Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Convenience Store Woman

I read this as two different people. as a reader and enjoyer of good books and as a teacher of children on the autistic spectrum. The story doesn't say the the main character Keiko is autistic but there is so much evidence that she is Keiko knows she's "not normal" [an awful phrase but bear with me] and she doesn't understand "normal people". She gives a couple of examples early on , of how she thinks completely differently from neurotypical people and when that led to attitudes and behaviour that made her feel unsafe she continued her childhood and school years by masking her true self.
Throughout the book I recognised characteristics of my former students which actually warmed my heart and brought a smile to my face. Keiko doesn't give the same importance to things neurotypical people do , so her nephew is no more important to her than any other baby. She mimics the voice and characteristics of others . She "noticed that whenever I got angry at the same things everyone else did they all seem happy" , so she behaved that way in order to fit in. She can be extremely abrupt and what may be considered rude by neurotypicals simply because she has no concept of feelings being hurt and she is similarly unphased by people being rude to her .She simply takes the words at face value. Instead of looking at the emotion behind a facial expression Keiko sees the small parts involved. For example instead of seeing shock on someone's face she muses about how the eyes nose and mouth all make an O , and when describing someone crying she observes that drops of water are squeezing through his fingers and running down their face.
Now the children I taught were often non verbal or limited speech, and they had additional learning difficulties so they felt no need to mask and were blissfully unaware of societies ' demands to have people behave in what is considered a socially acceptable manner. And why should they ? They were very lovable and valuable as they are.
Keiko, who is also very lovable and valuable. does not have this luxury, surrounded as she is by family and friends who want her to be like them. They don't understand her and she is made to feel like an outsider. However hard she studies human behaviour and tries to copy it she can't She has a heartbreaking epiphany about halfway through the book. "The normal world has no room for exceptions and always quietly eliminates foreign objects
Finally I understood why my family had tried so hard to fix me" At this point I had drops of water running down my face.

However , in the convenience store , which is run in a regimental way with slogans and very prescriptive things to say and do, Keiko thrives. Here is a world where she feels safe and valuable, where she knows what's expected of her and life has meaning. Here she has clear instructions with no hidden meaning. She goes to sleep and she eats because she has to be strong for the convenience store.
Towards the end her hold on life through the safety of the convenience store becomes compromised and the clamouring voices of the neurotypical demands become louder and more violent . Poor Keiko needs to learn what to ignore and what direction to follow to help her live .

As a reader of good books I answered the following questions for myself:
Is it engaging. Yes a short story but I never put it down from beginning to end. It was never boring and often comical
Is it well written.? The writing was written as if written by an autistic woman. It was direct and simple but the reader can read between the lines for a more nuanced view of circumstances. Excellent writing
Did it engage my emotions ? Considering that Keiko herself was describing things in an entirely emotionless manner it is an example of Sayaka Murata's talent that she did. I was stressed when Keiko was stressed and furious with her friends and particularly her sister for making her feel they were suffering because of her !
Did it make me think of larger issues outside the story's remit? The social commentary of this tale is far reaching. Keiko the autistic woman could be anyone who feels and is treated like a foreign object who needs to be eliminated . In our 21st century world to be different still brings fear and hatred down on you. Trans people, for example, are vilified and often killed simply for existing . Non binary people , different races, disabled people, mentally ill people are all not welcome in so called "normal " society. Why do we insist on making people like us? The world has room for all people to be themselves.
I have gone on long enough and I'm aware my career makes me more passionate maybe than others about this issue. However I heartily recommend this short novel for a good read with some comedy and a thought provoking social commentary. Give it a try.

Content Warnings

atamano's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

erebus53's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I was recommended this book by Abigail Melton Munday on the Autistics Worldwide Facebook Group. This is not a person I know, but as the group is public I feel OK naming them.
Seemed like a good idea to read a few titles in aid of Autism month.

The first thing that struck me about this book was how the sales pitch on the cover was completely wrong. As an Autistic reader, perhaps I have a different take on it, but I don't think it's witty or hilarious. I'd go with interesting and perhaps thought provoking. It's definitely much more funny (oh.), rather than funny (ha ha!).

My Japanese is quite sketchy, but as someone who ran the anime club for about a decade I was fairly culturally literate. This is a story set in Japan, and some of its "oddness" is Japanese, and some is neurological. It wasn't until the end of the book that I heard the original title was コンビニ人間 (Kombini Ningen - or convenience-store person). Looking up the Kanji for the protagonist's name, I was amused to find that it could indeed be considered a pun as, I have been told, is common in Japanese literature. Alternate readings of the name "Furukura" do have different meanings and though it could be commonly read as Old "River", it could also be read as "Hideaway", "hiding place" or "storehouse". This is an apt name for a girl who learns early in life that if she acts intuitively, her ways of doing things will get her into in big trouble. She instead becomes someone who masks herself behind walls of affectations and habits learned by copying the "normal" people around her.

This characterisation was interesting to me in a couple of ways. The first is that this girl is depicted as feeling justified for violence. In my experience, denying regret for childhood violence used when you are in the middle of a panic or urgent situation, is less about being remorseless and more about protecting yourself from being criticised. Engaging with negative self-critique can be really difficult when you don't even understand your own motivations. She clearly has some failure to understand the emotions of others, but her disdain for others at times borders on not just Autistic, but callous. Some writeups online suggest that the character might be sociopathic, but her rigid attention to rules and guidelines and her disinterest in lying or manipulation has me convinced that she's Autistic. I do find it a little problematic that this Autistic child is depicted as creepy and dangerous.. but at the same time, it's realistic to demonstrate the fact that when people don't understand you they may want to keep away from you.

The thematics of this book seem quite tongue in cheek. It's a commentary of the cultural ideas that we take for granted. You are an inhuman weirdo if you dedicate yourself to something you are an expert at, passionate about, but that also confers low social status. You are expected to selflessly find a man to dedicate yourself to the service of, maintaining your looks, cooking and cleaning, and bringing comfort with a calm and positive demeanour for the benefit of your household.
But, that's basically the same thing.. only with one of them you are required to also be a bedslave, and if, like this character, you are asexual, then you also come up against the influences of those who tell you that you are not good enough, and that you need to have a baby to be a valid contributing woman within a society.

Keiko feels pressured into finding a human male to affect a relationship with so as to keep the people around her happy with her. As she becomes more and more aware of the masks she feels she has to wear just to have human contact, she realises how false her friendships with others are, and how unwilling they are to accept her. The talk of Curing her difference hit me like an emotional fist. It's been so many years since I faced a person in my sphere who thought I was unworthy because I was strange, and it brought some of that memory back.

Some of the most moving parts in this story for me were Keiko's sense impressions of the Kombini. I know exactly what it is like to sense your environment through its sounds, and the clues and patterns that hint what your next interaction will be. I feel with my house. I am in tune with its rhythms and sounds in much the same way. I know when pets need feeding, and when the traffic will be loud, or quiet. The act of getting off public transport a block before your stop I immediately understood as a chance to figure out what the mood of the day was; is it likely to rain?, is a special event on?, are there roadworks?, will people feel energetic, or low?.. all these would affect the systems in the shop, and the hypervigilance that she channels into managing those systems felt SO familiar to me. Recognising patterns like how a person's body language or sounds can tell you what method of payment they might use, cash or card. Yep, this is how I interact with my world.

I think this book packs quite a bit in for a short read.

Content Warnings

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