There’s No Such Thing As An Easy Job follows a young woman who has completely burnt out at her previous job and is looking for something easy that will require minimal effort, thought, worry and stress. We then follow her as she tries out five different jobs. However, each new job offers her insights into herself. She recognises her hidden skills, determination and preferences and slowly she recovers from her burn out and gains new friends and a new reflection and direction on life.
There is a magical realism vibe to this self discovery book and I liked it. I enjoyed the cultural aspects too. A good touch of humour also added to this charming story.
My thanks go to the publishers, author and Netgalley in providing this arc in return for a honest review.

There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job is interesting to me on two levels. First, the literal one. Like the unnamed narrator, I left a stressful career for a series of short-term routine jobs. I thought this would mean I could switch off and simply complete the tasks required, immune from office dramas or the requirement to fake enthusiasm (guess how that worked out).

More profoundly, There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job drew me in because it is about creativity, about how the stories we tell about ourselves both shape and are shaped by our engagement with the world around us.

Initially we know little about the narrator aside from her employment situation and the fact that she is 36. What we do learn emerges slowly (you have to wait till right near the end to learn about the job which led her to burn out).

Her first job involves carrying out covert surveillance of a writer in his home, for reasons which are gradually revealed. Watching him is both mundane and transformative. From the outside his life seems boring, she has no insight into what he is creating, but she finds her world subtly shifting as a result of observing him.

The assignment reaches its denouement and then she moves onto a series of other jobs, from writing trivia for packs of rice crackers to perforating tickets for visitors to a forest park. Each time, every small action she takes has uncanny and unforeseen consequences on those around her.

I enjoyed the details of Japanese life that were different – the food, the office culture, the glimpses of social life. I was amused by those that are the same – the tedium and camaraderie of office life, the clichés of football fans. I was charmed and intrigued. For a while.

But then … I began to burn out myself. The narrator’s tone is constant throughout, her naïve wonderment untouched by experience. And while the novel appeals to me at the level of ideas, the story itself feels quite repetitive and slow.

I feel it would have been a better book if it was half as long. Despite that, I have found myself puzzling over it since I finished reading. There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job may have been a chore but I couldn’t help being drawn in and a little changed myself.
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I received a copy of There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job from the publisher via Netgalley.

I don't think I've ever read a book that I couldn't tell if I enjoyed or not but thats the way I'd describe 'There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job' by Kikuko Tsumura. I was initially put off this book by negative reviews I read shortly after starting and I found I couldn't get into it so I took a break and came back to it in a month.

The best way I'd describe this book is a series of short stories in which the main character does a series of 'easy jobs' in a quest to discover how she is going to spend the rest of her working life. However, each quirky job that an interesting element to it which keeps drawing her in. You don't learn much about the main character (you only discover her age near the end) and what happens in her life outside work. Each job had just enough development and plot to make me want to keep reading and ultimately the main character did learn something from the experience.

An interesting examination of contemporary life at work and burnout--a good fit for fans of books like My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Sad Janet. The translation felt a bit clunky though, and it affected the flow of the narrative.

It’s easy to see the appeal in work that makes us feel nothing: it’s low effort, low stakes, little thinking, you get paid and go on with life. That’s exactly what the protagonist in Kikuko Tsumura’s There’s No Such Thing As An Easy Job wants. And it’s exactly what she gets, time and time again – initially.

First, she spends hours watching an author, who allegedly has contraband in his home, through hidden cameras. In theory there is no job easier than watching a recording of a man in his home all day and taking notes. As time goes by she gets invested, shaping her own life to his, lifting doses of inspiration for dinner, or critiquing his latest writing exactly as it happens.

Next comes the bus company, where their adverts seem inexplicably tied to the fate of the local area’s companies, then crafting rice cracker advice which garners more followers than she could have imagined. On and on she continues with roles that expect little of her, but make an inexplicable impact.

In navigating 'dull' jobs, it’s in the deadpan delivery of mundanity where the book succeeds – each job gradually reveals its quirks, connections or downright surreal nature, allowing the humour and strangeness to catch readers off guard. A droll look at work life, it’s a slow build to a simple idea: the search for meaning can rest in the most unexpected places.

I was so excited to read this from reading everyone else’s blogs, but ended up DNF-ing on page 150. I just didn’t get it, didn’t get what I was supposed to be reading or what it meant.

