Items related to Sputnik Sweetheart
Combining the early, straightforward seductions of Norwegian Wood and the complex mysteries of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, this new novel—his seventh translated into English—is Haruki Murakami at his most satisfying and representative best.
The scenario is as simple as it is uncomfortable: a college student falls in love (once and for all, despite everything that transpires afterward) with a classmate whose devotion to Kerouac and an untidy writerly life precludes any personal commitments—until she meets a considerably older and far more sophisticated businesswoman. It is through this wormhole that she enters Murakami’s surreal yet humane universe, to which she serves as guide both for us and for her frustrated suitor, now a teacher. In the course of her travels from parochial Japan through Europe and ultimately to an island off the coast of Greece, she disappears without a trace, leaving only lineaments of her fate: computer accounts of bizarre events and stories within stories. The teacher, summoned to assist in the search for her, experiences his own ominous, haunting visions, which lead him nowhere but home to Japan—and there, under the expanse of deep space and the still-orbiting Sputnik, he finally achieves a true understanding of his beloved.
A love story, a missing-person story, a detective story—all enveloped in a philosophical mystery—and, finally, a profound meditation on human longing.
The scenario is as simple as it is uncomfortable: a college student falls in love (once and for all, despite everything that transpires afterward) with a classmate whose devotion to Kerouac and an untidy writerly life precludes any personal commitments—until she meets a considerably older and far more sophisticated businesswoman. It is through this wormhole that she enters Murakami’s surreal yet humane universe, to which she serves as guide both for us and for her frustrated suitor, now a teacher. In the course of her travels from parochial Japan through Europe and ultimately to an island off the coast of Greece, she disappears without a trace, leaving only lineaments of her fate: computer accounts of bizarre events and stories within stories. The teacher, summoned to assist in the search for her, experiences his own ominous, haunting visions, which lead him nowhere but home to Japan—and there, under the expanse of deep space and the still-orbiting Sputnik, he finally achieves a true understanding of his beloved.
A love story, a missing-person story, a detective story—all enveloped in a philosophical mystery—and, finally, a profound meditation on human longing.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
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.
Review:
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
"Grabs you from its opening lines. . . . [Murakami's] never written anything more openly emotional." -"Los Angeles Magazine" "Murakami is a genius." -"Chicago Tribune" "Murakami has an unmatched gift for turning psychological metaphors into uncanny narratives." -"The New York Times Book Review" "An agonizing, sweet story about the power and the pain of love. . . . Immensely deepened by perfect little images that leave much to be filled in by the reader's heart or eye." -"The Baltimore Sun" "[Murakami belongs] in the topmost rank of writers of international stature." -"Newsday" "Murakami's true achievement lies in the humor and vision he brings to even the most despairing moments." -"The New Yorker" "Perhaps better than any contemporary writer, [Murakami] captures and lays bare the raw human emotion of longing." -"BookPage" "Murakami . . . has a deep interest in the alienation of self, which lifts [Sputnik Sweetheart] into both fantasy and philosophy." -"San Francisco Chronicle" "Not just a great Japanese writer but a great writer, period." -"Los Angeles Times Book Review" --Los Angeles Times Book Review
The skilled narration assures you that everything is real, but reality for 'K', a Tokyo teacher who sleeps with his pupils' mothers, is 'a cardigan with the buttons done up wrong'. 'K' is in love with Sumire, a needy aspiring novelist in clumpy workbooks, who looks on 'K' as her friend but is in love with Miu, an older woman hiding a curious past. Each layer of the mystery deepens the ramifications of isolation and love. Wonderful. --- Rachel Redford, The Oldie
The skilled narration assures you that everything is real, but reality for 'K', a Tokyo teacher who sleeps with his pupils' mothers, is 'a cardigan with the buttons done up wrong'. 'K' is in love with Sumire, a needy aspiring novelist in clumpy workbooks, who looks on 'K' as her friend but is in love with Miu, an older woman hiding a curious past. Each layer of the mystery deepens the ramifications of isolation and love. Wonderful. --- Rachel Redford, The Oldie
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherVintage
- Publication date1999
- ISBN 10 0099516349
- ISBN 13 9780099516347
- BindingPaperback
(No Available Copies)
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