Synopsis & Review | Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami & Philip Gabriel, Vintage Books, 2001 (originally published in 1999)

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

Note (EN) | Norwegian Wood

Works of Haruki Murakami

Timeline of Haruki Murakami

Literature / littérature Page

YouTube Haruki Murakami Commentary Playlist

YouTube Literature & Philosophy Channel

Note | Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami & Philip Gabriel, Vintage Publishing, 2001 (Originally Published in 1999)

Information of the Book

Murakami’s 9th long novel, and third romance novel follows Norwegian Wood and South of the Border, West of the Sun, originally published in 1999. Also this novel is unusual romance novel describes today’s persons has no existence or reality who can’t love seriously and passionately.

When the time this book published, three of nine works of Murakami were romance. But he has not been wrote a romance long novel again for now.

Form, Style & Structure

This novel is story about Sumire, and substantially main character in this novel is Sumire. (5, p. 59) The main description of the first half of this novel is describing Sumire by 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.

Background of the Work & Author

Murakami lived in Greek in the late 80’s, he described the days in his first travel literature Far Drums (1990). And he arrived a Greek island and went around monasteries of the Greek Orthodox Church in Rainy Days, Sunny Days (1990).

Characters

Narrator – A teacher of an elementary school. He born in Suginami, Tokyo, and raised in Tsudanuma, Chiba. He enjoyed read novels but studied history, because reading novels is his pure personal enjoyment. (5, p. 62) He loved Sumire, but she had no romantic feelings. (5, p. 64)

Sumire (Violet in Japanese) – A friend of the narrator, 2 years younger than him, and the narrator was in love with Sumire. She was born in Chigasaki, Kanagawa. She was named by Morzart’s song the Violet. After she graduated from a public high school in Kanagawa, she entered a little private college in Tokyo the narrator was enrolled. She dropped out the University in the sophomore year to be a novelist. But she wrote every night by a word processor, but couldn’t complete a novel. She wasn’t a beautiful but had a certain charm. She wore an oversized herringbone coat, a pair of rough work boots and a black plastic-framed Dizzy Gillespie glasses to become wild and cool like a character in Jack Kerouac’s novel. She has no sexual desire for men. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Sumire worked at Miu’s office and she was taken Italian private lessons twice a week.

Miu – A Korean married, beautiful, extremely lovely and slim woman, 17 years older than Sumire, born and raised in Japan, graduated Catholic strict but progressive junior high and high school, then studied at a music academy in France. But her father fell ill and she suffered a mysterious occurrence in a small town in Switzerland, she retuned to Japan and never touch keyboard again. After she abandoned studying and playing piano, she had taken over her father’s trading company, but then her husband and brother did main business, and she became a merchant of wine or something and a coordinator of music as her own private business. When she was 25 years old she suffered from “the Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel” (12), and her hair became white and lost half of her, then she stopped playing piano. She married at 29 years old, the private life is without making love and they see each other only at weekends, their life basically went well.

A girl friend – A lady friend of the narrator and a mother of narrator’s pupil. They slept together about twice a month. (5) His son “Carrot” was caught in the act of shoplifting. (15)

Sumire’s cousin (1) – Miu assisted or advised for her to taking an examination of a Music University. At her wedding ceremony, Sumire came across Miu.

father of Sumire (1, 14) – He run a dental clinic in Yokohama, Kanagawa.

mother of Sumire (1, 12) – When Sumire was three years old, she passed away at 31 years old by a congenital heart defect.

stepmother of Sumire (1, 14) – Sumire’s father remarried when she was six. A kind and fair person loved Sumire. When Sumire decided to quiet the collage and become a novelist, the stepmother persuaded the father to provide Sumire with a small stipend until she became 28.

younger brother of Sumire (1) – Two years after the remarriage, Sumire’s younger brother was born.

father of Miu (1)

a woman eight years older than the narrator (4)

husband of Miu (4) – A Japanese man is five years older than Miu and fluent in Korean. Because he studied at the Seoul University for two years. So, in fact he substantially run Miu’s company.

father of the narrator (5)

mother of the narrator (5)

older sister of the narrator (5) – Only sister of the narrator is five years older than him. She is very smart and matters outside of her sphere is nor concern. She graduated from Tokyo University law school and passed the bar exam the following year.

