The Convenience Store Woman (2016) by Sayaka Murata #JapaneseLitChallenge18

🏪 Keiko Furukura grown up as an unusual child. She never fits in, neither at home, nor at school. It's just that she thinks differently from other children. Like, when they found a dead bird, while the other children were devastated or crying, Keiko was thinking that her father would like to have the bird cooked for dinner tonight. I think I will feel similar to Keiko - dead bird is just, well... a dead creature. It would be different if it was my pet, but a random dead bird is just natural. That's just one example, but Keiko's family was worried, and always think she needs to be cured.

🏪 At eighteen, Keiko still doesn't fit in in college. At this point, she took a part time job at a convenience store. It was a God-send to her, so to speak, as she finally found peace inside the regulated small world of convenience store. When one works in a convenience store (the kind that are numerous in Japan, as well as other Asian countries), one becomes a store worker; no matter what one's gender, sex, education, race, or social background is. One is only expected to perform based on the store manual. One would not be expected to be, to feel, to look like anybody else, since during working hours, they are all one entity, convenience store workers. Then, and only then, does Keiko feel happy, safe, and comfortable. No wonder that she never leaves the job, and becomes more and more attached to it.

🏪 Now Keiko is in her thirties, still a part-timer, still unmarried. Her family and friends are uneasy, often annoy her with their comments, insinuations, persuasions. Apparently, Keiko still doesn't fit the society. What is her fault? She lives independently, doing a good job, doing no harm to others, and more especially, completely happy and peaceful with herself. What's wrong with that? Well, it's wrong because the society dictates that a normal person should marry and procreate, and he/she should always improve in career. Being comfortable in one place for the rest of one's life isn't normal. It seems that all the Keikos in the world have only two choices: being happy of their own values, but being shunned forever from the world, for rejecting the society's convention; or accepted in the society, but forever living as a soulless creature, always conform with others.

🏪 Who would have thought that this seemingly nice and sweet little book is actually so thought-provoking, though in a fun and easy going way, without judging or condemning? Beyond the main theme, I loved its convenience store dynamic atmosphere as the background, but also, almost, as a living entity in the story. As an Asian, I, too, can't live without convenience stores. We even have four inside the apartment complex, two of them with ATM machine, where I can buy bread, fresh fruits, and sometimes hot snacks in about five minutes walk. Very convenient indeed!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Japanese Literature Challenge #18

hosted by Dolce Bellezza

The Rest of Their Lives (2016) by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent #ParisInJuly2024 #20booksofsummer24

💜 Embalmer. How many people could boast that as a profession? Or, how many author out there ever thought of writing about it? Jean-Paul Didierlaurent made a good decision to pick an Embalmer as maun character of this wonderful book of his.

💜 Though Ambroise Lanier is the son of a noble laureate in medicine, he chose a usually frowned-upon career: embalmer. I feel that he might wanted to pursue it in the first place as rebellious act against his arrogant and self-centered father who strongly opposed it. But regardless of his initial purpose, Ambroise quite enjoys his works.

💜 Talking about frowned-upon jobs, Manelle's home-helping services for elderly people is equally inglorious choice of career. Emptying chamber pots and cleaning houses - especially to suspicious old men - are definitely not everyone's dream of profession. However, like Ambroise, Manelle enjoys her meaningful job.

💜 It's not strange that both Ambroise and Manelle stays single until now. For Ambroise, particularly, it's not easy to attract a girl with his kind of job. But their lives are about to change completely, thanks to one of Manelle's sweetest patients. The octogenarian Monsieur Samuel Dinsky has had throbbing headaches recently, and after the MRI result revealed he had a brain tumor, with only three months to live, he made a drastic decision. It involves a journey to Switzerland, accompanied by Manelle and Ambroise - the first, friendly; the latter, professionally. Whose life would completely change, do you think? The octogenarian's? The youngsters? Or both?

💜 You know how French novels are often quirky? This one's quirkiness is in the profession of embalmer. It's not just the main character's job, Didierlaurent goes all in about Ambroise day to day job; the meticulous details of the step by step of embalming process, as well as what he deals with - his colleagues, the deceased's relatives, etc. It goes the same with Manelle's jobs. You might say this is a story of embalmers and home-helpers, and you're not entirely wrong. It is more that that, though. This is also a story about life and death, fear and hope. Ambroise and Manelle, each has a wholesome job, because they provide comforts for those who need it most: elderly people who need a dignified life, and family of the deceased who need to preserve the memory of their beloved.

💜 I might unwittingly describe this as a gloomy story - blame that to my current mood; this reminded me of my deceased father - but it's actually a charming, funny, sweet, hopeful, and heartwarming. I loved all the main characters, including Beth, Ambroise's grandmother. It's a story that reminds you that life... is always worth living! 💜

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Paris in July 2024

hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

20 Books of Summer 2024 
hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books