Convenience Store Woman
Sayaka Murata · 2018
A 36-year-old woman who finds perfect meaning in the rituals of a convenience store refuses to conform to social pressure. Murata's slim, dry, funny novel is a devastating critique of capitalist conformity, written with zero self-pity and total formal control.
The case against
Slim cuts both ways. Murata has one idea, executes it cleanly, and the book still feels stretched at 160 pages. Shiraha, the whining parasite Keiko installs in her bathtub, is a device rather than a character, and the second half leans on him. You finish in an evening and the flavor fades almost as fast.
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