
There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job
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Narrated by:
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Cindy Kay
A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: It’s close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing, and, ideally, very little thinking.
Her first gig - watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods - turns out to be inconvenient. (When can she go to the bathroom?) Her next gives way to the supernatural: announcing advertisements for shops that mysteriously disappear. As she moves from job to job - writing trivia for rice cracker packages and punching entry tickets to a purportedly haunted public park - it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all but something altogether more meaningful. But when she finally discovers an alternative to the daily grind, it comes with a price.
This is the first time work by Kikuko Tsumura - winner of Japan's most prestigious literary award - and has been translated into English. There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job is as witty as it is unsettling - a jolting look at the maladies of late capitalist life through the unique and fascinating lens of modern Japanese culture.
©2021 Kikuko Tsumura (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLCListeners also enjoyed...




















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Cozy and off-beat
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Good Vibes, Unusual Format, A Little Bit Bland
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my favorite audibook this year
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I LOVED it
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The book is insightful in a quiet, non judgemental way. It is a relief from the stress of modern life. The narration performance by Cindy Kay supports and enhances the work, making it funny, engaging, and accessible. It is easy to follow and to understand who is speaking at all times.
The translation by Polly Barton reflects some unusual choices. Colloquialisms from other cultures appear here and there. It is not clear whether these references were included in the original work or not. However, they are few and minor and so, while puzzling, they did not detract from the overall impact of the material.
I would recommend this book to anyone who struggles with the challenges of staying the course amid all of the challenges and pressures of modern life. This book is like a cup of comforting, healing tea.
Adventures in Overthinking
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My favorite book I’ve read this year
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Cute and lighthearted
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I didn't enjoy the structure of the book, which is a series of chapters, more like small novellas, linked only by the fact that they are jobs to which MC attaches herself for a period of time. Since she has a similar experience with each job, they feel a bit redundant after the first two – we know where we're going and what's going to happen when we get there. Although there was a realization for MC at the end, it felt anti-climactic, more like just a mechanism to tie things up, rather than the culmination of a book this long.
This was a good book but would have been better with some kind of over-arcing plot that provided more flow to the book and more insight into MC.
Good, but also lacking
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