English gentleman – He owned a villa in a Greek island, and he recommended Miu and Sumire to stay there. (6, p. ; 8 p. 109)

Wealthy old Spanish lady (8, p. 109)

The policeman who spoke English (9, p. 131)

Ferdinando (12) – He was born from Barcelona, and moved for the small village in Switzerland to work in furniture design. A handsome, thirty-six, Latin, tall man with a thoroughly nose and dark straight hair, had a sexual desire for Miu. And his presence made Miu anxious.

Carrot (15) – A son of the lady friend of narrator, and a pupil of narrator. His real name is Shinichi Nimura, so he called Ninjin (Carrot).

Nakamura (15) – A security guard of the supermarket in Tachikawa.

Locations

Kunitachi – The narrator lived Kunitachi.

Kichijoji (- 5) – Sumire was living in a one-room apartment in Kichijoji.

Kanda (1, p. 15) – The second-hand bookshop Mecca in Tokyo.

Omote Sando – Miu and Sumire had a dinner. (3)

Harajuku – A cultural center of Tokyo, near Shibuya. There’s the office of Miu.

Aoyama (4) – Miu’s apartment was in.

Jungumae (4) – A district of Harajuku. Miu’s office is in.

Suginami (4)

Tsudanuma (5) – A bedroom suburb of Tokyo in Chiba prefecture.

Yoyogi Uehara (5) – Sumire moved to a usual apartment of Yoyogi Uehara.

Roma (6, p. 75)

A Greek Island (7 – 14) – A English gentleman whom Miu and Sumire came across, have a villa on the Island, and he recommended them to stay there. So they decided to stay as a vacation. (6) A so small island near the Turkish border. (7, p. 89) A pretty typical Geek island. The population ranged from 3,000 to 6,000, depending on the season. In summer, people are in business for the tourists, and, in winter, go elsewhere in search of work. The island has pretty limited industries, such as agriculture of ovules and fruits, fishing and sponge-diving. So majority of residents moved to Florida, where they could make use of their skills. The flat space is little and mostly steep and unforgiving hills, and there’s only one town along the south shore. (7, pp. 98 – 100)

Athens (10, 14)

Tachikawa (15) – A big town of suburban Tokyo next to Kunitachi.

Places

A posh hotel in Akasaka (1)

Inogashira Park (1, p. 13) – Sumire took a walk around the park in the afternoon.

Miu’s office (4) – Her own small office at Jingumae, Harajuku.

Acropolis (pp. 193 – 194)

Key Elements, Key Words & Key Phrases

Sputnik – When they talked about Kerouac, Miu slipped a tongue to say Sputnik, instead she wanted to say Beatnik (the literary movement includes Kerouac). Since Sputnik Sweetheart is private name for Miu in Sumire. (1, pp. 7 – 8) And Sputnik in Russian means “travelling companion”. (8, p. 108) “Like a little lost Sputnik?” (5, p.69) It maybe the symbol of Sumire and Miu, beings were in the other side.

writing, novel – Sumire want to write a “massive nineteenth-century-style Total Novel”, but she can write only fragmetns of novels, her writing had a remarkable freshness. (1) Writing is equal to playing piano. (4)

piano – Miu studied playing piano at a music academy in France. But she (4, )

