Sputnik Sweetheart
by Haruki Murakami
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I just read Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami and Anansi Boys by Gaiman back to back. I'm a big fan of both authors. I've read all of Gaiman's work going back to the much celebrated Sandman comic books and I've been tearing through Murakami's as I get my hands on them. I'm struck by how similar they are, and yet the quality of the literature is strikingly different. Gaiman's novels, in particular the best of them, American Gods, weaves between realism and fantasy to make ordinary events and myt...more
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Read in July, 2008
This book started out totally awesome. The narrator isn't the main character of the book, but he is very good friends with Sumire (Which means Violet in Japanese & she was named after a Bach song) who I think is the central character of the book. Murakami does a great job of making Sumire alive on the pages, and despite the character being from a different culture than me and of course being a fictional character, within the first few paragraphs I knew who she was, and Murakami's additional...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone who enjoys Murakami's special brand of genius.
After the excellent Kafka on the Shore and the perhaps much better Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I've been on something of a Murakami kick. I find his storytelling fascinating, both in device and in style. His use of the extraordinary-as-mundane is a tasty joy for me to indulge. Sputnik Sweetheart, while not as wonderful an experience as the two aforementioned works, was quit...more
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Read in April, 2007
Why does Haruki Murakami hit the spot so well for me, and for thousands of other readers worldwide? There's a common element in all his works; it's a bridge of fantasy and reality that has just the right delicate balance. There's something about that balance that's so mesmerizing. You can connect with it on a level that you can’t in pure fantasy, and there’s enough of a disconnect from solid reality to leave you in wonder. Of all the other writers that have been categorized as magical realis...more
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I'd like to re-read this in a year or two. I think I would enjoy it more if I had been able to read it all in a single day, or perhaps even extending into a second day. Due to a hectic schedule, I was unable to read for a week and I was no longer in the mood the book was trying to convey.
And it's a very mood driven book. There's a haunting, elegiac atmosphere permeating everything. Murakami's mysteries usually feel like a Lynchian nightmare, unspooling in every direction at once, while this ...more
And it's a very mood driven book. There's a haunting, elegiac atmosphere permeating everything. Murakami's mysteries usually feel like a Lynchian nightmare, unspooling in every direction at once, while this ...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
People who want a good introduction to Murakami.
I blew through this book in two days, couldn't put it down. It fell into one of my all-time favorite sub-genres of literature. It is travel fiction where neither of the cultures involved is my own. I found this in Vladimir Kaminar, a Russian living in Berlin; Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a book of short stories about Latin-Americans traveling in Europe; and now Sputnik Sweetheart, where odd things happen to Japanese in Greece and Switzerland.
This book reminded me more of Murakam...more
This book reminded me more of Murakam...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone
A story of wistful beauty, love, and longing. A strange “through the looking glass” tale, told from a unique perspective. Not only was this a beautiful piece of writing, but it was full of things I love – lesbians, unrequited love, Beatniks, magic... Also, it didn't read at all like a translation, which really impressed me. Now I'll have to read everything else I can find by this writer.
<font size="-1">“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.”</font> ...more
<font size="-1">“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.”</font> ...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
Murakami fans, existentialists, people who think they know themselves, the lonely
Murakami continues to entrance me.
At first, I was skeptical of this relatively short book: the topic (a love triangle that included an at-first-glance annoying protagonist) seemed banal...but soon, I was drawn in to the classic starkness and the creeping horror that seems to pervade all of Murakami's works.
The horror, sometimes sudden, other times looming, like the shadow of a tree in the distance, is what really fascinates me. Murakami has a way of hitting you with dread like a punch ...more
At first, I was skeptical of this relatively short book: the topic (a love triangle that included an at-first-glance annoying protagonist) seemed banal...but soon, I was drawn in to the classic starkness and the creeping horror that seems to pervade all of Murakami's works.
The horror, sometimes sudden, other times looming, like the shadow of a tree in the distance, is what really fascinates me. Murakami has a way of hitting you with dread like a punch ...more
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Read in April, 2007
Beautifully strange and thoroughly wrenching.
One of Murakami's shortest novels (though not as slim as After Dark, this is also one of his most moving. A triangular love story of another of Murakami's nameless male protagonists, his iconoclastic friend, Sumire, and Miu, a Korean businesswoman who loves Sumire, even though Sumire cannot quite bring herself to reciprocate. As with many of Murakami's stories, the plot is deceptively simple, and its magical-realist denouement follow...more
One of Murakami's shortest novels (though not as slim as After Dark, this is also one of his most moving. A triangular love story of another of Murakami's nameless male protagonists, his iconoclastic friend, Sumire, and Miu, a Korean businesswoman who loves Sumire, even though Sumire cannot quite bring herself to reciprocate. As with many of Murakami's stories, the plot is deceptively simple, and its magical-realist denouement follow...more
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Read in January, 2008
I was looking for new authors and came across a lot of strong opinions on Murakami, good and bad, on Goodreads. I thought I'd give him a shot. But i absolutely hated it. What I don't know is if its a bad translation, or if its Murakami's style itself, but I felt it was just horribly written. His similes and metaphors were amateurish and misfit; Her resolve was a regular Rock of Gibraltar. His descriptions seem forced; ...to help prop up her uncertain life here on this third planet from the sun.A...more
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Read in January, 2007
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
"The upshot of all this was that when I was young I began to draw an invisible boundary between myself and other people. No matter who I was dealing with, I maintained a set distance, carefully monitoring the person's attitude so that they wouldn't get any closer. I didn't easily swallow what other people told me. My only passions were books and music. As you might guess, I led a lonely life."
