Convenience Store Woman

Ok so this may well be the oddest book I've ever read. I read it in no time at all, and well, it's totally absorbing and just brilliantly bonkers!

Keiko is a 36 year old Japanese woman, she's never had a boyfriend and she's been working in the same convenience store for eighteen years. Her family want her to get a proper job, her friends want her to get married but she knows what makes her happy.

This woman has to be one of the most quirkiest characters I have ever come across. Her family and childhood, yeah, it's all just a bit weird and it makes for some compelling reading. As a child, Keiko shows some unusual behaviours and in an attempt to fit in she retreats into herself. She watches people; how they talk, how they dress and she tries to copy them to help herself blend in. I'm still trying to decide if I actually liked her, she definitely kept me interested, she's certainly complex, either way at the end I found myself cheering her on.

I absolutely no idea where this book was going, but I really enjoyed the journey. For all its oddities it did really get me thinking about society, social norms, and finding the courage to be yourself. Definitely one of the strangest books I've ready but I actually really quite liked it.