Chinese gates – An allegory or a metaphor signifies a living, breathing and real novel needs a king of baptism or sacrifice. (1, pp. 16 – 17) Miu sacrificed every ounce of flesh, every drop of blood and everything for piano, but she couldn’t become a pianist. (4, pp. 52 – 53)

time and experience (1, p. 18 ; 3, p. 41)

sign and symbol – Abruptly, Miu asked Sumire about the difference between a sign and symbol. (1, pp. 24 – 25) A symbol represents a thing, but the thing is not the symbol. But a sign represents a thing, also the two things are equivalent and interchangeable. (2, pp. 30 – 31)

Spanish, Italian (1, 3)

Dark Night of the Soul called Scott Fitzgerald (2, p. 28)

talent (3, p. 41 ; 4, p. 44) – The woman eight years older than the narrator said “Some people are nimble, others are all thumbs … Some people are quite attentive, and others are’t.” (p.44) Both of them agreed the later is a good driver.

narutal ability (3, p. 41)

being alert (4, p. 45) – The notion implies Sumire can’t feel and comprehend deeply things and persons.

cucumber (4, p. 46) – It maybe a sign or metaphor of love affairs. Sumire can’t understand the meaning.

impoverrished intellect (4, p. 47)

PowerBook – The model Apple Computer, Macintosh PowerBook equips a floppy disk drive.

Marlboro (4, p. 53) – Sumire’s favorite tobacco brand. Originally Marlboro was made as a brand for women by Phillip Morris, but it became a symbol of cigarettes and the American masculinity and culture. Tobacco is her energy for to write novel and tranquilizer.

metaphor (4, p. 55)

observer, narrator, narratee (5, p. 59)

objective reality of things outside myself (5, p. 60)

invisible boundary (5, p.60)

football (5, p. 62) – It maybe the first time, a narrator of Murakami novels do sports.

defection (5, p. 67) – To come across and to associate with Miu changed the mind and body of Sumire, and lost something of her.

commune, kolhoz (5, p. 68)

fictional framework (5, p. 68)

Fiction = Transmission theory (5, pp. 68 – 69 ; 11, p. 145) – All today’s people are in fictional frameworks. Fiction is the method adjusts and fills in the gap between self and the real world in each of their own levels. But Sumire hadn’t been suited the story or the world of Miu yet, because she couldn’t use her transmission well. Also Sumire is a person can’t suit and control well her real story. For Sumire, to write fiction, story or text is the method to fill the gap between her mind or existence and the real world, and is the meaning of life. But she can’t use the method well though she seriously want to write a novel.

gang of intellectual refugees (5, p. 71)

illusion (6, p. 77)

Greek Orthodox monasteries (7, p. 99) – In Murakami's travel literature Rainy Days, Sunny Days, he went around Greek Orthodox monasteries.

Cat (8) – On chapter 8, there are three episodes about cats. And Miu told the narrator that “they are just a lot of harmless memories, but now everything seems significant.” (8, p. 117) It should be a metaphor of Sumire (for Miu). Cat is companion animal of man, but sometimes, it harms man physically and mentally. Sumire’s episode of a pretty little six month old tortoiseshell cat resembles a episode in Murakami’s essay Abandoning a Cat.

moonlight (9, p. 124), brilliant moonlight (13, p. 185), pallid moonlight (13, p. 186) – On Murakami’s works, moonlight reflects and reveals a shape of the truth. And moon is a symbol and an indication of the other side, and opens a door or a path to the other side.

the edge of the world (10, p. 137)

wells, a deep well (10, p. 138 ; 13, p. 181) On Murakami’s works, well is the (symbol of) path to the other side.

two texts rested in a floppy disc written by Sumire (10, 11, 12, 13)

Document 1 (11) – The content is philophical and literal reflections and confessions about writing, thinking and understanding, dream in which she met her dead mother, and love for Miu.

feeling of alienation (11, p. 144) – Sumire was a being like Sputnik covered by iron shell, and she was in the other world, so she adjusted the gap or reduced the alienation by writing.

thinking (11, p. 145) – “Thinking” Sumire mentioned is a kind of literal and philosophical thinking from zero. It is the pragmatic strategy keeps what we know and what don’t know as they are, and it’s a method for living and to existing in this world for Sumire. But she stopped writing and thinking when she had met with Miu.

