When introverts grow up in a milieu that defines an outgoing, chatty personality as the norm, we inevitably pass through at least a short period of feeling like an oddball. Although Sayaka Murata’s short novel Convenience Store Woman isn’t exactly about an introvert, its theme is one that introverts may find familiar: how to deal with the pressure to conform when fitting in would require squeezing one’s oval self into a square hole. The main character resolves this dilemma in a fashion that introverted readers may find both challenging and comforting.
Misfit: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
In the Japanese novel Convenience Store Woman, the protagonist struggles with choosing a lifestyle that her society considers abnormal.
