Convenience Store Woman

Convenience Store Woman: a Novel / Sayaka Murata, 163 p.

In Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project, a young man "on the spectrum" meets and falls in love with a "typical" woman who complements his amusing yet poignant idiosyncrasies.  I loved the book, and recommended it far and wide.

The convenience store woman, Keiko, is also somewhere on the spectrum.  Her loving family has never known how to help her, but when she lands a full-time job at a neighborhood convenience store, stocking shelves and greeting customers according to the company's cheery stock phrases, her life seems to take a positive turn.  She loves her job and feels adrift when she's away from work.  But Keiko's life shifts again when a moody, disaffected young man takes a job at the store.  Will Keiko grow and change in response?  Is a happy ending possible?

Just as funny in its way as The Rosie Project, but far darker in tone and outlook, Murata's novel felt extremely realistic psychologically.  Insightful, sad, and recommended.

The Dave Store Massacre by Ron Ebest

The Dave Store Massacre by Ron Ebest--219 pages.
I liked this new novel from U-City resident Ebest, concerning a big-box store in a small town in Missouri. The Dave Store, a fictional big-box, low-price behemoth, drove the main employer in Jackson, Missouri out of business several years back, and that led to an awful, tragic event. When those most affected by that tragedy join with fellow townsfolk to call a strike at the local Dave Store over hideously low wages, they seem on a collision course with a corporate culture that loves low prices, but hates organized labor. With workers sand management threatening violence, it is up to the pot-smoking sheriff, the disillusioned mayor, and the alcoholic city attorney to try and keep the whole situation from destroying their small town. A great book by a local author.

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