Sadly this book was so boring and mundane
It just wasn’t my sort of thing.
I am sure some people will find it interesting

I think I was very excited about this one having gotten really hyped up by translated fiction when reading convenience store women and before the coffee gets cold, but this one fell a little flat for me. Although I felt a lot of what our main character was going through I didn't click with a lot of the themes and just found the whole thing really slow moving. Not a bad book by any means, just not for me.

I could not get into this book, ultimately it was not form me and I could not finish it. It may be one for other readers

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

“Whoever you were, there was a chance that you would end up wanting to run away from a job you had believed in, that you would stray from the path you were on”

Follows a narrator who, after becoming incredibly burnt out at her job, decides to quit and join a job agency looking for something new and completely different - without a plan of what they actually want. This leads to them working in some really random places, such as in surveillance, writing ads for a bus, answering questions on cracker packets and working in a hut in a forest.

Each role originally seems fairly pointless or dull, but always becomes more interesting than they initially seemed and each job brings in different characters and situations which creates the feel of this being a short story collection. the narrator is also incredibly blunt which is quite funny in some of their interactions in each new role. I can see why this was compared to Murata’s Convenience Store Woman, because if you like an unusual protagonist this one is for you.

I normally adore slow paced Japanese translated fictions, but I felt there was something slightly missing in this one. I was slightly disappointed as I was thinking id find a new favourite from all the hype and also because of the genre it sits in. Overall I enjoyed this book, but because it was fairly slow paced and towards the end felt a bit long I had to really motivate myself to give my full attention to it. I think that was partly because in the last job she has wasn’t fully invested in any of the characters and situations so didn’t particularly interest me and make me want to read on.

I loved the cracker factory job, and I felt that the author was able to catch the weird and surreal vibes that you get when taking on really random jobs and then look back on your time there. As the title suggests no job is as simple as they may seem, and the narrator finds themselves absorbed into each role with some of them consuming her life.

“Nobody’s life was untouched by loneliness; it was just a question of whether or not you were able to accept loneliness for what it was”

My thanks to netgalley for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I in the end read the finished copy instead of the arc.


I usually love japanese literature but with this one I just didn't feel all that engaged with the story or the characters. aside from that there was this sense of mystery pervading throughout and for once I did feel annoyed about that element being there without any resolution.
Maybe because of cultural differences I also just didn't fully understand why she was quitting these jobs or what she was finding so hard about them.
My copy also had quite some typos or missing words, but that may have been solved in later prints.

There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job is the eccentric story of a 36 year old woman (she doesn't have a forename in the story, we just see her as the narrator of the story) that walks into an employment agency, looking for the job that suits her perfectly;it is close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing, and if possible very little thinking. Exactly what she wants after she suffered from a burnout and moved back to her parents' home.
In the following parts of the story, she takes on different jobs. They don't connect in any way, and feel or more like separate short stories. She takes on jobs as checking surveillance footage in an typical Japanese office with cruelly long working hours deep into the night. She writes scripts for voice ads played on buses, writes copy for cracker wrappers; putting up posters, and monitoring a quiet segment of a large public park. In all her different job assignments, there are all kind of things happening, and she meets a cast of very different people.

And that is pretty much the setup of the story. The begin part was a bit odd and messy, as the main character has no name it was a bit difficult to figure out who she was and to connect to it as a reader. Especially the very odd first job checking surveillance cameras where she wasn't doing anything but some kind of spying on everyone in the office. It was entertaining to read though as it was so different then any other book. The book reminded me a bit of another book by a Japanese author I read a while ago The woman in the purple skirt by Natsuko Imamura , also with a nameless main character and also with various unusual job settings, and the same kind of atmospere.

Overall I found this book just eccentric thats what I loved about it, with a typical Japanese atmosphere, the most unusual jobs with unexpected twist and turns, and a crazy cast of side characters that come along with the jobs. If you are in for something different, unusual and out of the box, this is your kind of book.

A quirky and entertaining read. We follow the main character through her temporary jobs that, she makes her own for a time. You are acutely aware that she is trying to work out her place in the world after experiencing some previous work burnout. I savoured her musings on work, life, the supernatural, friendship, family and food. I liked her very much and wished I could taste the snacks she described in colourful detail.

I received this book from Netgally in exchange for an honest review.

I can’t begin to describe how spot on this book is! Took me
Months to read as I was going through some difficulties in my own work life. Working from home and not working at all felling out of love from my profession not knowing what to do next, but keep going. Discovering work life from a different point of view with tons of dark humor and interesting remarks about labour and society.

This book came to my life at the right time. I highly recommend it if you are in between jobs, or if you are feeling confused or burnt out.

