Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Superb
Review: Sputnik Sweetheart is a terrific work. Murakami gives us much in a little over 200 pages; the story is wonderful on so many different levels. On the surface it is the story of a young Japanes woman, Sumire, who falls in love with an older woman, Mui, who becomes her boss. The story is narrated by K, a young man who loves Sumire. No love in the novel is requited. Sumire and Mui travel through Europe and K eventually travels to Greece to help find Sumire when she vanishes. The novel here, however, is much more than the plot. It is a rumination on modern loneliness and isolation, filled with thoughts and ideas on what it is to write fiction, to read fiction, to live fiction. Sputnik Sweetheart is also interesting in that it is narrated by K, although the story is really Sumire's, a frustrated novelist. I thoroughly enjoyed Sputnik Sweetheart and highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Stab at Realism
Review: Thus far, I'd only read Murakami's more "fantastic" novels, such as Wild Sheep Chase and Hardboiled Wonderland so Sputnik Sweetheart was somewhat of a shock to me. Yet there are some similarities: nameless (almost), young, male narrator; cute, quirky, attractive, young female character with whom the narrator is enamored; mystery; and the occasional unusual setting.Sputnik Sweetheart follows the story of K, his love for the quirky Sumire, her attraction to the mysterious Miu and the mystery surrounding Sumire's disappearance on a remote Greek island. Filled with plenty of angst, unrequited love and unrealized dreams, Sputnik Sweetheart is perhaps more introspective than many of Murakami's novels but it's no less enjoyable. Murakami's sense of humor, despite the sullen subject matter, shines through and his overall style makes this a unique novel.
Rating:
Summary: A Story of Loneliness and Frustration
Review: In his sparely-told novel, Sputnik Sweetheart (2001), Haruki Murakami gives a compelling picture of loneliness. The novel has three major characters. First, there is the nameless young male narrator of the story who has recently graduated from college and is teaching school. The second major character is Sumire, a young woman who has dropped out of college and is struggling to become a writer. She is under the influence of Jack Kerouac and the American beats. The third major character is Miu, a woman in her late 30's who appears when the tale begins to be a polished, highly successful career woman. The story is based upon a love triangle. The young man narrating the story has long been in love with Sumire. But Sumire views him as a friend and a confidante. She is not interested in a physical relationship with him or, apparently, with any man. When Sumire meets Miu, the two become friends and Sumire develops a strong physical attraction to Miu. The plot of this story develops and then disentangles this love triangle. For me, the strongest part of the story was the portait of the narrator's love for Sumire, together with the attendant emotional and physical pain resulting to him from Sumire's lack of interest in a sexual relationship. The characters in this book, the primary characters as well as the secondary characters, are fragmented and lonely. Given that deep intimacy with another person generally involves a physical, sexual component and a component based upon friendship and interests, the characters in this book exhibit at most one or the other. They seem unable to combine both. They also don't know what they want and don't understand themselves very well. In my opinion, a story such as Murakami's begs for a spiritual understanding. The novel addresses the nature of loneliness, of desire and frustration, of rejection, and self-knowledge. It shows, I think, how individuals need to develop compassion for themselves and for others, an understanding of desire and of loss, and self-awareness. I think these themes are implicit in the book althought Murakami does not preach or push them. The reader is left to think them through from the story. The characters in the novel don't fully bear the weight Murakami places upon them. I felt disengaged, particularly from the two women, Miu and especially Sumire. I had trouble with the relationship between the narrator and Sumire in that it is predicated upon Sumire's physical rejection of the narrator and her attraction for a woman. I particularly enjoyed the role of music in this story. Murakami displays a love and knowledge of music which I found inspiring. We are told that Sumire was named after a Mozart song set to a Goethe poem after her mother heard a recording of it by Schwartzkopf and Geisking. The song is set to beautiful music but tells the story of a callous young woman. It is a symbol of the story as a whole. (The book also discusses the nature of symbolism.) The discussion of this song, made me want to go out and find the Schwartzkopf-Giesking performance, which I did. Music also plays a role in Miu's life. She had aspired to be a concert pianist but abandoned the piano after a serious emotional shock. There are moving discussions in the book of piano music and the joy of piano playing. There is more than a suggestion that the joy of making music is somehow tied closely with the joy of partaking in human sexuality. This book is painful at times. It reads quickly and well and I found myself reflecting upon it long after I had finished the novel.
