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Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Tsumura, Kikuko
Birthdate: 1978-01-23
Gender: female
Nationality: Japan
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan

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Reviews

There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job: Kikuko Tsumura by Kikuko Tsumura

This deadpan novel follows a woman with burnout through five odd temporary jobs. It’s less surreal and picaresque in style than [b:Temporary|45011012|Temporary|Hilary Leichter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1565353093l/45011012._SX50_.jpg|69672524] but has similar themes and spirit. The various types of work that the woman ends up doing neatly demonstrate how simultaneously mundane and strange paid employment can be. I liked the realistic way in which the jobs were never quite as advertised. Notably, one in which a product design role turned into writing an agony aunt column. In this book as in life, starting a new job means stepping into a pre-existing tangle of power dynamics, interpersonal relationships, and established processes that at first seem incomprehensible and bizarre. [b:There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job|52692515|There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job|Kikuko Tsumura|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1615222159l/52692515._SY75_.jpg|66297398] is keenly observed and insightful throughout, for example:

"That must be really tough," the young woman said.
Amazingly, I felt my mood improve slightly. So, I thought, I’ve been wanting sympathy, have I? So far, the only person who’d offered me straightforward sympathy about the inappropriate relationship I’d formed with my work was Mrs. Masakado. I should probably have talked to my friends about it, but they were almost all of a similar age to me, and were also just gritting their teeth and clinging on as best they could, so it hardly felt right to drone on about my problems. Besides, I didn’t want to worry them. I had one friend who was currently enduring a situation even worse than the one I encountered in my old workplace. Whereas I’d ended up quitting with burnout syndrome, she was still hanging on in there. Even in the past, when my friends had been kind enough to say that what I was going through sounded tough, I’d always felt morally indebted to them in some way, because what they were going through was, in point of fact, tougher. In contrast, the sympathy I got here may have been superficial, but it came without fetters, and thus felt easy to accept.

That’s a very relatable millennial sentiment. I found the bus advertising job the most appealing chapter, as this had a pleasing mysteriousness. The final chapter ends the novel in a satisfying manner, as the narrator reveals the job that burned her out and appears to be recovering from that experience. I do enjoy 21st century fiction narrated by a woman that centres her job without glorifying it as a high-flying career. Such books examine the significant, often dominant, presence that paid work (OK, terrible, or a mixture of both) has on our lives. In this sub-genre I would recommend [b:Temporary|45011012|Temporary|Hilary Leichter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1565353093l/45011012._SX50_.jpg|69672524], [b:Jillian|21535475|Jillian|Halle Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409807718l/21535475._SY75_.jpg|40864440], [b:The New Me|36342706|The New Me|Halle Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1579583497l/36342706._SY75_.jpg|58022687], and [b:The Disaster Tourist|42366547|The Disaster Tourist|Yun Ko-eun|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1578425485l/42366547._SX50_.jpg|66022122]. Each author on this list takes a distinctive angle on life at work. I really enjoyed Tsumura’s.… (more)

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annarchism | 16 other reviews | Aug 4, 2024 |

There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job: Kikuko Tsumura by Kikuko Tsumura

The strongest parts of this book were the strange little veins of the supernatural running through the story, as well as the main character, who was quite relatable and fun to watch as she went about trying to find a job that fit well for her. The flip side is that the narrative absolutely begins to DRAGGG the entire middle section and a fair chunk of the end. Even when the ending portion picks up it’s kind of all held back by hinging pretty significantly on a fictional football player whose story is tricky to follow. Overall, the story starts out engaging and well-paced before the third job begins and things start slowing down and being repetitive. I would be entertained for a few pages and then downright bored, so it falls right in the middle for me.… (more)

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deborahee | 16 other reviews | Feb 23, 2024 |

There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job: Kikuko Tsumura by Kikuko Tsumura

This was a wonderfully weird, hilarious, and dark book. Slowly following the nameless narrator, as she navigates five “easy” jobs after a burnout, might not be for everyone. But I enjoyed it a lot. (The easy jobs were: watching surveillance footage, writing copy for trivia on the rice cracker packages, putting up posters, and keeping watch on a huge park.)

There is a lot of absolutely lovely deadpan humour. You know, how some people can say the most outrageous things with a straight face? In this novel, the main character comments on the most banal things with the same straight face.

The darker undercurrents are also there - glimpses of the main character’s back story, things that happen in the last two jobs, etc. I also liked moments of magical realism (or whatever weirdness that was).

I liked the narrator’s attitude - there is honour and dignity in doing a job as well as you can, no matter what the job is.

The novel is very Japanese in many subtle ways, so I especially recommend it if you like to explore Japan via books (I know I do).… (more)

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Alexandra_book_life | 16 other reviews | Dec 15, 2023 |

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

This is a slow-paced slice-of-life kind of story set in contemporary Japan. The narrator has left her long-standing job in the health industry due to burnout, and is looking for something "easy"... but as the title suggests, has trouble finding what she's looking for. I found the different jobs she found—and her reactions to them—amusing. The ending was a bit abrupt for me, though. Based on the early part of the book, I had expected more wind-down for the ending.

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ca.bookwyrm | 16 other reviews | Aug 23, 2023 |

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