Did You Ever See Anyone Shot by a Gun withtout Bleeding? (10, p. 143) & Blood must be shed. (10, p. 154) – These phrases mean to confess sexual love for Miu causes a risk, and if it would be rejected Sumire must live in this real world or she must vanish from this world if her love is rejected by Miu. And true expression of art needs lively force, reality and sacrifice.

Document 2 (12) – Document 2 is the despriction of Miu’s mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss, that Sumire heard from Miu. imaginary death. Her heart or real existence was dead.

Miu’s white hair (12)

the other side (13, p. 179, p. 181) – The common motif of Sumire’s documents must be the connection of “This side – the other side” (13, p. 180). The narrator thought Sumire went to see Miu on the other side.

dreams, dream (13, p. 181 ; 16, p. 226) – One of the important elements on this novel. The life in Tokyo of the narrator was ordinary and real. The vacation and experiences of Sumire, Miu and the narrator were dreamy. Miu and Sumire were beings lived in a kind of dream. And, our life can’t be divided reality from dream by stories or a personal story.

pasta (13, p. 183) – On Murakami’s works, spaghetti is the ominous sign of chaos and confusion.

loneliness (14, p. 193, p. 196)

subtle emotional imbalance (15, p. 206) – This notion compared and identified Carrot with Sumire.

empty shell (16, p. 224) – Miu is also a being has no reality, existence or heart like Sputnik equal to Sumire.

Cultural Things on This Novel

Jack Kerouac (1, p. 5, p. 7) – Sumire’s Literary Idol. She always carried On the Road or Lonesome Traveler in her coat pocket.

twelve-cylinder navy-blue Jaguar (1, 16) – Miu’s car.

Naoya Shiga (1, p. 8)

the White Birch School (1, p. 8)

Beatnik (1, p. 8)

Gregory Peck in Spellbound (1, p. 10)

Schubert’s symphonies, Bach’s cantatas (1, p. 13)

Paul Nizan (1, p. 14)

Morzart’s song "Das Veilchen" (The Violet, Sumire) (1, pp. 19 – 20) – Sumire was named by the song. Sumire was shocked when she first read the lyric written by Goethe, the content is a little violet is trampled by a callous shred’s daughter. And her name is the only tangible thing left by her mother.

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1, p. 19)

Walter Gieseking (1, p.19)

Astrud Gilberto’s old bossa nova song (2, p. 34)

Dance of the Blessed Spirits (2, p. 35)

Sanchiro by Soseki Natsume (4, p. 43)

Pushkin (5, p. 62)

red Toyota Celica (5, p. 66 ; 15, p. 210) – The lady friend’s car.

old black-and-white Jean-Luv Godard movie (5, p. 70)

Toyota Hi-Ace (5, p. 80) – Toyota’s minivan, is contrast to the lady friend’s Celica.

The Greatest Hits of Bobby Dain minus Mack the Knife (5, p. 71)

Groucho Marx (5, p. 73)

Luc Besson (6, p. 75)

blue Alfa Romeo (6, p. 78)

Martha Argerich playing Listz’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (6, p. 81)

Giuseppe Sinopoli (6, p. 81)

Vivaldi festival in Venice (6, p. 81)

Huey Lewis and the News (6, p. 86)

two Joseph Conrad novels (7, p. 90) – In A Wild Sheep Chase, Joseph Conrad novel is in a desk of the Rat. It may signify an omnious sign of Sumire.

old Peugeot sedan (7, p. 95)

Julius Kathchen’s recordings of Brahms’s ballads (9, p. 120)

Sam Peckinpah film The Wild Bunch (11, p. 148)

The Blue Danube Waltz (12, p. 162)