Japanese literature is really refreshing to read. The characters seem wholesome and complex in a quirky way that I think we all can relate to them in a more or a lesser extent.

Really, really enjoyed this one. Our un-named worker gets back her desire to work, particularly to help others, after a year of simple jobs. The jobs didn’t demand much of her, but showed her what she really needs to do. Looking forward to more by this author.

Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for the advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I tried, I really did but I found the pace of this novel too slow to bear. I got to 52% and had to give up. I'm sorry, just not for me.

Review not posted anywhere else.

This quirky book set in Japan definitely gets better the further you get into the book. A woman in her mid 30's has left her previous job after suffering burn out. She asks an employee agency to find her an easy job, close to her home and with no responsibility. But as we know, there is no such thing as an easy job!

The book, set over a year, is split into five parts, for her five different temporary jobs she takes on.  At each one there is something not quite right and she always moves on. The jobs include watching CCTV footage, writing adverts to go on buses, putting up posters around the town, writing trivia/facts for cracker packaging and working in a national park.

I really enjoyed the last two parts the most and definitely warmed to the character the more we get to know her. 3.5 stars

I'm so glad I received a copy of this because it was FANTASTIC and as soon as we reopened it became a feature of my translated fiction display. Fun, bizarre, relatable, smart as a whip: I truly enjoyed this title and it's become one of my favourite things to recommend! I love the dark twists and I found the whole concept so fascinating - it made me wish for a podcast adaptation of it!

I did like Kikuko Tsumura’s writing, it’s quirky and spot on at times. She catches little moments and feelings, finds great words and ways to describe them.

I did really liked and really got into the second half of the book, but the first part I found very long and slow. I don’t know if it was my mood (sometimes you read something that is not right for your state of mind), or if it was just not my cup of tea. I thought of giving up a few times but I am glad I stuck to it because I did find the second half interesting.

I could relate the the main character who just want to find an “easy job” but cannot help to getting involved emotionally to each job to a certain extent.

I would be interested in reading something else from the same author.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read an advanced copy for an honest review.

I can’t recall having had read a book by a Japanese author before. This book really entertained me. An insight into Japanese culture and a laugh out loud at times. Yamae Yamamoto and the wurst sausage amused me. Excellent light read.

This was a fun read, and deeply topical. I don't read much fiction from Japan but am trying to read more, since there seems to be an increasing interest in the English-language publishing industry - possibly due to the runaway success of "Convenience Store Women." Anyway, I enjoyed this, and it feels like a good 'gateway' book/entry point into the world of contemporary 21st-century Japanese literature.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I liked reading books from another country as it makes it a more interesting read. I would like to read more by this author.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this, It was so raw and interesting I couldn’t put it down! I’ll definitely have to pick myself up a physical copy! I loved how odd and bizarre certain sections were it really makes you think.
I was interested by each job role that was mentioned and it got me thinking about my own career.

Highly recommend this book if you need a good think!

This is a very topical reflection on employment and burn-out, told in a way which held my attention. I loved Tsumura’s writing style, and the wide range of characters she develops and the social commentary around them was potentially my favourite aspect of this novel.

While the story isn’t hugely plot driven, I feel like this was made up for in the insights we get into main character’s reflections as she transitions from each workplace to the next. Ultimately, I really enjoyed this and thought it was a refreshing and timely take on finding meaning in the world of work and what it means to have a good role.

I like this book is capturing the issues and circumstances in modern society, seeking a meaningful job, getting burnt out, and so on. However, I found the story and characters a bit too monotony and had trouble connecting to.

I've read some reviews about this book and they were really mixed and I can see why. Some people pointed out the problem with transactions, so I'll maybe give the original a go, to see how it is.

This was an ok read for me, but I didn't dislike it at all.

A woman, burnt out from her career, leaves and begins a search for a job that is close to home, with minimal responsibility or effort required. She is sent to several temporary assignments where she tries to work out exactly what she is looking for.

I’m not sure what attracted me to this book initially. It was a change to what I’d been reading generally in 2020, when I hadn’t really strayed from crime thrillers and romance as a means of escapism. So this was a breath of fresh air and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

The writing is wonderful, translated from the original Japanese. The main character is sympathetic. I think in this busy world, there are very few people who haven’t experienced some sort of work related stress or burnout so to see her trying to make sense of her life after this was relatable. Exactly what happened to her in her earlier career is only vaguely touched on, though is fleshed it a little more as we get to know her.

The book feels like it is set in our world but slightly off kilter; there is an undercurrent of weirdness through several of her assignments.

This book definitely stands out from my recent reads and I hope her future works are also translated for the English speaking market.