dislikable and uninteresting to utterly detestable come and go. Keiko ponders slitting her baby nephew's throat when he cries. Convenience store displays are described again and again. Keiko calmly recalls knocking out a classmate in childhood and having no emotional response to his pain. A disgusting sexist character obsesses repeatedly about society never developing past "the stone age." Keiko calculates what percentage of her body is made up of convenience store products.
The reader repeatedly gets their hopes up that THIS chapter will be the one in which Keiko has a character arc, and is repeatedly let down. The reader's mood descends slowly at first, then faster, as they are presented with a bleak and hopeless view of society and those who are caught up in it.
Then the book ends. Proceed at your own risk.
Boring AND depressing: a fateful combo
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