I only have limited experience of Haruki Murakami, but what I've read of him has impressed me immensely. Sputnik Sweetheart, one of this shorter works, continues in this tradition, crafting an enigmatic world that feels as if it is getting progressively less comprehensible, a fantasy that is nevertheless firmly planted in reality.

The story is narrated by a young male character--unnamed, but identified only once or twice as K. He is infatuated with Sumire, a beautiful young writer struggling to make a living, who does not return his affections. When Sumire meets a strange older woman named Miu, she believes she is falling in love, and quickly accepts Miu's job offer as a traveling secretary. But when, during a holiday in Greece, Sumire disappears without a trace, Miu calls upon K to try to find out where she has gone, and why.

What makes the novel so engaging is that it is equal parts romance and mystery, with the early part of the text focusing strongly on K's and Sumire's feelings about love and relationships. We understand immediately that K's feelings for Sumire are unrequited, but so does he, allowing us to root for his love to be returned without feeling as if we are betraying either character. Sumire too is a very strong character despite the little we are allowed to know about her: there is a certain youthful desperation to her that makes her supremely likable and engaging.

Where the book truly shines, however, is in its mysterious elements. Once Sumire disappears, the mood shifts strongly towards something almost creepy and supernatural. Miu's presence adds a certain haunting quality to the proceedings, and her story about the ferris wheel certainly stretches the bounds of plausibility, but there is a quality to the telling of the story that is urgent and palatable. Even in the final highly unusual and ghostly scene, we trust that what we are reading is entirely possible within the world Murakami has created, allowing the scene's emotional register to take over.

Nevertheless, the novel is not perfect. I would have liked to have known more about the supernatural elements, to have been given some kind of explanation for certain ideas and details, but on the plus side, the lack of explication doesn't ruin the experience of the book. Sputnik Sweetheart is touching, sweet, and captivating, and certainly the kind of book that will make someone unfamiliar with Murakami want to read more.

I just finished this book while sitting on a beach under the shade of a palm tree. It is interesting for me to write a book review, as I just finished my master's degree in library science, which had me reading and writing at an unnatural pace. I find myself with no guidelines to write this review, which is nice, also with no pressure, but here I am. This book conveys an overall atmosphere of everyday (but everyone sees "everyday" differently, everyone as their own universe, and this book beautifully displays universe convergences [satellites that meet for just a brief time in orbit {as well as: [powerful soul connections] and otherworld, sharing feelings that I can relate to, and importantly: inspiring reflection (including artistic reflection). Sumire is introduced as an avid writer (with various reasons for not putting all of the pieces together)...I enjoy books that share an artist's everyday life, feelings, reasons why they create art. An inspiring glimpse. The book has an opening effect, clearing the fog, a kind of therapy. The idea that the book is fiction escapes me, it is a blur. I recommend against reading the inside book flap (or back of the book) as some of the descriptors mention events halfway into the book, and it may be nice to not *anticipate* them (I did not read these descriptors, as an avid fan of Murakami's work I trust him, and do not need to be drawn in with what are considered major events and told what the story is or is not) Discovery awaits, enjoy. ( )

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. ( )

A guilty pleasure with a greater pull than you expect.

Nederlandstalige review alhier;
http://www.pinkbullets.nl/2008/04/boo... ( )

Unique and refreshing.

This is another poignant and unique offering from Murakami. I love his writing and the translations read well (although as to their accuracy I cannot testify, being less than fluent in Japanese!). I certainly won't talk too much about the plot as, for me, each Murakami novel needs to be approached for the first time without preconceived ideas. This is, on the surface, a simple tale of unrequited love. The narrator, a male teacher, in love with his friend, a girl. She, in turn, is in love with a sophisticated older woman she met at a wedding and continued on to work for. As usual, Murakami's treatment of love is subtle, poignant and tasteful.

This is where the book begins to depart from the norm. With a backdrop of normality, Murakami introduces his own 'magic' storylines that depart from reality but remain very real to the reader. It is very alien to the western mind - there is something very Japanese about it, in a similar spirit to Miyazaki's animation and completely apart from any flights of fancy I've come across in western writing. The reader is left to put their own interpretation on the events of the novel and choose how far to take Murakami's description of events as literal.

