Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Sputnik Sweetheart
Book Review: Entertaining - I felt I had gone for a vacation
Summary: 5 Stars
I consider some of Murakami's books high quality literature. I enjoyed this book, but this one is just a fun novel but not a literature. Though entertaining, it lacks the depth that other Murakami books have. I think Murakami's attraction is the "life and death" issue in stories, but this book is very light in terms of that. I still give 5 stars because I felt thrilled as the story evolves, and especially I enjoyed the feeling of Europe.
I read this in the Japanese language (the orignial the way Murakami wrote) in a Japanese public library while I visited Japan. It took me about two hours (would have taken days if in English), and I thought it was like having watched a movie because a movie usually runs a little less than two hours and also the story is lighter than other Murakami books.
However I may compliment this book, I don't consider this to be one of the best Murakami books.
Book Review: Sweet, Sad, Sexy
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember when the Soviets sent the dog, Laika, up in the sputnik to circle the planet. Laika was a sacrifice, and for the little girl, me, that was not a good thing. I still feel that way. I am still haunted by how terribly cruel we are to take our creatures and use them like that. We do it to ourselves every time we turn our backs on a friend's needs or whenever we keep love silent rather than risk rejection. We actually lessen ourselves, metaphorically and often literally never quite realize that we have lost something that cannot be replaced. Murakami knows. He has been there, done or witnessed that, and goodness can he write about it!
The sacrifice of dogs is part of a conversation the narrator has with his friend and secret love, Sumire who suffers from serious writer's block. The narrator uses the metaphor of the walled cities in China, how the gates were made of the bones of dead soldiers, and how dogs were sacrificed so that the bones could be baptized with the power to revive to protect the walled city. "A real story requires a kind of magical baptism to link the world on this side with the world on the other side."
I felt like I was alone in a sputnik circling my own shadows and dreams and memories and cowardly acts as I immersed myself in this novel of a young man's realization of what matters most in our lives and of what leaves us feeling less. Always metaphorical, Murakami can be appealingly literal and writes the most erotic imaginary sexual encounters and describes male frustration as well as anyone writing. The various ways of love in the story all resonate and one can only hope that as the story continues beyond the book that all find joy in what they have kept of themselves.
I first found Murakami's books, not realizing that he was such a popular writer, and I have read them out of order or randomly so far. And so far, I've not been disappointed. I equate this to beginning a passionate affair and finding each new encounter more because of what has come before. In this book, Murakami is in genius mode. He can make writing less more. Sputnik Sweetheart is a great place to become acquainted with the monkey mind that is Murakami.
Book Review: Boy meets girl meets woman, then cue X-Files theme
Summary: 2 Stars
K (boy) is in love with Sumire (girl) who is in love with Miu (woman). Sumire tells K, always patiently loyal, about Miu then flies off to Europe on a business trip with Miu; Miu then calls K because "something" has happened to Sumire (cue X-Files theme here). When we find out a little of what happened and hints as to why, the resolutions appear melodramatic, trite, and contrived all at once. Disappointing and unsatisfying.
Leaving questions unresolved can be a fine way to end a drama. The classic "Tale of Genji", the movies "Crossing Delancy" and "The Truman Show" all leave us wondering how the story ends but they are nevertheless fully satisfying works. Life is like that. It's open ended; it doesn't follow the Aristotelian rules of composition; it doesn't have a plot. However, leaving a work >>unresolved<< is not the same thing as leaving the plot open. The latter is a device, the former is laziness. It's like painting half a canvas or like a musician leaving halfway through a performance.
This would be a one star novel except for a few scenes and characters. For instance, soon after returning from Greece, K is called by his married girlfriend because her eight year old son was caught shoplifting and the security guard wants to talk to the boy's teacher. In another scene, Murakami breaks a stereotype by having Sumire's stepmother support her decision of quitting college when the father strongly opposed it.
While these scenes aren't enough to save the novel, they do show that Murakami can economically create lifelike characters. Better to read his "Underground : The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche" where he interviews victims of the 1995 gas attack on the Tokyo subway. You'll learn more about life in general and the Japanese in particular, and be less subjected to mediocre flights of fancy.
Book Review: eccentric romance involved in a gloomy atmosphere
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my 2nd book of Murakami's novels, this time around he decides to drive the story in a more romantic yet undescribable type of sadness which establishes a characters vivid but gloomy understanding of his feelings for his friend and her utterly unstable manner of thinking and not thinking, with the comprehensive tone of dreaming. Comparison to his other novels, Murakami still maintains his original composure of narrarating a story with deep and inspiring scenarios.
I truly enjoyed this story and recommend it to people that have a taste in unique story lines such as this, though it fairly does require a lot of deep knowledge in order to divulge the perspective of the author's grasp.
Book Review: quote:
Summary: 4 Stars
"'Don't you just love it?' she said.'Every day you stand on top of a mountain, make a 360-degree sweep...And that's it. You're done for the day. The rest of the time you can read, write, whatever you want... That's the life! Compared with that, studying literature in college is like chomping down on the bitter end of a cucumber.' 'OK,'I said,'but someday you'll have to come down off the mountain.' As usual, my practical, humdrum opinions didn't faze her."
"'Sexual desire's not something you understand,'I said, giving my usual middle-of-the-road opinion. 'It's just there.' She scrutinized me for a while, like I was some machine run by a heretofore unheard-of-power source. Losing interest, she stared up at the ceiling, and the conversation petered out. No use talking to him about that, she must have decided."
I really like Murakami for his description of the chemistry between people; how they seem not to understand each other but on a deeper level they are closely linked. What a nice counterposition to everyday-life, where we so often believe to understand but in reality we are lightyears away from each other. He describes honest and deep feelings which otherwise seem impossible in this cold world.
It's not his best book (Wind-Up-bird-chronicle is the one), but still it's better by far than 99% of what is being produced by all the rest these days.
BTW:the book-cover of the vintage-edition is horribly stupid... but it's the cheapest...