I can’t believe this took me over a week to get through. For some reason I found reading it in large chunks hard, so I dipped in little and often. The topic is super interesting to me, and I love to hear different opinions and experiences with work life balance and a happy life. I feel I loved and disliked it all that the same time.

There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura is a quirky Japanese novel about a 36-year-old unmarried woman who has suffered burnout from her stressful job and has gone back home to live with her parents. She visits an employment bureau, looking for the most undemanding job possible so that she can recover and rebuild herself.

During the course of the novel, she works in several different jobs, meeting various interesting characters and learning more about herself and what she needs in employment and in life. Each of the jobs appears easy on the surface, but has its own challenges.

I enjoyed the book very much and found it quick and easy to read. I’d like to read more from this author, so I hope that more of her work is translated into English.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

This is a strange and darkly funny story of a woman's search for an easy, mindless job having just left a stressful 14-year career. Each section sees the protagonist meeting with her recruiter/advisor as she is pitched the next seemingly simple job.

I found the jobs fascinating - particularly the first role she's in - and I think what I took away from it was that no matter what industry or area of work someone is in, and no matter how simple the job, there are always layers that feed in to the overall experience. There's the task at hand (whether that is surveillance, writing ads or putting up posters), and then there are the colleagues adding one layer, the consumer another, the commute, the office, the emotional engagement and in our narrators case, the burnout that can come with this emotional involvement.

She's extremely likeable, although makes frustrating decisions at times, and I found myself urging her to unveil more about her personal life. She's 36 and living with her parents, and we know very little else. But wanting to know more about her kept me turning the pages, and perhaps alludes to the idea that we often only know one side to our colleagues. We can sometimes only know their work personas and very little else about their private lives.

I absolutely loved the concept, but did feel that sometimes the pacing of the writing was off and could have been cut in some places and developed further in others, but this was perhaps in part down to the translation so it's still five stars from me.

This book just made me frustrated. After I found a delightful gem in 'Convenience Store Woman', I kind of hoped for a bit of the same from this book. And though there were moments I did really enjoy - they have the same quirk and depth to them as Sayaka Murata's book does - ultimately, I felt its length hindered it. I had expected it to be 200 pages or so, but it was double that. Sadly, this was a bit of a bust for me.

I didn't expect to enjoy this book so much! The story is pretty innovative as it follows a Japanese woman making her way through a world of short-term agency jobs. The story is quite slow-paced and doesn't follow a real 'plot', which may repel some readers, yet it was exactly what I needed this season. The main character is extremely realistic and relatable in today's society.

It's a very odd novel, hence it's extremely difficult to say if you are the person who will enjoy it. Yet if you have a few evenings off and are looking to relax I would recommend at least try it!

A delightful and witty book. The protagonist burns out from her regular job and decides to try new unconventional jobs, "easy" jobs. It turns out, however, that every job is difficult in some sense. That's work in modern life for you.

I really enjoyed the quirkiness of each role, There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job is a hilarious but mesmerising reading. Everyone could empathise with the protagonist's frustration with this century's work life.

I didn't finish this book because the story and characters didn't grab me. There were some moments that piqued my interest, such as the store that nearly closed down when the advert didn't go out. However, I felt that the story rambled on a bit too much and became quite monotonous. I did empathise with the main character though, with regards to her not knowing what exactly she wanted to do in life.

There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job is my first read by Japanese author Kikuko Tsumura and what a deadpan delight it was! In it, our narrator has hit the wall on a job she’s had for years, so she decides to try shorter-term contracts at ‘easier’ jobs, for the good of her mental health. While these jobs do certainly seem easy on paper, it turns out that there is always more to them than meets the eye.

The story is split into four sections, each about a new job. Maybe all are considered easy and dull in Japan, but they really intrigued me. The first: surveillance, watching people on screens for hours and noting their movements. She is assigned to watch a writer who is accidentally hiding contraband in his apartment.

When she becomes weirdly obsessed and jealous of him, she knows it’s time to bow out of that role. I was totally engrossed in every detail of this little vignette, loved it. Also, through each job, we learn more about our narrator’s wonderfully deadpan take on life:

"But just for that moment, I wanted permission to crank my unhappiness gauge to the max. I’d dial it back down, I promised to dial it back down right away. By the day after tomorrow at the latest."

She moves on from there to another great job: writing the scripts for bus advertising. This is actually a genius idea – bus adverts play at the stops where you can get off and see / buy from whatever has just been advertised. I haven’t seen anything so specific on transport adverting here (the UK). They are missing a trick.

Due to both the lyrical writing and more being revealed about our narrator’s offbeat (yet often highly relatable) reactions to what’s happening in her life, I was fascinated by this little story too.

She also ends up writing facts on the back of cracker packets and having an adventure in a forest. Quite the collection of jobs, wouldn’t you agree?