In translated novels, you are so dependent on the translator's skill to let you appreciate the flair and language of the original. Read in translation, this book carried a depth of language and richness of evocative description, both of places and emotions. It reads well and in an unstilted manner. How closely this matched the sense of the original I cannot say, but I believe that anyone skilled enough to translate something that reads so well in English will have been true to the author's original words.

I would certainly recommend this highly and would suggest that even if you are a reader who prefers to read more literal novels, it is worth giving Murakami a try. It might surprise you! ( )

Can words express how much I love Haruki Murakami NO THEY CAN NOT thank you. ^_^ As in his other books, the language is evocative and the ending is always a sharp surprise. The story is that of a young man, who is in love with a young female novelist, who is in love with an older woman, who doesn't love anybody. Through the course of the story we are taken from Japan to an obscure Aegean island and back. The people in it are fairly ordinary, but the story takes them to extraordinary extremes. Crud, I can't explain it. It's just lovely. ^_^

Eris Reads, my book blog

Murakami's fame preceded him and I approached the book hoping to be blown away or terribly disappointed. The story of this unrealised love triangle did neither.

Although some might find the characters' attitude too dispassionate for their tastes, my impression while reading it, was not that the characters were cold, but that they failed to -or decided not to- communicate their feelings by means other than quite plain and calm words. This is perfectly illustrated by lovers that do not go further than saying “I like you very much” to each other. This stripped the book of any obvious melodramatism and created an undercurrent of tension (be this sexual or otherwise) that kept me interested and reading while waiting for it to break loose.

Some diverting scenes while irrelevant for the main plot helped giving the book its detached tone and increased my interest as I tried to figure out their meaning and place in the story.

The toying with the concept of identity and the simple enjoyable prose reminded me slightly of Auster's “Book of Illusions” and probably anyone who has read and liked it will enjoy “Sputnik Sweetheart”.

Although the book provided me with some hours of entertaining reading, my failing to tie up all the threads (or the author's failing or unwillingness to do so) left the impression of a certain lack of substance, which is not all that bad as it also left me wanting for more, which I hope I will find in some other of Murakami's books. ( )

Murakami's fame preceded him and I approached the book hoping to be blown away or terribly disappointed. The story of this unrealised love triangle did neither.

Although some might find the characters' attitude too dispassionate for their tastes, my impression while reading it, was not that the characters were cold, but that they failed to -or decided not to- communicate their feelings by means other than quite plain and calm words. This is perfectly illustrated by lovers that do not go further than saying “I like you very much” to each other. This stripped the book of any obvious melodramatism and created an undercurrent of tension (be this sexual or otherwise) that kept me interested and reading while waiting for it to break loose.

Some diverting scenes while irrelevant for the main plot helped giving the book its detached tone and increased my interest as I tried to figure out their meaning and place in the story.

The toying with the concept of identity and the simple enjoyable prose reminded me slightly of Auster's “Book of Illusions” and probably anyone who has read and liked it will enjoy “Sputnik Sweetheart”.

Although the book provided me with some hours of entertaining reading, my failing to tie up all the threads (or the author's failing or unwillingness to do so) left the impression of a certain lack of substance, which is not all that bad as it also left me wanting for more, which I hope I will find in some other of Murakami's books. ( )

http://thepugetnews.com/2007/08/10/a-... ( )

I like the simplicity of this story...with such an odd story it could so easily become bogged down in explanations and world-building, but instead Murakami just sketches the outlines and leaves it at that. ( )

http://www.schlaikjer.net/reviews/153... ( )

first murakami encountered, and i got hooked. best scene includes catching sight of oneself from a ferris wheel.

Descriptions were too annoying in "high school" writer style. Especially bad was that the sections that were supposed to be showing the characters writing matched the author's writing exactly.

