"I’d noticed soon after starting the job that whenever I got angry at the same things as everyone else, they all seemed happy."

"If I went along with the manager when he was annoyed or joined in the general irritation at someone skiving off the night shift, there was a strange sense of solidarity as everyone seemed pleased that I was angry too. Now, too, I felt reassured by the expression on Mrs. Izumi and Sugawara’s faces: Good, I pulled off being a 'person.' I’d felt similarly reassured any number of times here in the convenience store."

From the novel "Convenience Store Woman" by Sayaka Murata, which is a fun, very fast read that's both light and deep. The audiobook reader is Nancy Wu, who's fantastic.

I had to look up the word "skiving." It means avoiding work. Another word I learned reading this book is "freeter":

When I was in my early twenties it wasn’t unusual to be a freeter, so I didn’t really need to make excuses. But subsequently everyone started hooking up with society, either through employment or marriage, and I was the only one who hadn’t done either. While I always say it’s because I’m frail, deep down everyone must be thinking that if that’s so, why would I choose to do a job in which I’m on my feet for long periods every day?

Here's the Wikipedia article for "freeter":

Freeter (フリーター furītā) is a Japanese expression for people who lack full-time employment or are unemployed, excluding housewives and students. The term originally included young people who deliberately chose not to become salary-men, even though jobs were available at the time....

If they work at all, freeters often work at convenience stores, supermarkets, fast food outlets, restaurants, and other low paying, low skill jobs....

The Japan Institute of Labor classifies freeters into three groups: the "moratorium type" that wants to wait before starting a career, the "dream pursuing type", and the "no alternative type". The moratorium type of freeter wants to enjoy life, and deliberately chooses not to join the rat race of the Japanese work environment. The dream pursuing type has specific dreams incompatible with a standard Japanese career. The no alternative type could not find a decent job before high school or university graduation in the system called "simultaneous recruiting of new graduates"...

The character in the book doesn't fit any of those 3 categories. She's someone who doesn't feel like a normal person, but feels normal as part of the entity that is the store.

ADDED: Speaking of novels by Japanese authors, the new Haruki Murakami book is out today. Here: "Killing Commendatore." That's what I'll start today. Read with me!