Rating:
Summary: a mellow and surreal story; one of Murakami's best
Review: I am most decidely a fan of Haruki Murakami even though he has produced some not-so-interesting material over the years. 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle', a surreal materpiece, remains his best. However I found his most famous 'Norwegian Wood' to be too sentimental for its own good. Thankfully with 'Sputnik Sweetheart' the author has found the right blend of the surreal and the romantic. I loved it. 'Sputnik Sweetheart' is about an odd love triangle where the love is either platonic or something a bit stronger yet unfulfilled; there is no sex in this book. Murakami, with no doubt significant credit to the translator, excels in expressing each of the unique character's loneliness without being too depressing. Cerebral without taking itself too seriously. And as for the surreal element ... it works very nicely (no spoilers here!). Bottom line: a elegant piece of modern literature. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: A real treasure
Review: When I first finished this book three weeks ago, my knee-jerk reaction was that Haruki Murakami must be the world's greatest living author. Well, I've had time to calm down a little since then, but that still doesn't change the fact that this is a amzing book by a writing genius. The narrotor, K, is in love with Sumire, but she has secretly fallen in love with Miu, an intriguing, elegant older woman with a mysterious past. Sumire and Miu go on a business trip to Europe, where Sumire vanishes 'like smoke'. K travels to Greece to help Miu search, but she remains nowhere to be found. Just why this book is so unbelievably good is beyond me. The plot is relatively straightforward. The language is fairly commonplace. But there is something about this novel that makes it breathe with life. I think it has something to do with the particular window on the world that Murakami gives us. Through his protagonist, a straight-up good guy, as reader I look out on a world that I recognise, but with heightened tones of beauty and sadness and the fragility of happiness and the relationships between people, the past and future. Murakami writes utterly convincing dialogue, and has also the rare ability to capture the most fleeting, inarticulable moments. His arts are so subtle but so devastatingly affective - Philip Gabriel must have done a fantastic job in translating this book. Since then I've read The Wild Sheep Chase, and Norwegian Wood. The former is one of his early novels, and was a little too disjointed and digressive for my tastes; but if anything Norwegian Wood is even better than Sputnik Sweetheart. The one criticism I would hesitatingly make is that Murakami tends to make his narrators too nice - they're all sensitive, perceptive, unassuming - I'd like to meet one with a great flaw, or point of conflict. And I do not share the author's fetish for women's ears - along with the moon, and cats, uncovered ears seem to be a Murakami trademark. Overall, though, I'm happy to find that the newest of my favourite authors (whom I discovered because Murakami came before Nabokov on the bookshop shelf) has another four or five books for me to read. I highly recommend this novel. (F, 26)
Rating:
Summary: Murakami's "Sputnik Sweetheart"
Review: Haruki Murakami's "Sputnik Sweetheart" (2001) is a novel with themes of rejection, frustration, and lack of self-knowledge. There are three primary characters, a nameless young man who is the narrator, Sumire, a young woman who aspires to be a writer, much taken with Kerouac and the beats, and Miu, an apparently successful and polished career woman in her late 30's. The novel involves a romantic triangle between these three characters. The narrator is in love with Sumire, but Sumire is romantically uninterested in him or in any man. Sumire instead finds herself deeply attracted to Miu, whom she meets at a party. The plot of the novel consists of the working out of the triangle between Sumire, Miu, and the narrator. The slender,spare story of this novel is greatly enhanced by the many ways in which Murakami uses musical themes. Sumire was named after a song by Mozart with a text by Goethe which her mother heard on a recording by Elizabeth Scwartzkopf and Walter Giesking. This song, I found, is Mozart's "Das Veilichen", K. 475 (the violet) the only song Mozart set to a Goethe poem. It tells the story of a beautiful young woman who does some callous things. I think the song is a symbol (another key concept in this novel) of the story as a whole. It is good to read a book that can make creative and