"So that's how we live...more
"The upshot of all this was that when I was young I began to draw an invisible boundary between myself and other people. No matter who I was dealing with, I maintained a set distance, carefully monitoring the person's attitude so that they wouldn't get any closer. I didn't easily swallow what other people told me. My only passions were books and music. As you might guess, I led a lonely life."
"So that's how we live...more
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Read in December, 2007
This read much like all of Haruki Murakami`s books, and that`s the thing that bothered me most - for the entire two days it took me to get through this very-light read, I kept having flashes of deja vu that I`d read this book before. While this contributes to the kind of mysterious atmosphere Murakami builds, I don`t think that it was his intention.
I enjoyed the plot and the characters - the characters, especially - and I will probably read it again. Or rather, I`ll read another Murakami boo...more
I enjoyed the plot and the characters - the characters, especially - and I will probably read it again. Or rather, I`ll read another Murakami boo...more
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recommends it for:
anyone interested in character development
Let me first say I am not a Murakami fan. In fact up to reading this book I was unable to finish anything i had attempted of his and viewed most of his writing as trite rubbish read by hipsters to be self important - the one with the guy in the well for some 80 pages or so really killed me - worthless.
This book on the other hand I loved. I understand it is one of the worst received books by Murakami fans - I somehow find that amusing.
The story here is well executed the characters a...more
This book on the other hand I loved. I understand it is one of the worst received books by Murakami fans - I somehow find that amusing.
The story here is well executed the characters a...more
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Read in October, 2007
This is only my second Murakami novel, and while I did enjoy it, there was something not as captivating for me than his other novel, Wind Up Bird Chronicles. I'd say for the first 130 I was fully engrossed by this eerie, detective / love story. He has a way with beginning novels like no other, but somewhere between the island and the narrator stumbling upon the "lost disc" of Sumire, the missing girl, the novel lost some serious momentum for me. While it's a great literary plot devi...more
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Read in January, 2006
what really made me grab this book from the bookshelf in the first place? was it because of the name 'Murakami'? or was it because of the woman seductively beckoning me to caress the cover and explore its inner pages? or... was it the endearment sweetheart or the word 'sputnik'?!
sputnik! that did it for me. i used to tease friends for being too 'sputnik' - like a satellite going round and round with lots of energy. i would especially tease someone who had an electrifying crush on someone! :...more
sputnik! that did it for me. i used to tease friends for being too 'sputnik' - like a satellite going round and round with lots of energy. i would especially tease someone who had an electrifying crush on someone! :...more
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Sputnik Sweetheart was pretty good, but we know Murakami can do better.
Shy, sincere K's only friend is Sumire, aspiring writer and Kerouac devotee, a seemingly asexual woman driven mostly by creativity. But when Sumire takes a job working for Miu, a glamorous foreign businesswoman, she discovers what a real crush feels like. And in the end, after Sumire has annihilated any part of herself that could keep her from Miu, something very strange happens.
Sputnik Sweetheart's enti...more
Shy, sincere K's only friend is Sumire, aspiring writer and Kerouac devotee, a seemingly asexual woman driven mostly by creativity. But when Sumire takes a job working for Miu, a glamorous foreign businesswoman, she discovers what a real crush feels like. And in the end, after Sumire has annihilated any part of herself that could keep her from Miu, something very strange happens.
Sputnik Sweetheart's enti...more
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Read in May, 2007
In this one, Murakami's go-to nameless narrator (K, a corporate drone, smokes a lot, loves sex) has been pining away for years over his best friend Sumire, a brooding writer. Sumire only loves K. as a friend, but comes into her own when she meets Miu, a mysterious older woman with whom Sumire falls in love.
Miu, who claims she is only half a person, leads Sumire on a wild, indulgent adventure across Europe, with K. following along at home. And everyone ends up on a Greek isle, where K. learn...more
Miu, who claims she is only half a person, leads Sumire on a wild, indulgent adventure across Europe, with K. following along at home. And everyone ends up on a Greek isle, where K. learn...more
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Read in September, 2008
Sumire (Japanese for Violet) is a college drop-out who is confused about what she wants in life. She is over shadowed by her father who is a handsome dental physician in the village of Yokohama. Her mother died when she was only three. All she knows of her is that she has good handwriting and has good memory.
The story is about a bizarre love triangle set in modern-day Japan; and involves the great influences of Sumire's life: her boy-friend and best friend K (who is secretly in love with her...more
The story is about a bizarre love triangle set in modern-day Japan; and involves the great influences of Sumire's life: her boy-friend and best friend K (who is secretly in love with her...more
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Read in April, 2008
Echoes of Kafka on the Shore--losing half of yourself, cats (but no gory scene, thank the good Lord), classical music, "forbidden" love, dreams and reality blurring, a life-altering journey--or the other way around, rather, since Sputnik Sweetheart was published earlier. There were parts where I thought, "Yeah, yeah! This is great! This is why I love Murakami!" and then other parts where things fell flat and I was left wondering if maybe I just wasn't crazy enou...more
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Read in October, 2006
Egh. I don't know if I want to read another Murakami book. It's too sci-fi for me in some ways. I think I need a fast read, not too thick (page-wise and content-wise) and light on the brain. Brain candy, basically.
This book is about a guy, K, who has a crush on his friend from college, Sumire, who in turn realizes she's a lesbian and is in love with an older woman, Miu. Miu hires Sumire to be her assistant and they travel to Europe together. While there, Sumire disappears, Miu calls K to hel...more
This book is about a guy, K, who has a crush on his friend from college, Sumire, who in turn realizes she's a lesbian and is in love with an older woman, Miu. Miu hires Sumire to be her assistant and they travel to Europe together. While there, Sumire disappears, Miu calls K to hel...more
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