Summary Synopsis
Sumire is a close friend of mine. She dropped the university at her sophomore year to become a novelist. And she visited my apartment on weekends, she showed me her manuscripts. I love her, but she didn’t have love feeling for me. At a time, she came across a merchant lady Miu, she became an assistant of Miu, then Sumire couldn’t write a novel.
Miu and Sumire went to France and Italy on business, on their way home, they dropped in a Greek island as a vacation. At the Greek island, Sumire suddenly disappeared. I went to the Greek island requested by Miu, but we can’t find Sumire. A day, I found two texts in a floppy disk written by Sumire…
Book Review
This novel ninth long novel by Haruki Murakami, and the third romance novel follows Norwegian Wood and South of the Border, West of the Sun, originally published in 1999. But he has not written a romance long novel again until now. Also, this novel is an unusual romance novel that describes today’s persons who have no existence or reality who can’t fall in love really, seriously and passionately.
This novel is a story about Sumire, and the substantial main character in this novel is Sumire. The main descriptions of the first half of this novel are descriptions about Sumire from the viewpoint of the narrator like Nick Carraway in the Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, and talks about Miu of which the narrator heard by Sumire. Sumire is an interface or a narrator of the narrator, to see the world and to understand himself. And the narrator narrates the story which is not a neutral and fair act. There are choices, selections and interpretations by the narrator. I think the narrator is one of the readers who interprets the story like the concept of death of the author by Roland Barthes.
The name ”Sputnik Sweetheart” is the secret nickname of Miu named by Sumire. So Sputnik Sweetheart is Miu, and Sputnik (means "traveling companion” in Russian) is Sumire. Sumire and Miu are beings like a satellite or Sputnik, lost existence, reality and lively feeling. Their hearts were shunted by an iron shell and went away from others by centrifugal force. And Sumire and Miu can’t express or perform true moving or emotional expressions by art. In this novel, a few times it mentioned the word “lesbian (love)”. But rather than it, I think this novel expresses women’s platonic love and intimate friendship.
The subtheme of this novel is writing, writing novel and story, and what are story and writing. Writing and story for Sumire (and today’s people in this novel), the methods fill in the gap with between reality and self or own mind. For Sumire, writing novels is the meaning of life, but she had no reality, existence and true genius or talent as an artist. From the time Sumire met Miu, Sumire did not have to fill in the gap with the reality, because Miu is a being on the other side and was a fine pianist but hadn’t true genius, equal to Sumire. So by her fate and experiences, she can’t complete a novel she wanted to write and must disappear in her youth.
I think the description of chapter 5 is Murakami’s literary and philosophical reflection and question on self and his thought of writing novels. And this novel is a reflection on Murakami himself through Sumire, and through Sumire through the narrator. The narrator partly lived in Sumire’s story, and the narrator’s meaning of life is the story of Sumire. So Murakami made and lived the story of the narrator and Sumire, wrote and implied his thought of writing by this novel.
And, physicality or embodiment is a key to this novel. In this novel, the narrator by Murakami played sport first time. Sumire and Miu are persons who lost their physicality, so they can’t do and feel real or sexual love. It may be the notion of Murakami, as literature or writing needs physicality.
I think this novel resembles Murakami’s first romance Norwegian Wood very much. The relationships, Toru Watanabe-Naoko-Reiko and the narrator-Sumire-Miu resemble. Also, positioning of characters, the structure of story and locations, last phone call, Reiko and Miu abandoned playing piano, Naoko and Sumire are the beings lost existences and emotionally unstable, they resemble. And Norwegian Wood is tragic, humid and melancholic. Instead, this novel is dreamy, light, dry and refreshing. So I think Sputnik Sweetheart is the 90’s variation of Norwegian Wood, the story around 1969-1970. And the structure of many elements made the story and its content and meaning, so I have resembled but different feeling by the two novels.
This novel is one of the fine works of Murakami, and a dreamy and wonderful but mysterious "romance" novel written by Murakami's original style.
And this is a structuralist novel that consists of the structure of the story and positionings of its elements as characters, places and notions. The narrator is a usual (and empty) person, but the structure, its elements, their positioning and his view make the story and the meaning. But also this novel is an existentialist novel that expresses the nothingness of existence of people today. But Murakami didn't write answers such as Sumire's whereabouts and what is a story and writing. He left answers and considerations behind readers.
Details of the Book
Sputnik Sweatheart
Haruki Murakami (Author), Philip Gabriel (Translator)
Vintage Publishing, London, United Kingdom, 3 October 2002
240 pages, £8.99
ISBN: 978-0099448471
Related Posts and Pages
Note (EN) | Sputnik Sweetheart