There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 24, 2022 Astrid Lim rated it really liked it

Shelves: literature, asia, lovely-heroine, magical-realism, mental-illness, award-winner, japanese

This book is unexpectedly very enjoyable!

Because I read some blurbs that said this book feels like reading a Murakami, I imagined a dark, gloomy story, with pretty absurd theme and grey setting. However, turned out this book -even though still has some Murakami's elements, especially the self reflections- is quite funny, light, with everyday tidbits that feel relatable.

I can't help but sympathized with the nameless main character, who is busy finding the easiest job ever, to compensate her bur ...more

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Nov 28, 2023 Nina ( picturetalk321 ) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star, a-reviewed, genre-fiction, transl-japanese, author-woman, world-japan, absolute-favorites, z-read-gelesen-2023, theme-workplace

This was just my kind of book. What I loved:

Emphasis on the workplace. And not the workplaces I tend to read about in most books or see in movies. You know the type (lawyer, artist, bookseller-cum-coffeeshop owner, detective, high-powered executive who dreams of opening her own knitting store). This was actual nine-to-five employment with real bosses, colleagues and (at first glance) unchallenging, even tedious tasks. And what is especially great is that the main character, our 36-year-old first This was just my kind of book. What I loved:

Emphasis on the workplace. And not the workplaces I tend to read about in most books or see in movies. You know the type (lawyer, artist, bookseller-cum-coffeeshop owner, detective, high-powered executive who dreams of opening her own knitting store). This was actual nine-to-five employment with real bosses, colleagues and (at first glance) unchallenging, even tedious tasks. And what is especially great is that the main character, our 36-year-old first-person heroine, does not harbour any sekrit ambitions to be a bookseller / self-employed florist / quirky musician. She just wants to have a quiet job. Then, despite herself, she gets into it but not for reasons of self-actualisation but for reasons of wanting to serve the company better, of being a good employee.

Reading about the four jobs (each one with a chapter devoted to it) brought back my own history of various non-professional-level jobs. Which brings me to reason number two of my love for this book: the descriptive detail. The prose is precise, somewhat stiff -- which I love in this age of colloquial, subjective stream, exaggerated emotions-style novels -- and marvellously, almost brutally, detailed. Everyday objects are described, and it is wonderfully evocative and bracing.

Next thing I love: the absence of (view spoiler) I found this so amazingly refreshing.

I don't know enough about Japanese workplace culture to appreciate to what extent this is Tsumura and to what extent the author is referring to local / national experiences. Certainly, some of the interactions, polite and formal, seem taken from real life Japan. In which case I now really want to visit and revel in that polite stiffness.

In the wake of this novel, I started doing Japanese on Duolingo and ordered three Teach Yourself Japanese books. I discovered that the author has written other books but THEY ARE NOT TRANSLATED into any language I can read ARRGH.

The cover is misleading so I'm glad I read this on Kindle. The cover made me think that this is about someone who is sick of working but that is not the tenor of the book at all.

Finally, finally, just what a delight is the careful structure. Just when I was starting to wallow in the day-to-day mundaneness of it all, something odd happens, something that is out of place, something mysterious, almost supernatural, something that is sort of explained but leaves a residue of 'whoa', and then seemingly disparate mundane dots are joined up, and the whole thing is just utterly mesmerising (to me).

One of my year's highlights. ...more

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Jul 29, 2020 Lisa of Hopewell marked it as to-read

I learned of this book herehttps://themonthlybooking.wordpress.c... ...more

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Apr 06, 2025 Ann rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2025-aty-52, 2025-sns-50

I didn't finish this quickly because it was too relatable and maybe it's influencing my low rating.

But I agree with the reviewer who said that the section on first job could've been removed altogether. The progression of boredom/dissatisfaction would still be obvious without it.

Shelving this as magical realism is a stretch, but then I was also reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is quite a high bar. ...more

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Dec 28, 2023 Sam rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2-translated, 1-contemp-literary, setting-asia-east, reviewed, to-read-translated, setting-japan, read-2023

It’s your basic Japanese slice of life, so nothing much happens by way of plot, which I usually eat up with a spoon. The book is divided into five chapters and the five different jobs that the main character takes on; these could even be short stories in their own right. But I started getting fidgety and bored starting with the 4th job and the 5th job wasn’t any better. So that brought the rating down.

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Jun 14, 2022 Kemlo rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction

Tedious and poorly edited, this book was a big disappointment. I liked the overall concept enough to buy a copy of the book, but it never lived up to its potential. I regret I am unable to read Japanese because I imagine the original text had to have been more skillfully executed than this dull English translation.

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