The first section was quite strong. The surveillance job was intruiging and I could completely relate with struggling through burnout and merging your current job with your personality. The line about the supermarket coupon had me howling with laughter…and then it all fell flat.

I had no idea how the chapters about the bus company were meant to affect me. There was some sort of mystery going on that I didn’t seem to be privy to and it was as if I’d been thrown down the rabbit hole which involved bus advertisements and moon cakes. Their boss was a bit odd and didn’t seem to like efficient women.

As for the character herself, I knew her parents were involved in her life and she moved jobs very quickly. I had heard that around the end of the book the reader would find out the reason why she had burnout, however I was just too baffled to get to that point. I suppose when you’re living through 2020 it would be nice to read something that made sense so I guess this book wasn’t for me.

There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job is about the memories of a woman in her thirties in various jobs. While you will witness how there are many interesting jobs in Japan, you will also reflect on working and work life. There is also a subject that puts the book in a different place; our never-ending search for meaning in life and the need for human relationships everywhere.

A perfect read for anyone who’s ever had a job they hated (which is – everyone, right?) this book by award-winning author Kikuko Tsumura, translated from the original Japanese, follows the protagonist on her quest for a job that “was practically without substance, a job that sat on the borderline between being a job and not.” She works through a series of low-level positions all which sound simple at first, but that seem to ‘scope-creep’ in curious and unexpected ways – whilst also presenting observations about the modern nature of work and our attitudes to responsibility. “‘You should rest! It doesn’t do to be thinking about work all hours of the day, you know.’... I understood that Mrs Fujiko could see that my soul had seized up and grown stiff. I felt a sudden urge to kick the coffee table away and hurl my teacup at the wall.” Quietly hilarious, grimly recognisable and curiously un-put-downable: gift it to someone who might be on the edge of burning out, or read it yourself if the unending nature of our new-style daily grind is proving a little too much.

Cambridge Edition December: online.bright-publishing.com/view/113857/20/

A fantastic novel from a new (to me!) Japanese author, filled with delightful characters and quirky situations. I would recommend this to readers of Sayaka Murata and Gail Honeyman, but also to those who enjoyed career-focused chick-lit/slice-of-life novels such as Not Working and Living The Dream and are perhaps looking for something a little more challenging or different. I loved the narrator and her adventures in a series of strange jobs. Really enjoyable and all quite life-affirming in the end!

This was a delight to read.

The story follows an unnamed (?) 30-something as she journeys through multiple "easy jobs" looking for something simple after suffering with burnout from a previous career.

The story focuses on the mundane and simple day to day of the roles she takes on. I'm a big fan of Magnus Mills and thought this echoed a similar feeling of underlying currents of unease (was that just me?) whilst telling of the minutiae of life. Loved it!

On the face of it this novel shouldn't be that interesting, the jobs in the book certainly aren't. Yet because it's been written about someone in Japan it's just fascinating!

I loved this book and am sorry to finish it. I'm not sure we ever learn the name of the lady in the book, but she wants "an easy job" not because she is lazy but because she has suffered from burnout in her previous career.

Each of the jobs she gets are very tedious and yet she manages to excel at them and had me rivetted to the book in the process. The first job where she watched endless hours of surveillance on a man in his apartment, had me wondering like her - what was he doing? Would they find the right DVD case?

The next job writing for the adverts played on buses may seem to the Westerner pointless. But this is Japan and there is a quiet on a bus that we do not have in the Western world, so of course the adverts can be heard perfectly. Meanwhile she enters a kind of twilight zone with this job.

So it goes on, each job a little more intriguing, but will she find one she wants to stick at? I find myself describing these events like they really happened - the writing was so good (and the translation) that I forgot I was reading a work of fiction. If you liked Convenience Store Woman then this is in the same vein. If you like you books to have no grey areas - no wondering "could that really happen" and firmly set in the real world, then it's not for you.

Really enjoyed this book. It was well written, insightful, at times funny about the world of work place for women.
Definitely relatable.
Thanks a lot to the publisher and NG for this copy.

Our (unnamed) narrator is a 36-year old woman who has moved back in with her parents after giving up her job of 14 years, feeling burned out and just wanting an undemanding, unthinking job. Through a job agency she embarks on a series of five different jobs, from watching video footage of a writer believed to be involved in smuggling, to writing adverts for a bus route, and ending up perforating tickets sitting in a hut in a forest. The pattern in each is similar: she starts out wanting not to care about the job but, over a few weeks or months, finds herself getting involved in bizarre plot turns that lead, eventually, to her either giving up the job or finding her contract has ended. By the end of the book, and her encounter with a similarly burned out homeless man in the park, we discover what her previous job had been, and see that her journey has somehow helped her come to terms with the stress, feeling that she can now return to her previous line of work.