Sputnik Sweetheart is a strange, rather haunting story of a love affair between two women, observed by an unnamed narrator, a man who is in love with one of them. K is a young school teacher, deeply attracted to Sumire, a struggling young writer, who falls passionately in love with an older, sophisticated business woman, Miu. What might have been a humdrum tale of unrequited love, graduates into something more mystical, as the setting moves from big-city Japan to a tiny Greek island. The narrator’s loveless encounters with other women are mere distractions – it is Sumire who fills his head and fuels his dreams, but Sumire is unobtainable, in the end, to everyone.
Murikami hints at a mirror world, existing alongside the world that everyone thinks of as the real one. Raising questions about identity and the nature of knowledge along the way, he is an accomplished and skilful writer, but I felt impatient with some of the elements of this story – too much was left shrouded in fanciful mysticism.
Haruki Murakami’s books have won world-wide acclaim – particularly A Wild Sheep Chase and Norwegian Wood. This unassuming tale may not add much to his reputation but readers will find some knotty existential problems to tackle. ( )

This was the first of Murakami's books i read and it definately got me hooked. Murakami usually deals with themes of identity and loneliness/the impossibility of truly knowing another. And Sputnik Sweetheart is no exception. The thing that keeps me coming back to Murakami is the poignant beauty of his writing. His sentances are lyrical. A testament to both the author, and the high quality of the translations. Sputnik Sweetheart is a great introduction to Murakami, although i think that probably The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore are better novels, they both require the reader to get more into Murakami's weird dreamspace. ( )

This was the first Murakami novel I read and it remains, thus far, my favourite. It's funny, it's poignant, and everything works despite Murakami's trademark surrealism. Even Murakami’s frequent name dropping of writers, musicians, or whatever, doesn’t feel unnecessary here given the young, trendy characters the story revolves around.

There are similarities to Norwegian Wood but Sputnik Sweetheart is a similar story told far better in my opinion. ( )

another quality Murakami ( )

brief outline (no spoilers)
First let me say that Sputnik was the first satellite in orbit; one of the later Sputniks carried the space dog Laika who did nothing but float around in space until he eventually died. Now consider the concept of that type of isolation, and the sheer emptiness of space at the time and you will begin to appreciate the topic that Murakami is tackling here.

The two main characters are Sumire and a man known only as "K." He is a teacher, she is a struggling writer. He loves Sumire and wants her, she is in love with Miu, who is a wine broker and a somewhat enigmatic young woman. He knows Sumire does not return his feelings but he does not stop being her best friend. Sumire and Miu travel to Europe on business; then the opportunity arises for them to spend some time on a Greek island. At that point, Sumire mysteriously vanishes.

The first part of the book details the feelings of K toward Sumire and the feelings of Sumire toward Miu. The second part of the book begins with Sumire leaving for Europe and finishes with K going to Greece to look for her. Then there is a 3rd, very small part, which addresses the idea of hope in the midst of alienation and loneliness.

Excellently written, the book delves into the concepts of identity, alienation, loneliness & how to find happiness in the world where everyone is together yet at the same time isolated.

I would definitely recommend this book, again with the caveat that it involves reader participation. Don't expect tidy answers; once again it is a postmodern novel so those are rare and almost non-existent. It is a quick but intense read that will leave you asking your own questions. ( )

Narrated by K, this tells the story of his college friend, Sumire, an aspiring writer. K has always been in love with Sumire, but she has never fallen in love. Until she meets an older, married, woman called Miu.

And Miu is unable to love, following a mysterious incident that also left her hair white.

Tangles upon tangles.

This has what I'm beginning to find out are Murakami's classic motifs: his characters love music (jazz and classical, in particular). They are often estranged from their parents, or don't relate to them very well. And they seem to be living a waking dream.

This is less fantastical than the other novels I've read of his, possibly because the strangeness that happens does seem to be somewhat more limited to the characters' dream life, rather than their real life.

But a great examination of modern life, and modern relationships.

I felt the last section (after Sumire & Miu) didn't quite gel with the rest of the book. It was an interesting section, but would have worked better as a standalone story, as I felt this book was more about Sumire & Miu and their relationship with K (and what that reveals about K), rather than about K directly. ( )