Convenience Store Woman

A novella set in Japan about a weirdo, an, I assume, autistic, also asexual, woman, Keiko, who in early childhood realizes a set of rules to live by where she can exist peacefully in a society that has expectations about how people live. Shortly after matriculating to college she discovers that her new job at a convenience store allows her an identity, a social-figleaf as well as the satisfaction that comes from performing a job with skill, even if that job is not particularly important, lucrative or well respected.

Keiko as a little girl after discovering a dead bird at the park…

“What’s up, Keiko? Oh! A little bird … where did it come from I wonder?” she said gently, stroking my hair. “The poor thing. Shall we make a grave for it?”

“Let’s eat it!” I said.

“What?”

“Daddy likes yakitori, doesn’t he? Let’s grill it and have it for dinner!”

The story begins twenty years after taking her job at a convenience store when she is still at the store, the oldest worker who is only a year younger than the current store manager. As middle age approaches, Keiko’s normal obfuscations and excuses have worn thin so that her friends, relatives and co-workers wonder why she has not settled down, gotten married, had a career or children. She must also confront the real existential problem of aging in a physical, subsistence-level job, where any injury may end her economic viability.

This book is only 150ish pages and it concerns the way that Keiko accepts her challenges as a oddball with cheerful honesty and resiliency. I smiled a lot along the way.