I'll be honest, I struggled a bit with this one. I get that the author created the novel in such a way that the structure reflects our narrator's development, the routine and repetition of each of the five jobs being repeated similarly in each successive chapter. But it becomes a bit formulaic, and the last chapter - which initially perked me up a wee bit after losing interest in the previous couple - then becomes such a 'lesson learned' moral that it was just a little too clichéd, a little too neat and tidy.

Interesting in theme, but could have done with some judicious editing to shorten it by 100 pages. All I can say is, it was OK. I so wish I could have enjoyed it more.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

In the before times, 'Millennial burnout' was something that covered column-inches; handwringing on how younger workers are working longer hours, but can't afford the things their parents could at that age; how they are sensitive to change, but not given the job security of previous generations. It'll be interesting how the current pandemic shapes these things, but this novel (one of several Tsumura has written about young people in precarious work) tells the story of how burnout can both completely reshape and restore who we are. I wonder if, had we not been in the middle of a huge global crisis that has completely re-shaped how we work, as well as how we look at work, whether this book would have received more attention than it currently has. We've all had those soul-crushing jobs that sapped us (I am the same age as the main character- thirty-six- and experienced huge burnout at the age of 32, that led to me leaving my career of ten years.)


Our protagonist wants a simple job- initially requesting something that requires no reading, no writing and little thinking. This leads her to a job where she watches a writer suspected of having something in his apartment he shouldn't. She cycles her way through several jobs (including one which has more than a hint of magic realism), slowly building her confidence- and health insurance- but always resisting the opportunity to stay when offered. I really enjoyed spending time with this very socially awkward, but earnest woman.


This was a gentle novel, that ebbed and flowed with the protagonist as she moved through various offices. It's also unexpectedly funny, with a darkness that isn't ever far from the surface. The absurdity of some of the situations, combined with a real tenderness for the people made this a compelling novel and one that's made me want to check out Tsumura's other work.

Leave it to a Japanese author to write about such a mundane, boring even, subject yet to transform it into a fascinating and intriguing tale.

The novel is quietly weaving the story of a woman in her late thirties as she flits from job to job trying to find her place after being disappointed in her choice career. Each story narrates her progress from accepting the job to what she was suppose to do in her role, to her feelings and relationships with the job itself and her co-workers/superiors, to her ultimately departure from the said job. Really looking at this synopsis one wouldn't think much of it. But...I don't know...some Japanese author really create magic from the most simple narratives.

Personally I couldn't stop myself from being drawn in, fascinated by what I was reading. I loved the unassuming way in which Tsumura takes us through a tour of force of her character's jobs and experiences. I loved the underling mystery: is it some ghostly/unnatural force at play or just a normal coincidence? I enjoyed the character's progress(a shame we don't know her name!!) and how she get out of her conundrum unscattered, with a very good lesson learnt. I believe it is the wisdom of Japanese culture at play here and we need more of that here in the west.

There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job is a dark and comedic work of magical realism that moves seamlessly between moments of irreverence and moments of solemnity. It questions the quotidian tedium and banality of it all whilst pondering the philosophical and if life indeed has any meaning to it at all. It is award-winning writer Kikuko Tsumura's first novel to be translated into English and was very reminiscent of my all-time favourite writer Haruki Murakami in that it was ethereal and otherworldly as well as rather enchanting and a meditation on all aspects of our working lives. This is a quirky Japanese novel about a mysterious and peculiar 36-year-old unmarried and unnamed woman who has suffered burnout from her stressful job and has gone back home to live with her parents for the time being.

She visits an employment bureau, looking for the most undemanding job possible so that she can recover and rebuild herself. But she soon discovers exactly how dissatisfied she becomes in employment that is not fulfilling and in an attempt to find herself the perfect job, despite not being certain whether she wants it to be simple, challenging or rewarding work or a mixture of all three, she tries her hand at a plethora of diverse job in the hope of achieving satisfaction. Tsumura's book is divided in five sections, each one focusing on a different job: a surveillance job, recording ads for a bus company (advertising the shops that are on the route of that bus) and to find amusing and/or informative facts to be placed on packets of crackers. In the fourth job she puts posters up, and in her final job she works at a park maintenance office. This is a truly riveting and compelling work of fiction that featured a tonne of social commentary gems, lyrical prose and an eccentric and relatable central protagonist.