Mozart songs ; Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Walter Gieseking (p) (13, p. 183 ; 16, p. 222)

Ben Webster on the tenor sax (15, p. 199)

Mysteries (Riddles) & Questions

Why Sumire suddenly disappeared ? – Sumire and Miu were beings beyond this world. She lost anything by her mother’s death in the childhood. Also Miu lost her existence by “the Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel” (12). And, for Sumire, Miu was the only person who share with her loneliness and could keep alive her. Sumire want to have sexual relation with Miu, but she rejected. So “Blood must be shed” (10, p. 154), because Sumire’s story was rejected, then Sumire extinguished herself.

Sumire’s last phone call in chapter 16 is a dream or an actual event ? – By the effect of Carrot’s shop lifting in chapter 15 as a silly and stupid but real event in Tokyo, readers can’t comprehend the last phone call of Sumire is a real event or a dream.

Thought & Philosophy

The narrator’s literary and philosophical reflection (5) – In chapter 5, the narrator reflected on the self, his relationship to Sumire, the meaning of writing and the impossibility of literature. I feel common sense, universality and reason of Murakami by this notion, but I felt his disgusting usualness too.

somehitng out of an existential play (10, p. 136) – I think this novel is something existentialist novel of persons have no existences and realities, describes the absurdity and the crossings of humane love.

Writing and thinking for (of) Sumire (11) – For Sumire, writing is the way for thinking. And thinking is the method like phenomenology, existentialism, Hegelianism or Nishida philosophy, for living in this world.

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 written by Sumire…

Timeline

Sumire born and raised in Chigasaki, Kanagawa. (1)

Sumire’s mother passed away at 31 years old when Sumire was 6 years old. (1)

2 years later, Sumire’s father remarried a woman. (1)

After she graduated from a public high school in Kanagawa, she entered a little private college in Tokyo. (1)

The narrator got to know Sumire at the collage. He was in love with Sumire but she wasn’t. (1)

The narrator graduated the collage around the time sumire dropped out there to become a novelist. (1)

On weekends, Sumire would visit narrator’s apartment to show her manuscripts the narrator. (1)

Narrator told about the allegory of “Chinese gates”, then he and Sumire talked about “time and experience”. (1)

After about a half a year later, in the spring of Sumire’s twenty-second year, Sumire and Miu first met at the wedding reception Sumire’s cousin, Sumire fell in love with Miu. And they talked about their circumstances, then Miu asked Sumire that she would work at her office. (1)

Sumire and Miu had a dinner at Omote Sando, and they talked about Sumire’s backgound. (2)

About two weeks after the wedding ceremony, at midnight (4:15 on Sunday) Sumire phoned the narrator and asked him about the difference between a sign and symbol. (2)

The evening Sumire visited his apartment with an elegant outfit. (2)

When Sumire visited Miu’s apartment, Miu showed Sumire gorgeous clothes of which Miu’s friend have more than enough. Because Miu got the clothes for Sumire to wear when she works, and Sumire shared shoes with Miu. (4)

Sumire started working three days a week at Miu’s office. (4)

At a midnight, Sumire phoned Narrator, and she talked about to stop smoking and writing. Then she said her novel-writing days are over and “I should shut the piano lid and come down the stage”. (4)

Beginning of July, the narrator’s class went to mountain climbing in Okutama. (5)

The next day, the narrator and Sumire at a café. They talked about Sumire’s defection by Miu, fictional framework and transmission. (5)

Two weeks later, Sumire moved to an ordinary apartment of Yoyogi Uehara, and the narrator helped her. (5)

Miu and Sumire tripped to Europe, and went around Italy and France on business. (6)

The narrator suddenly got a letter from Roma, Italia by Sumire. (And Sumire wrote she will be back home around 15 August.) (6)

They went to Venice to visit a Vivaldi festival in Venice. Then they returned to Milan and flew to Paris and Burgundy. (6)

