I read this a few months ago and felt that the character was rather affectless and experiences what has been termed the pathology of normalcy. Clearly the store gives her a sense of safety but her inability to truly relate may have been due to some childhood trauma. Nevertheless a challenging read.
Convenience Store Woman. (US link).
What is the lesson of the eccentric book? Perhaps mostly that we should not think it is so eccentric? The obvious analogy between working in a store as a convenience to customers and living in a normal way that is convenient for everyone else extends to the idea of a hero or heroine. This is a there and back again story, where nothing is new or resolved. Everyone pretty much goes back to how they started. Why should the hero of a story follow a development you find convenient?
There’s an ironic series of scenes between the protagonist, Keiko, and her loafer, no-good boyfriend, where we (and she) see some of the parallels between the way he lives as a parasite and the way she lives detached from friends and family. There is a strong line of argument about women’s role in…
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