appropriate references to Mozart and music -- not to speak of Charles Peirce's philosophy of signs and symbols. Miu aspired to be a concert pianist before an event occured which changed her life. There are outstanding discussions in this book of music and of the joy of playing the piano. The love of music is tied closely in this book to the welcoming and acceptance of one's human sexuality. There is a spiritual theme I find implicit throughout this book which might have been more fully developed. The book led me to think about the nature of human desire, about the relationship between sexuality and intimacy, and about frustration and unhappiness resulting from the lack of self-knowledge. The characters in this book are all lonely and all exhibit deep sexual frustration. The exploration of these issues suggests a consideration of the nature of desire, sexuality, change, and self-awareness that are profoundly explored in many religous traditions. I didn't find the characters in this book fully bore the weight Murakami put upon them. The male narrator for me was the only appealing character in the book. Even here, I had trouble getting involved with a young man who remains deeply obsessed with a woman who rejects him physically in favor of a woman. Miu left me cold, and I didn't like Sumire. The book reads quickly and well, and is highly evocative in its spare prose. The book stayed me and stimulated by thought and reflection long after I had finished it.
Rating:
Summary: Gravity of desire.
Review: In Murakami's _Sputnik Sweetheart_, people are in love as an exercise in connection (or the lack of it). Sumire (Violet) slouches into the novel as the unattainable object of desire for the narrator, but falls in love with Miu-- a woman 17 years her senior. Miu is endlessly loveable, but utterly unable to love, with her ability to connect lost to her years before in an incident that split her personality. Meanwhile the narrator desires the mother of one of his students, but keeps his heart set on Sumire, who is unable to see him as anything except a friend. All the characters are split into their desire to love and their lack of ability to love. Murakami plays with that split and makes it literal through a skilful rendering of the realistic and surreal, and even the resolution of the novel is divided-- what connection is there between people besides at least looking at the same moon? This is my second Murakami (_Norwegian Wood_ was the first) and it confirmed by view of him as an interesting writer whose work I'm going to continue reading. I found that I liked NW better, in that I was less convinced with how the surrealism was applied here-- seemed like it was already too much one way to change into another by the time that it was introduced. I was less than convinced by the ending, and perhaps even a little disappointed. Still, better than much that's out there and well worth the time to read. I'm going to try Wind-Up Bird Chronicle next.
Rating:
Summary: Haruki what else can I say
Review: Huruki Murakami is one of the best authors out today. If you haven't read anything by him then I suggest Norweigan Wood. I think it is his best although all his novels are great including this one. You won't be disappointed with this purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Murakami, but sparser than normal
Review: I really like the works of Haruki Murakami. He's among the most inventive and edgy novelists I've discovered for a while now. But Sputnik Sweetheart just wasn't up to his usual style. I suppose he was writing a minimalist novel this time around. It had his usual quirky style, but there just wasn't that much here. How does one review a minimalist novel? (I'm using this word because someone in one of the other reviews used it. I wouldn't have come up with it myself, but it fits.) The basic plot is a guy loves a girl who doesn't love him, but instead loves an older married woman, whom she works for. The rest is style. I can't write much without giving something away, but there's also not much to give away. I suppose if you like the Murakami style, you'll like this. It's reasonably enjoyable, but not deep or memorable. Nothing here will touch you, or make you feel anything. So read and enjoy, but don't expect much.
Rating:
Summary: Weird story
Review: A weird and wonderful tale told by a narrator we later find who is known only as "K". His friend Sumire, meets an older woman, falls in love with her, then vanishes from a Greek island. It's unusual and leaves the reader with "What just happened?" question in his/her mind.
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