The second letter came from a obscure French village. And she wrote they changed their original plan to returning to Japan, and took a vacation in a Greek island. (6)

In the village in Burgundy, Miu talked about her mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss , “The Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel”. (12)

On the Greek island, Sumire wrote something on her PowerBook. (8)

At the morning, four days after Sumire and Miu arrived the island, they spent the beach and talked about a report of a 70-years old lady in a small suburb of Athens and a Catholic old nun’s lecture and a pretty little six-month-old cat tortoiseshell cat leaped up a pine tree and vanished. (8)

In the afternoon, at the cottage, Sumire so intently wrote Miu’s mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss on her laptop, and Miu listened to Brahms’s ballads. (9, 12)

At the night, Miu’s bedroom, she found Sumire rolled up, head between legs, scrunched up and held a pink face facecloth in her mouth at the corner, she was stupefied. Miu cared Sumire on Miu’s bed and Sumire recovered. Then Sumire touched Miu’s body kissed her. But Miu refused Sumire’s act because she had lost anything of her heart 14 years ago, and Sumire sobbed into her pillow for a long time, then she went out the room. (9)

Then Sumire disappeared. (7, 9)

Next morning, Miu explained policeman who could speak English, but he paid no attention to the disappearance. (9)

At 2 A.M., the day (before the new term at school began in ten days), the narrator coached a football practice and slept with his lady friend, he got Miu’s phone call from Greece. (6) And Miu asked him to come the Greek island as soon as possible. (7)

The narrator prepared to trip to Greece and reflect the happening of Sumire. At first light he went to Narita. He went to Amsterdam by KLM, changed a plane and arrived Athens, then got on the 727 bound for Rhodes. Then he reached the island by a big ferry. (The eight days after Miu and Sumire had arrived the island.) (7)

He looked and waited for Miu at a small café on harbour for a while. Then Miu appeared and she led him to taverna, and she didn’t talk about the “incident” of Sumire in detail while they eat dinner at a taverna. (7)

Miu led the narrator to the cottage she and Sumire stayed. And he took a shower and shaved. (7)

Miu explained the disappearance of Sumire to the narrator. Why they went to and stayed in the Greek island and how they spent their vacation in the island. (8)

Miu left for Athens to explain about Sumire’s disappearance to the Japanese embassy and lead them to the island. (10)

The narrator went to the beach Sumire and Miu had visited frequently, through the mountain of the island. (10)

In the cottage, the narrator turned on Sumire’s Macintosh PowerBook and checked files in the hard drive, but there are documents related business only. Then he unlocked padlock of her suitcase by the telephone area code Kunitachi in which he lived, opened her suitcase, and found her diary and a floppy disk. (10)

The narrator read two documents written by Sumire saved in the floppy disk. (11, 12)

The narrator reflected that the two texts by Sumire and her disappearance at the café on the beach and in the cottage. (13)

In the night, the narrator was awakened by loud live Greek music from the top of a mountain. He walked for the direction of the sound. On the top of the mountain, his body was bathed in the pallid moonlight, suffered awful chill, the unity of his body was collapsed and his cells rearranged. And he felt the shocking vision of the order of time and world was reversed, collapsed and stretched out endlessly. He became conscious, the music was over. He walked for the top and saw the coarse moon awfully near. (13)

(…) (14)

(…) (14)

(…) (14)

(…) (15)

(…) (15)

(…) (15)

(…) (16)

(…) (16)

(…) (16)

Plots & Episodes (Plot & Episodes)

A. Sumire & Narrator

The narrator got to know Sumire at the collage. He was in love with Sumire but she wasn’t. (1)

The narrator graduated the collage around the time Sumire dropped out there to become a novelist. (1)

On weekends, Sumire would visit narrator’s to show her manuscripts for the narrator. (1)

