Have you ever been judged as weird after you say something, or act differently compared to other “normal” people? Or maybe not explicitly judged so, but that normal people around will look at you than showing disallowance reaction, such as bug out, and putting one’s index finger to lips and say “shhhh”?
Well, that’s the world of a convenience store (a.k.a. konbini / コンビニ) lady, called Keiko in a funny and quirky book, written by Japanese well-known novelist, Sayaka Murata called “Convenience Store Woman”, or in Japanese as Konbini Ningen (コンビニ人間)
How’s the book physically?
Physically, the book is lightweight and you can hold it wholly in your single palm! It consists of only 163 pages where you can slip it inside your sling bag to accompany your daily commuter time. It also has an eccentric illustration for the cover: aqua blue with a pop-up coke bottle in Taiyaki shape, which is of course it’s a konbini’s thing! Super weird in a good way! However, I don’t really into the aqua blue color on it, which to me it seems like I am holding a teenlit (Indonesian teenager love story novel), instead of an adulting novel which radically honest in hitting things that are considered socially taboo on earth in a sense of existentialism (keep saying it twice but have not elaborated it, yet. Hold my beer!)
I don’t wanna read if the author is not credible?
Okay, so how’s the storyline? Is it classy or edgy?
I’d rather say both! The storyline adapts the chronological plot: flowing ahead and not making you turn the pages backward or forwards. It depicts the “back office” of konbini life and attributes them in detail until you – at least for me – will never see konbini as same as before! You will practically know how they display things, greet customers, prepare for the rush hours, and other things that may never come to your mind before:)
But not only that! The novel has succeeded in breaking norms within “normal people’s life”, social unacceptance of celibacy, and challenges the child's mindset which often questions “why” at every moment.
Moreover, generally, living between wrong people, we are frequently exposed to manipulative actions from our interlocutor, which may let us do or feel things we shouldn’t. Sometimes, “normal people” who have a vivid vision and mission of life will strongly deny and neglect it.
But for Keiko (the konbini lady), every manipulative action are responded to normally by the “sincere” Keiko. She emphasizes her action, her own will, and decision – though by imitating societal life but in the wrong way – to keep her existence. However, she did not know that it was wrong: all she wanted to do is creating an essential purpose. She did it since she was a young girl.
When she was still in nursery school, for instance, she played at the park with her friends and saw a dead bird in the park. While most of her friends cry over the dead bird, she brought it to her mom and asked her mom “Let’s eat it! Daddy likes yakitori, doesn’t he?”. Her mom and teachers were surprised and then convinced her to make a grave for a little poor bird and bury it. And do you know what is her thought? She thought, she couldn’t understand why everyone was sad and decided to bury it, sacrificing fresh flowers to be showered on the bird's grave, instead of eating it.
What do you think?:)
I put several of my favourite quotes here:
- “The normal world has no room for exceptions and always quietly eliminates foreign objects. Anyone who is lacking is disposed of. So that’s why I need to be cured. Unless I am cured, normal people will expurgate me.”
- “Well, let’s get started, then! Drink cartons sell particularly well in the morning, so make sure the display’s nice and neat. And check that the price cards are in place, okay? And don’t forget shout-outs and customer greetings while you work. And make sure you get out of the way quickly if a customer wants to buy something.”
- “When you work in a convenience store, people often look down on you for working there. I find this fascinating, and I like to look them in the face when they do this to me. And as I do so I always think: that’s what a human is.”
- “But once they get it into their heads that I am not normal, since they all think they are normal, they’ll give me a hard time about it, won’t they? That’d be a lot of bother. So, it’d be handy to have an excuse to fend them off with.”
- “But Yukari was right I thought. After all, I absorb the world around me, and that’s changing all the time” She said this after she got compliment of her “normal thirties lady” outfit that she brought from boutique in Omotesando, again, after imitating her colleague at the konbini.
- “I realize now… more than a person, I’m a convenience store worker. Even if that means I’m abnormal and can’t make a living and drop-down dead, I can’t escape the fact. My very cells exist for the convenience store.”
Wow, anything else?
For me, this novel has a strong sense of dark-humour, which remind me of Albert Camus novel called “The Outsider”, an absurdist France philosopher. Similar to the Konbini Ningen novel, “The Outsider” also has sense of dark humour, reveals the cold, genuine character of humans and their capacity for free will. According to existentialists, people were formed with no purpose or meaning (tabula rasa), and it is our responsibility to find it. However, despite of the fact that he recognizes him as an absurdist, but many people approach him with existentialist philosophy through his work.
Lastly, I would like to recommend “Convenience Store Woman” or “Konbini Ningen” book for those who wants to enjoy dark-humour, existentialist in the perspective of Japanese life, something different, fresh, and relate to the adult life! :))
“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does” – John-Paul Sartre
PS:
Thanks to my fav Hungarian lady who presented this book to me as my birthday gift!
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