Delightfully weird, a little morbid and brutally frank. I like honest women.
The protagonist is honest.

As one cover blurb well describes the book, "irresistibly quirky". This slim novella was translated from Japanese into English and whoever did it was masterful. The words perfectly capture the tone and weight of both the main character and her surroundings. And about that main character? Well, read the other comments (or better yet, the book!). All I can add is that she seems a nice, sweet person who I think I'd enjoy knowing in real life. Convenience Store Woman is a very satisfying, strangely and thoroughly engaging contemporary story.

This was a very good and quirky read, funny and satirical, a short novel by Japanese author Murata that looks at what fitting into Japanese society - or really any society - is like, and what it costs the participant. Highly recommended.

Keiko Furukura, the protagonist, has been described as idiosyncratic and an oddball. She conforms to expectations and societal norms by mimicking speech and behavior but does not understand it. She is happy being a cog in the machine of the Convenience Store. The structure suits her but friends and family frown on her unmarried life and her long career as a part-time worker. To please others, she decides to try to make the leap to a partnered status and a "real" job.

Quick and easy, like convenience store food.

I loved this book! 36 year old Keiko Furukura lives alone and works at a convenience store. She's content but, under enormous social pressure, caves and invites a miserable leech into her life as a boarder and pretend boyfriend, much to the delight of her friends and family. This book is better than "quirky" and it's nothing like Amelie (?), I think it's a good and critical examination of our obsessions with career and family as measurements of a life well lived. Especially for millennials pressured into college educations, saddled by debt, stressed about the future and denied the same securities that allowed their parents' generation to build wealth, there's at least a kernel of truth to Keiko's "wacky" way of life. :)

36 year old Keiko Furukura gets her self-identity from none of the usual places; sister, friend, mother, wife, etc. Instead, she draws all of her identity from her job as a part-time convenience store worker. In this delightfully weird short story we are given a glimpse into Keiko's thoughts and ambitions. Right about when things start to get mundane, the narrative unexpectedly turns from bizarre story to clever commentary on societal norms. This is a quick and quirky must read.

Super quick and interesting read! I think it explores some of the nuance in capitalism and the "ideal" work+family. Got really invested in the main character from the getgo and found myself really rooting for her! Also prompted me to think about what exactly we're hoping to get out of these lives we live and what it means to be human and part of society.

interesting & almost confusing at times. an authentic take on the extent that women are alienated from society & what is expected of them. a light read & a wild ride. better than catcher in the rye in my opinion.

This book was almost too bland for me personally. But maybe it needed to be mundane to get the point across. Not every book needs to be overly exciting to encourage thought.