As a Japanophile, the setting was about as perfect as you could get from my perspective, and I could picture the cherry blossoms and smell the sushi from half a world away; it was an ideal piece of escapism but with an intelligent, cerebral aura to it. I'm not surprised Tsumura has won multiple prestigious awards in Japan for her fiction as I simply could put it down and before I knew it the sun was rising. The whole story has an inexplicable purity and rawness about it that is difficult to describe but that is only found in Japanese writing and only that of the highest calibre. It is a tale of belonging, modern life, identity, finding yourself and discovering your purpose and although humorous it is also both poignant and profoundly charming. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I had been in a reading slump for weeks when I picked up this book and it hooked me from the first page. A funny, insightful, and ultimately hopeful look into the world of work and its myriad challenges.

I really enjoyed this novel, looking at a burnt out Japanese millennial who is seeking 'an easy job'. We follow her through her employment at a variety of unusual, simple jobs, such as putting up posters, manning of park hut and writing entertaining trivia on rice cracker packets. I found the main character a little difficult to sympathise with, but this was nonetheless a very entertaining read, suitable for fans of Convenience Store Woman.

Firstly, huge thank you to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook and a print copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

As soon as I saw this novel pop up on my Twitter I knew I just had to read it, whether it be an ARC or a bought copy I just had to have it. Not only does it help me on my quest to read as many Japanese novels as possible, but it also covers the subject of work burnout which is something that hits close to home for me.

There’s No Such Thing As An Easy Job follows the life of a thirty-six year old woman who is returning to work after taking a year off after suffering from severe burnout from her last job. Her only request of the agency is that she be given an easy job, preferably a desk job that requires little to no thought or responsibility. From monitoring a reclusive author through surveillance tapes to writing bus adverts for businesses that keep mysteriously appearing and disappearing, our protagonist discovers that there may not be such a thing as an easy job and that burnout can happen in any profession…

The entire novel is from the perspective of our mysterious unnamed protagonist. I didn’t notice for a while that she didn’t even have a name as I was just so absorbed in her narrative that I just didn’t realise. Looking back I really like the decision not to give much of a name or background to the character as it easily allows the reader to slot themselves into her life. I mean, how many of us have wished for an easy, no stress, job? At first you may think of the protagonist for being a little childish in her request but as the novel progresses, you begin to understand where she is coming from and witness how easily she finds herself giving her all to a job, even if it is temporary. As the novel features several different locations, we also meet a whole cast of interesting characters which made each job even more unique and, in some cases, mysterious.

I really liked how the novel was split into parts and how each part focused on a different job, despite each part having a separate focus the novel didn’t feel disjointed in any way. I enjoyed how each job was seemingly random and some being jobs that I would have never have thought of before. Some of the jobs even had elements of magic realism or mystery to it, some I could figure out or theorise and some that left me wishing that we were provided with answers. However, I understand that this is entirely dependent on the reader and some people will love the lack of explanation offered in some parts. As the novel progresses we learn a little more about the protagonist and I loved how it wasn’t until the end of the novel where we get the answer to a question that I was asking throughout the book!

As you can tell I really enjoyed this book and thought it was great! It effortlessly captures how disillusioned you can get with work regardless of the job and how something that you may enjoy at first can quickly become a source of stress, and even paranoia. I love Tsumura’s writing style and thought the translation from Polly Barton still captured Tsumura’s unique voice and I would love for more of her work to be translated into English in the future.

Be sure to check this novel out when it is published tomorrow, 26 November 2020!

A humorous novel that is quirky, charming and yet poignant.
Emotionally drained by her job, our protagonist, a young Japanese woman walks into an employment agency looking for a job that is close to home and requires little thinking. The novel is like a series of connected short stories as over the coming months the woman is employed in a number of different jobs. The employment agency find her jobs which, at the start fulfil her criteria, but soon take on more meaning as problems arise and our narrator becomes more involved with her work colleagues and the problems that need to be overcome. Each of the jobs offers intrigue and magic and turn out to be far from the mundane job she had hoped for as we find that every job has meaning and purpose.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book finding it charming and refreshing with it’s plethora of quirky characters.