Having read several of Murakami's books now, this is by far my favourite. Short, whimsical, and moving, I think this book is an ideal starting place for those who are new to Murakami's work. ( )

I have removed the rest of Murakami's works from my reading list. Some people obviously get a lot from him and enjoy his work, and he does write well. Personally though I cannot bring myself to really care about his characters. Especially as I know his story threads will be dumped unresolved at the end of each book.

I don't mind some unresoved threads in a book. But with Murakami it would be nice to have some that are actually resolved.

This book is about a kind of love triangle. Boy loves girl. The girl loves another girl. Not a book I would normally read from any author to be fair. I only bought this one because it was my fourth attempt to really "get" Murakami.

All his protaganists seem to be disconnected - adrift in a sea of people. The sense of isolation in the multitudes is a recurrent theme in his work, and remains so in this book.

But there is also surrealism, and the vague inference of alternate universes. We are no dount meant to wonder what happened to Sumire, the Japanese girl who goes missing in Greece - but then again, when we look at some conceptual art we are *supposed* to wonder what that is telling us to, or else we should bring our concepts to it. For both Murakami's novels, and for conceptual art, I personally find myself unable to care.

That no doubt makes me a cultural philistine - but then I don't care about that either. So Murakami lovers will shake their heads, knowing I have missed the point. I will shake my head and agree with them - and go and read a book that makes sense instead.

I will add that reading other people's thoughts on Murakami - inevitably they confess to not knowing what the books are about either - or else they come up with conflicting meanings. Any book that is so deep that it defies careful analysis cannot be rightly distinguished from eloquent nonsense. ( )

A lean, delicate examination of identity, humanity, and unrequited love, Sputnik Sweetheart is perhaps not the best of Murakami's novels, but certainly still an engaging one. One scene, that in the Ferris wheel, might well be one of the creepiest and most vivid that he's ever written. Yet I thought the last third of the book, after Sumire and Miu, felt a little disjointed from the rest (though it would have made for a killer short story), and the power of the final few pages didn't quite make up for that for me. Readable, but not one of his best. ( )

Poetic, a wonderful read. ( )

A crushing and haunting examination of the frustrating, other-worldly formulas that drive us to love and desire. Dense and profound despite its simple style and unassuming length. Definitely one of my new favorite books. ( )