After two weeks after the wedding ceremony, at 4:15 AM, Sumire phoned the narrator and asked him about the difference between a symbol and sign. The evening Sumire visited his apartment with an elegant outfit. (2)

At a midnight, Sumire phoned Narrator, and she talked about to stop smoking and writing. Then she said her novel-writing days are over and “I should shut the piano lid and come down the stage”. (4)

Two weeks later, Sumire moved to an ordinary apartment of Yoyogi Uehara, and the narrator helped her. She said to him “I love you, next to Miu”, she leaned against his shoulder and held his hand. (5)

The narrator suddenly got a letter from Roma, Italia by Sumire. (6)

The second letter came from a obscure French village. (6)

At 2 A.M. the (next) day, the narrator coached a football practice and slept with his lady friend, he got Miu’s phone call from Greece. (6)

(…) (16)

B. Sumire & Miu

In the spring of her twenty-second year, Sumire came across Miu at a wedding ceremony of Sumire’s cousin, and they talked about their circumstances, then Miu asked Sumire that she would work at her office. And Sumire fell in love with Miu. (1)

Sumire and Miu had a sophisticated dinner at a restaurant on Omote Sando, and Miu officially requested to Sumire for work with her. (3)

When Sumire visited Miu’s apartment, Miu showed Sumire gorgeous clothes of which Miu’s friend have more than enough. Because Miu got the clothes for Sumire to wear when she works, and Sumire shared shoes with Miu. (4)

Sumire started working three days a week at Miu’s office. (4)

A night, Sumire had a dinner with Miu. Miu said that she here now isn’t a real person and lost half of her fourteen years ago. (4)

Miu and Sumire tripped to Europe, and went around Italy and France on business. (6)

They went to Venice to visit a Vivaldi festival in Venice. Then they returned to Milan and flew to Paris and Burgundy. (6)

They changed their original plan to returning to Japan, and took a vacation in a Greek island. (6)

In the village in Burgundy, Miu talked about her mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss, “The Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel”. (12)

On the Greek island, Sumire wrote something by her PowerBook. (8)

At the morning, four days after Sumire and Miu arrived the island, they spent the beach and talked about a report of a 70-years old lady in a small suburb of Athens, a Catholic old nun’s lecture and a pretty little six-month-old cat tortoiseshell cat leaped up a pine tree and vanished. (8)

In the afternoon, at the cottage, Sumire so intently wrote Miu’s mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss on her laptop, and Miu listened to Brahms’s ballads. (9, 12)

At the night, Miu’s bedroom, she found Sumire rolled up, head between legs, scrunched up and held a pink face facecloth in her mouth at the corner, she was stupefied. Miu cared Sumire on Miu’s bed and Sumire recovered. Then Sumire touched Miu’s body kissed her. But Miu refused Sumire’s act because she had lost anything of her heart 14 years ago, and Sumire sobbed into her pillow for a long time, then she went out the room. (9)

Sumire disappeared. (7, 9)

C. Narrator and Miu in a Greek Island

At 2 A.M. of a day, the narrator suddenly got Miu’s phone call from Greece. (6) And Miu asked him to come the Greek island as soon as possible. (7)

The narrator prepared to trip to Greece and reflect the happening of Sumire. At first light he went to Narita. He went to Amsterdam by KLM, changed a plane and arrived Athens, then got on the 727 bound for Rhodes. Then he reached the island by a big ferry. (The eight days after Miu and Sumire had arrived the island.) (7)

He looked and waited for Miu at a small café on harbour for a while. Then Miu appeared and she led him to taverna, and she didn’t talk about the “incident” of Sumire in detail while they eat dinner at a taverna. (7)

Miu led the narrator to the cottage she and Sumire stayed. And he took a shower and shaved. (7)

Miu explained the disappearance of Sumire to the narrator. Why they went to and stayed in the Greek island and how they spent their vacation in the island. (8)

Then Miu talked about the occurrence of the night Sumire had vanished. (9)

