Product Description

Lost in space or a loser in love?Twenty-two year-old Sumire is in love for the first time - with a woman seventeen years her senior. But whereas Miu is a glamorous and successful older woman with a taste for classical music and fine wine, Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots like a character in a Jack Kerouac novel. Surprised that she might, after all, be a lesbian, Sumire spends hours on the phone talking to her best friend K. about the big questions in life: what is sexual desire and should she ever tell Miu how she feels about her?K., a primary school teacher, is used to answering questions, but what he most wants to say to Sumire is, "I love you." He consoles himself by having an affair with the mother of one of his pupils. But when a desperate Miu calls him out of the blue from a sunny Greek island and asks for his help, he soon discovers that all is not as it seems and something very strange has happened!
to Sumire.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4289 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Haruki Murakami is arguably one of Japan's finest, modern writers and is, increasingly, being seen as one of the top authors working today. The last novel of his to find its way to these shores, Norwegian Wood, was a delightful, if slightly one-dimensional coming-of-age tale. The pyrotechnics of his previous, more surreal novels (Wind Up Bird Chronicle and A Wild Sheep Chase) had disappeared but something of his eccentricity, what made his books such a wonder, had disappeared too. Sputnik Sweetheart is a confident continuation of this more simple style yet one that retains the allegories, the depth of his best work.

The narrator, a teacher, is in love with the beguiling, odd Sumire. As his best friend, she is not adverse to phoning at three or four in the morning to ask a pointless question or share a strange thought. Sumire, though, is in love with a beautiful, older woman, Miu, who does not, can not, return her affections. Longing for Sumire, K (that is all we are told by way of a name) finds some comfort in a purely sexual relationship with the mother of one of his pupils. But the consolation is slight. K is unhappy. Miu and Sumire, now working together, take a business trip to a Greek Island. Something happens, he is not told what, and so K travels to Greece to see what help he can offer.

Themes of love, loss, sexuality, identity and selfhood are all interrogated, woven into a compelling, romantic, serious and sometimes sad book. It is a disarmingly simple, hugely satisfying, intelligent and moving work and one of Murakami's best. Simplicity, sprinkled with a dose of his magic, has enabled Murakami to write candidly, succinctly and beautifully about the complications and difficulties of love and loving. --Mark Thwaite

Jenny Turner, Evening Standard
"Sputnik Sweetheart is a captivating book from one of the world's most interesting authors. Reality will never look so solid again"

Julie Myerson, Guardian
"...he surely accomplishes the best, most unnerving job of fiction: to force you to look hard at the parts of yourself you never even suspected were there"

Customer Reviews

Plot not fully developed
I've loved the books I've read by Murakami so far (Norwegian Wood, The Wild Sheep Chase, Dance, Dance, Dance and Kafka on the Shore), so my expectations were very high.

Although I love the poetic style of writing with lots of philosophical insight this book didn't quite do it for me.

The story line seemed simple: The male narrator K is in love with his best friend Sumire who is in love with Miu (a married woman) who's not in love with her. A lot of unrequited love in other words, but very strong friendships.

I like the first part of the book best when we're still in "the real world". It's amusing and original the way Sumire meets Miu and befriends her. It adds tension when Sumire discusses her love with K. There's also an interesting subplot dealing with K's casual relationship with a mother to one of his students. I would've liked to stay with the story and see what would've have happened if it had developed naturally. An exploration of friendship sex jealousy etc.

Now Sumire disappears "to the other side" and that isn't a satisfying solution to me. I did like the supernatural element in the previous Murakami novels that I've read, but this was too vague and not fully developed.

It also fails a bit when it comes to the narrative structure. K tells the story, but fragments of Sumire's writing is thrown in as well. Her style seems very similar to K's style. What also disturbs me is the way K describes a sex scene between Sumire and Miu. How is he supposed to know what they got up to? There's no indication that Sumire or Miu told him the details about what happened in the bedroom. Unless they are extremely outspoken, which seems unlikely.

I would say this is a quick poetic read that leaves the reader with lots of questions. It might be a good thing. Perhaps I'd like it better if it was made into a film.

Keep reading - it gets better
I didn't like the subject matter of this novel, as affirmed by the cover design, and thought it was too feminine. Although it does include lesbianism, it veers away from this as the story progresses.
It gets better after halfway when it becomes more familiar Murakami territory, that is, surreal tales described in fine prose. I especially liked the bit about the ferris wheel, excellent description of time, place and person.
I overcame my initial reservations and persisted with the book, to find it engaging, and a little different.

Good Murakami, though not among his best
This good novel by Japan's Haruki Murakami has essentially three characters: the narrator, a teacher in his late twenties (a Murakami alter ego, one supposes); the object of his affections, Sumire, an erratic writer in her early twenties; and the object of Sumire's affections: Miu, a married businesswoman in her late thirties with a secret past, that takes Sumire as an assistant and as the companion in an eventful trip to a Greek island. The novel finishes with too many loose ends (at least, I did not understand them), but for most of the times the mixture of existentialism and minimalism, along with Murakami's good grip as a narrator makes one interest hold. Not among the author's best, but still a good novel about the loneliness and despair of modern urban life.