I hope this won’t count as a spoiler, as it is about the lack of content… So, if you are hoping for stories about difficult customers or something similar - コンビニ人間 won’t really have such scenes. I didn’t want you to get your hopes up and wait for something that won’t happen 
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Ah, no worries! The comment was more about coping mechanisms and the disconnect from society that comes with menial work and feeling like you don’t belong, which the book seems to be poised to tackle from a Japanese perspective.
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I have managed to make to the part where she is talking about the bird - oh god, it’s simultaneously hilarious and horrifying.
Two questions:
その歯車の一つになって廻り続けている自分。
I kind of get that she is saying that she is one of those cogs, but I am unclear how 一つになって is working. Is she saying that is becoming one of the cogs?
Second is a long sentence, which I’m struggling to fully get:
夜勤が足りないせいでこのところ店長夜勤にまわっており、昼の前はわたしと同世代のパートの女性の泉さんが社員のようになって、店をまわている。
My attempt at a breakdown
夜勤が足りないせいで = As a result of night shifts being insufficient (or is it about staff?)
このところ店長は =This store (area’s?) shop manager
夜勤にまわっており、= to rotate night shifts?
昼の前は = before noon
わたしと同世代のパートの女性の泉さんが = my same-age part time staff Izumi
社員のようになって、= become company employer??
店をまわている。= Rotate to the shop?? Brought to the shop??
So maybe… “As a result of lack of night shifts, the areas shop manger rotated nights shifts, and before noon, Izumi, who worked part time and was the same age as me was brought to the shop”
Eek, I don’t feel like this helped at all. Any insight is appreciated as to what it is I am missing. I’m really confused as to what ており is, as well as what ようになって… among other things.
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このところ is a time expression, something like lately/recently. (But I’m not sure what is the difference in nuance with 最近)
TLDR: It’s an exception, おり is used as a replacement of the masu-stem of いる.
Longer explanation:
You know you can link two clauses with te-form
彼はドアを開けて、部屋に入った
We can also use the masu-stem to do the same thing.
彼はドアを開け、部屋に入った
Connecting two clauses with masu-stem is more written style.
Bu what is the masu-stem of いる, for example in まわっている ? If we follow the rules it’s supposed to be just 「い」but maybe because it sound super weird, too short, people don’t do that. Instead they take the humble form of いる, which is おる and then the masu-stem おる->おり。
It’s the pattern nounになる : become noun
泉さんが社員になる：izumi become an 社員
泉さんが社員のようになる：izumi become an 社員のよう (like a 社員)
So the sentiment is that 泉さ is a part time employee, but because of the shortage of staff, she has to work more and “become like a full time employee”
I would say “run the shop” (It’s transitive まわす btw)
店長は夜勤にまわっている is also probably just “doing the night shift” ?
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I know you’re just super simplifying it for the tldr, but I don’t think that’s an accurate way to explain it. I think with that explanation you might just cause more confusion, and your full explanation isn’t exactly long anyway.
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Yeah, that’s fair, agreed. Let me edit it a little.
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Okay, after a fairly smooth read so far I’m stumbling over this passage on page 15:
教室で女の先生がヒステリー起こして教卓を出席簿で激しく叩きながらわめき散らし、皆が泣き始めたときもそうだった。
I think what I’m reading is that Eiko says her teacher was in a bad mood and taking it out on her class? As a result, her classmates start crying so she ran up to her teacher’s desk and dropped trou to stop everything.
I’m fairly sure that’s what’s going on, but it was such a sudden jump to this from her talking about the meeting with her mom that I wanted to double check.
To be clear, she pulled down the teacher’s skirt. And underwear.
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Oh okay yeah I thought I read it like that initially, good to know it’s the even more shocking lol
Okies, finished the reading. A few days faster than I’d scheduled. 
So, before I edited it, the vocab sheet had 街 on page 17 as the suffix がい meaning “street”, but… surely that’s just まち = town, right? There’s not another 街 somewhere around there that I’m not spotting, yes?
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There is:
My mistake! Thank you for correcting it!
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I assume he meant another 街 in the chapter. 
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Hi everyone, コンビニ人間 has been on my radar for quite some time and I noticed the book club today.
I have some trouble with this sentence (the beginning):
夜勤が足りないせいでこのところ店長は夜勤にまわっており、昼の間は私と同世代のパートの女性の泉さんが社員のようになって、店をまわしている。
What does 夜勤が足りない mean ?
Not enough people for night shift ?
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Yes, basically this.
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Did… did you skip over the first sentence of my second paragraph?
Well, on the page, but yes, that.
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sorry, it was my misunderstanding
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「コンビニ人間」has been sitting on my shelf for some time, so I’m glad the repeat club decided to pick it up! I guess I’ll structure my post using the discussion questions above.
- Difficult passages: I was able to break down several tricky sentences on my own, but there was a part in this one sentence that I still can’t seem to figure out.
pg 12 (paperback): 隣にいた他の子のお母さんも驚いたのか、目と鼻の穴と口が一斉にがばりと開いた。
What is this 「がばりと」? None of my searches have been fruitful in figuring this out.
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Fave new vocab: 「毒にも薬にもならない」(doing neither harm nor good) is a pretty good one. I also think it’s interesting that 「処世術」(worldly wisdom) is made up of those three kanji (“manage” + “world” + “skill,” though each has other meanings). Finally, I just like how literal 「注意を払う」is (“to pay attention,” same as in English).
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Intriguing passages: In general, I love how the beginning is written. Murata-sensei drops you right into the convenience store, and the place comes alive right off the page and enters your head so vividly. I’ve spent my fair share of time in Japanese convenience stores, so it felt that way at least to me.
Also, that whole thing with the female teacher!
I know Keiko says in passing that she learned it from a movie on TV, but what kind of movie, and who on earth was watching it with her? Y’all gotta be careful around kids. -
Impressions of Keiko: Part of me understands her logic (though she certainly takes it to extremes in her elementary school days). Though my personality as a child was different from hers, I was also very quiet in school and was always afraid of getting in trouble (though I don’t know if she really worried about getting in trouble exactly). I think that her conclusion of “I’ll just keep quiet and do as I’m told” is something that has likely stifled her and maybe even prevented her from growing in some ways. I don’t know much about autism, but the book definitely makes me want to learn more. I’ll have to check out that article from earlier in the forum.
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Unless we both parsed it wrong, I think it’s just がばりと - Jisho.org
Because so many people are wondering what kind of movie was it… I have sort of an ugly theory that it was something like “man forces himself on a woman, and at first she resists and seems “hysterical”, but then the man insists, starts removing her clothes, and the woman quietly surrenders, calms down and she seems happy afterwards so it’s totally-not-rape” 
I think it’s not exactly about getting in trouble herself, but more about causing problems for her parents, because she does seem to care about their well-being. Although certainly people being constantly weirded out because of her actions wasn’t a pleasant experience, too.
But I’m not sure how much she would grow even if she would continue to try to interact more, if she couldn’t get any feedback about her social mistakes.
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Oh my goodness, thank you!!! The dictionary on my phone didn’t give me any results. Clearly I should’ve just looked on jisho.
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You bring up a good point. We don’t get to see too many interactions between Keiko and her family except for the bird incident, and when I read her mother’s responses, I felt they lacked the clarity Keiko needed. That made me wonder if, had people tried seeing how she thinks and fine-tuning their explanations, she’d better understand and make growth in terms of seeing others’ perspectives. Still, we’re only 18 pages in, so more will probably be revealed to us as we progress.
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