Tsumura, Kikuko "There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job"

Tsumura, Kikuko "There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job" (Konoyoni tayasui shigoto wa na/この世にたやすい仕事はない) - 2015

This was our international online book club book for April 2024.

My first impression was, this is a weird book that talks about weird jobs. Some that I never heard about it. A young woman goes from one of them to the next. Jobs that don't seem to require any special experience or talents.

Or is that so? The more we get to know the protagonist, we get to recognize that she has a lot of talents and uses them well to go through her various tasks.

I doubt I would have picked up this novel if I had just come across it in a book shop. And even if I had, despite a pink cover, I don't think the description would have convinced me that this would be a book for me.

But, since it was a book club book, I started and finished it and I can honestly say, it was a nice read.

And - the title is correct, there is no such thing as an easy job.

Comments from members:
The focused on differences between Japanese and Western culture and attitudes to working life.
Only after listening to club members who are more familiar with Japanese culture did I understand the point of the book and why it became popular.
Participating in the discussion added a lot to the reading experience.

From the back cover:

"A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: it is close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing - and ideally, very little thinking.

She is sent to a nondescript office building where she is tasked with watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods. But observing someone for hours on end can be so inconvenient and tiresome. How will she stay awake? When can she take delivery of her favourite brand of tea? And, perhaps more importantly - how did she find herself in this situation in the first place?

As she moves from job to job, writing bus adverts for shops that mysteriously disappear, and composing advice for rice cracker wrappers that generate thousands of devoted followers, it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all, but something altogether more meaningful..."

One of our members recommended this essay: "The Absurdity of Labor in There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job"