false <![CDATA[Sputnik Sweetheart]]> 9557 38 <I>Sputnik Sweetheart</I> finds Haruki Murakami in his minimalist mode. Shorter than the sweeping <I>Wind-up Bird Chronicle</I>, less playfully bizarre than <I>A Wild Sheep Chase</I>, the author's seventh novel distills his signature themes into a powerful story about the loneliness of the human condition. "There was nothing solid we could depend on," the reader is told. "We were nearly boundless zeros, just pitiful little beings swept from one kind of oblivion to another."<p> The narrator is a teacher whose only close friend is Sumire, an aspiring young novelistwith great talent, but also with the inability to create a complete novel. Sumire is suddenly smitten with a sophisticated businesswoman and accompanies her love object to Europe where, on a tiny Greek island, she disappears "like smoke." The schoolteacher hastens to the island in search of his friend. And there he discovers two documents on her computer, one of which reveals a chilling secret about Sumire's lover.<p> <I>Sputnik Sweetheart</I> is a melancholy love story, and its deceptively simple prose is saturated with sadness. Characters struggle to connect with one another but never quite succeed. Like the satellite of the title they are essentially alone. And by toning down the pyrotechnics of his earlier work, Murakami has created a world that is simultaneously mundane and disturbing--where doppelgängers and vanishing cats produce a pervasive atmosphere of alienation, and identity itself seems like a terribly fragile thing. <I>--Simon Leake</I><p> <i>slight edit by Leah Dagen</i> 1813695 book 1999 Sputnik Sweetheart total:5882|5:1237|4:2356|3:1839|2:391|1:59| 5882 21967 7654 434 4 10 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 26 11:05:56 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 16 20:21:59 -0700 2009 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 ...more...]]> 5 4 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed May 09 13:35:47 -0700 2007 Wed May 09 13:36:38 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 11 false false Fri Jul 27 13:57:43 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 27 13:57:43 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 3 false false Mon Jun 18 23:18:39 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 18 23:25:11 -0700 2007
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 sim...more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Feb 12 17:51:48 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 12 17:52:53 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Nov 17 22:01:36 -0800 2007 Sat Nov 17 22:52:15 -0800 2007
...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Feb 14 12:23:04 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 24 19:54:47 -0700 2009 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 businessw...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat Jul 07 09:49:49 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 08 03:32:22 -0700 2007
sputnik...more...]]> 1 2 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 31 12:43:55 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 31 13:03:14 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Feb 08 17:04:02 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 17:04:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Sep 05 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 16 05:14:25 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 16 05:16:12 -0700 2009 Като че ли е най-интригуваща - сюжетът те кара да разгръщаш стра...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Aug 27 00:48:21 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 27 00:50:06 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 19 16:54:44 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 19 16:54:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 2 false true Mon Jun 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 19:04:51 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 19:16:20 -0700 2009 Sputnik Sweetheart away. And she hadn't even reached the end!
...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat May 09 05:04:40 -0700 2009 Sat May 09 05:05:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 2 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 06:33:57 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 02 11:33:22 -0700 2009 1 Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is, by any chance, a bad book. My low rating can be easily explained by the fact that I've already read too much Murakami.


I used to like him quite a lot, but come on, doesn't he get tired of writing the same book over and over again? Let me show you the ...

more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Apr 20 22:15:37 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 20 22:15:37 -0700 2009 i turned face-up on the slab of stone, gazed at t...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Apr 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 13 14:48:47 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 08:05:55 -0700 2009
El narrador/personaje, solitario, intelectual, enamorado de una ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Dec 26 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 21 07:35:01 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 27 15:17:34 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Nov 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Oct 29 02:42:53 -0700 2009 Wed Nov 04 05:57:30 -0800 2009
Miu popped an olive into her mouth, grasped the pit with her fingers, ...more...]]>