I’ve never read a book around the theme of job-hopping before and loved how it took what could be a mundane topic and made it a glorious sideways look at the everyday. It was also refreshing to read about a character that wasn’t ambitious in the traditional sense. It seems that all you ever hear about is ‘climbing that career ladder’ and There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job is actually a celebration of doing the exact opposite.

I really enjoyed this unique take of the grinds of daily work. If you’re in the mood for something different and deadpan, give There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job a read. Our narrator ends up getting far more than she bargained for out of each of her roles and is definitely a poster-girl for not staying in a job if it’s grinding you down. Can you relate?

I found this quite a frustrating book, parts of it were very slow and others, like the ending seemed to be almost too rapid. I didn't feel I knew much more about the main character by the end and, although I'm sure being a translator is very difficult, I've read a lot of books when I forget they've been translated but sadly not this one which I found quite jarring at times.
Thank you to netgalley and Bloomsbury publishing for an advance copy of this book

3,5 stars
Overall a pretty okay read about a woman in her mid-thirties who has just had a burnout and is looking for an easy job. What stood out though (and which I found a bit annoying at times) was that all jobs she has all are far more interesting than they at first seem to be and that she is so damn good at all of them.
Thank you Macmillan and Netgalley for the ARC.

Such a lovely book. It does take a while to get going and doesn't have a fast storyline or linear plot, so I can see why many western readers perhaps struggled. Well worth sticking past the first job though.

The author has quit her job due to burnout and is looking for an easy job, something she can do without much stress or thought. She then tries a series of jobs with various results and incidents. I won't give anything away but a lot of bizarre things and interesting characters. The lessons are subtle at times.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for a copy of this translated works.

I adored this book.

This is a <i>strange, compelling, darkly funny tale of one woman’s search for meaning in the modern workplace</i>

We follow our main character as she bounces around 'easy' jobs she is allocated through an agency as a temp. The jobs allocated to her are all so random and different from each other. Her life experiences through the roles adds to her development, and she takes skills and knowledge, and behaviours, and friendships, through to the subsequent roles.
It's a story of human connection, and finding yourself.

I loved it.

Being a fan of "Convenience Store Woman", I was intrigued to read "There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job" by Kikuko Tsumara. There are parallels between these two stories - both deal with the minutiae of every day life and a woman and her job in Japan.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Each chapter dealt with a different job that the protagonist tried out. Some aspects of the jobs sounded familiar to anyone who has been a temp before. Some chapters like working for the bus company had almost supernatural elements and she sometimes went above and beyond her job role.

A lovely read and would happily read another book by this author.

Sadly this wasn't my type of book! I was intrigued to read a Japanese novel focusing on work, burnout and the precarious nature of contemporary employment, but this book never really grabbed me.

Tsumura's novel definitely succeeds in perfectly capturing the ambivalence and futility that is millennial working life; whilst it does not provide much of a commentary on 21st life, "There's no such thing as an easy job" is definitely worth the read.

I'm really conflicted with this book, because while it was really easy to get into and the writing flows easily, there's no discernible plot.
At first, it was just a slow, easy read, with a lot that those of us who've had mundane jobs at some point can relate to, but by the time I got to about 70% through, I realised I was nearing the end and still nothing had happened. There's interesting and well written little vignettes of quirky characters, and the odd few who crop up again, but there's no plot development, no real character development and as enjoyable as it is, I just didn't really see the point in what I was reading unfortunately.

You can imagine western publishers frantically trying to find quirky Japanese books to publish after the English translation of Sayaka Murata’s ‘Convenience Store Woman’ was such a success. Presumably, ‘There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job’ has made it to readers in the west following such a search. It’s quirky, it’s Japanese, it’s written by a woman and like Murata’s book it’s about everything and nothing.
What it fails to do is grip. I found little connection with the narrator, a young woman who through the course of the book tries five different jobs. The details of some of her labours are intriguing and amusing (at times there’s almost a magical realist feel to things) but too often the book just feels like someone telling you the minutiae of their not very interesting day.

A fab read, exploring women and the workplace, and book that should be read by all. A fabulous book with a wonderful way of showing what we think of work.

I related to this novel far too much for comfort. Hilarious and terrifying in equal measure, it'll be hard to go back to your normal life when you've finished. But it's worth it.

I loved this! I have read a few novels translated from Japanese lately and they have all struck a chord with me - a quite gentle, almost plaintive tone, where the reader is very much left to form their own opinions and take what they wish from the story.
In this one, a slight sense of suspense arises as our hero moves from one job to the next, doing very well but somehow always landing in an odd situation. While we might not all of us relate to her desire to walk away the moment life gets tough, we can relate to her desire to be the best she can be and to have the courage to say no, thank you. As time goes on, she heals and serendipity continues to play its part.