The characters in Kafka on the Shore are as introverted, individualistic, and dreamy as the man who created them. Naturally independent, Murakami has always been something of an anomaly in a culture that reveres the group, the family, and the corporation. From an early age, he was drawn to the music, literature, and films of the West, where independent thinking is encouraged. In high school, he favored the paperback novels of Raymond Chandler, Truman Capote, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Kurt Vonnegut. Later, he discovered Richard Brautigan, Manuel Puig, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, John Irving, and Raymond Carver. Classic Japanese literature never captured his interest. The sheer volume of Western thought Murakami consumed likely influenced his personality. It helps to understand that members of Japanese society don't simply support the group ethos but are downright distrustful of independents. Murakami explains to McInerney:

Japan is such a group-conscious society that...