The Woman in the Purple Skirt

 

The Woman in the Purple Skirt / Natsuko Imamura
trans. from the Japanese by Lucy North 
NY: Penguin, 2021, c2019.
216 p.

The Woman in the Purple Skirt is noticeable. She has a routine; sits on the same park bench at the same time of day, to eat the same cream bun. Except for when she is working, at one of the many temp jobs she gets. We know this because The Woman in the Yellow Cardigan is watching her, and telling us. 

The narrator is obsessed with this stranger; she watches her, notes down her movements and habits, and decides to find her a steady job at her own workplace, as a hotel cleaner. Through some oblique efforts (ie: leaving the jobs magazine open to the right page where she knows the Woman in the Purple Skirt will pick it up) she manages to do this. Now she can observe her closely and will obviously become her friend. 

But we know that this isn't going to work out as the narrator thinks it will. The Woman in the Purple Skirt has a mind of her own, and her own goals here. She behaves as she needs to to be accepted by the new work team, but begins to take advantages where she can, eating food from the rooms, taking the complimentary shampoos and so forth. But she really goes for it when she begins an affair with the owner. 

This doesn't end well, and the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan sees her opening. But even that careful plan goes awry. 

This is a strange little book, full of both personal obsession and the particular behaviours of a female workplace. It was fascinating to read, with a style that is surprisingly suspenseful considering it is mainly talking about the narrator's obsession with the other woman. Her goal, to bring herself into the orbit of this woman that people notice, is a lost cause; her own desire to be seen goes unfulfilled. 

Another note: I appreciated the book design for this one as well; the dust jacket incorporates yellow and purple, as well as a set of stairs dividing two women (appropriate to events in the book). Even the actual hard cover of the book is in yellow and purple. Great attention to detail by the designers!