Author: Haruki Murakami
Translator: Philip Gabriel
Publisher: Vintage International
Publication Year: 2015
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 210
Haruki Murakami, the internationally bestselling author of Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, plunges us into an urbane Japan of jazz bars, coffee shops, Jack Kerouac, and the Beatles to tell this story of a tangled triangle of uniquely unrequited loves.
A college student, identified only as “K,” falls in love with his classmate, Sumire. But devotion to an untidy writerly life precludes her from any personal commitments–until she meets Miu, an older and much more sophisticated businesswoman. When Sumire disappears from an island off the coast of Greece, “K” is solicited to join the search party and finds himself drawn back into her world and beset by ominous, haunting visions. A love story combined with a detective story, Sputnik Sweetheart ultimately lingers in the mind as a profound meditation on human longing.
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Sputnik Sweetheart follows a young primary school teacher in Tokyo. This book
opens with him introducing his friend, a young aspiring writer named Sumire.
Sumire is eccentric and she loves writing. Once she writes, it’s hard for her
to stop. She doesn’t have a phone and likes smoking too. Not many people could
understand her but the narrator could. In fact, the narrator’s in love with
her. However, the feeling is not mutual as Sumire herself told him that she
never fell in love. That is until she met an older woman called Miu. Miu is a
wine importer she met at a wedding reception. After a brief conversation, Miu
asked Sumire out for a lunch which ended up in her offering Sumire a job.
Seeing it as an opportunity to get closer to Miu, Sumire accepted the offer.
When they were out for a business trip in Greece, a bizarre thing happened.
Sputnik Sweetheart revolves around a quirky woman named Sumire seen from the
eyes of a male protagonist. After reading several Murakami’s books, I get the
sense that his protagonist or narrator is usually an everyman, often unnamed
which is the case with this book too. Although in the book Sumire referred to
the narrator as K, but we learn this much later in the book. I think I said
this already in my review of Murakami’s another book; I’m not sure if he does
this deliberately to make his character relatable to the reader or he just
simply can’t name his narrator. Anyway, K is a good observer but seems like a
loner. He’s also a good friend to Sumire. I get the sense it’s because he
feels so connected to Sumire. I feel that he’s a loner because he
unconsciously alienates people around him. He couldn’t identify with everyone
but Sumire. Perhaps that’s the reason why he falls in love with Sumire in the
first place.
"When I couldn’t see you anymore, I realized that. It was as clear as if the planets all of a sudden lined up in a row for me. I really need you. You’re a part of me; I’m a part of you."
One thing that I like from
Murakami’s writing is how atmospheric it is. His books sometimes have the
simplest or even the weirdest story. Yet, the feelings evoked from his writings
are delivered perfectly. For example, I can say that not much exciting things
happen in this book but I can feel the loneliness and nostalgic feelings
emanating from the narrator. When K described what happened with Sumire by the
end of the book (without trying to spoil anything) I get that sense of losing a
part of oneself and being lost which K feel in the book. Also, when Miu tells
her bizarre experience, you’d think that I’d be weirded out and questioned it;
But no, weirdly enough I understand what Miu went through. The theme of
loneliness, longing and lost are what this book is mainly about.
"And it came to me then. That we were wonderful traveling companions but in the end no more than lonely lumps of metal in their own separate orbits. From far off they look like beautiful shooting stars, but in reality they’re nothing more than prisons, where each of us is locked up alone, going nowhere. When the orbits of these two satellites of ours happened to cross paths, we could be together. Maybe even open our hearts to each other. But that was only for the briefest moment. In the next instant we’d be in absolute solitude. Until we burned up and became nothing"
Sputnik Sweetheart has become one of my favorite books by Murakami. I thought
this book was going to be one of his more ‘normal’ books. Apparently not.
There’s still some surrealist aspect in this book. Don’t let this scare you to
pick it up though, because the writing is so poignant and it has many quotes
that I love. Some of which I include here. Overall, I recommend this book to
read.
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