Miu took the narrator to the room Sumire had stayed. And the narrator stayed at the room. (9)

Miu left for Athens to explain about Sumire’s disappearance to the Japanese embassy and lead them to the island. (10)

(…) (14)

(…) (16)

a. Narrator’s love affair with eight years older woman in Kanazawa in his freshman year (4)

b. Narrator & his lady friend

The narrator and his lady friend met and slept with twice a month. (5)

(…) (15, 16)

c. Miu’s strange experience at a small town in Switzerland near the French border (12) – “The Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel”

d. Narrator & Carrot

At a noon of the second Sunday after the new school term began in September, the lady friend phoned the narrator and requested to go to a supermarket in Tachikawa and to wear a suit. (15)

(…) (15)

(…) (15)

Important or Impressive Scenes & Descriptions

The narrator’s reflection on himself on the chapter 5 – I think it is Murakami literary and philosophical reflection and consideration to himself and writing novel.

The view of narrator and its reflection on the business lounge on Narita Air Port (7, pp. 92 – 93)

Sumire and Miu’s vacance on Greek island (8, pp. 109 – 111) – The description is beautiful. Miu said “There we were, sitting quietly on the edge of the world, and no one could see us. That’s the way it felt – like Sumire and I were only ones here.” (8, p. 111)

A report of a 70-years old lady in a small suburb of Athens, on an English newspaper (8, pp. 111 -112)

A Catholic old nun’s lecture (8, pp. 113 – 114)

Sumire’s reflection to self on “Document 1” (11) – The content is philosophical and literal reflections and confessions about herself, writing, thinking and understanding, dream in which she met her dead mother, and love for Miu.

“The Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel” (12) – Miu’s mysterious experience in a small town in Switzerland near the French border. When 25 years old, at a summer vacation, Miu stayed a small town in Switzerland, for doing business with a wine maker, though the business was simple and easy. She got acquaintance with a handsome Spanish man, Ferdinando at a café, bumped into him many times, and his presence caused her anxiety. One evening, after a dinner, she decided to enjoy the night air for a change, and went to a park with a Ferris wheel. She ride the Ferris wheel as a last ride of the day, but the attendant disappeared, she was shut in a car and the car stopped near the top. She watched her room of apartment by her binoculars and saw her doppelgänger lewdly made love with Ferdinando, then she lost consciousness and following memory. The next day Miu waked up at a hospital, and her hair became white. And she lost half of her, or real, living and sexual side of her. Then after the summer vacation, she didn’t returned the musical academy in France, she stopped playing and studying piano.

The narrator’s strange experience at the Greek mountain (13, pp. 184 – 188) – In a night, the narrator was awakened by loud live Greek music from the top of a mountain. He walked for the direction of the sound. On the top of the mountain, his body was bathed in the pallid moonlight, suffered awful chill, the unity of his body was collapsed and his cells rearranged. And he felt the shocking vision of the order of time and world was reversed, collapsed and stretched out endlessly. He became conscious, the music was over. He walked for the top and saw the coarse moon awfully near.

Comments & Remarks

  • This novel is the story of Sumire. And the story of the relation and distance between the narrator and Sumire, Sumire and Miu, and the narrator and Miu. The story is description about Sumire by the narrator like Nick Carraway in The Great Gatzby, and Sumire narrated or told the story to the narrator. Sumire was an interface of the narrator, to see the world and to understand himself. And the narrator narrate the story is not a neutral and fair act. There’s choices, selections and interpretations by the narrator. (5, pp. 59 – 60, 63 – 64 ; 14, p. 193 – 194) I think the narrator is a reader interprets the story in the concept of death of the author by Roland Barthes.
  • I think this novel resembles Murakami’s first romance Norwegian Wood very much. The relationship, the narrator-Sumire-Miu and Toru Watanabe-Naoko-Reiko is resemble. Also, positioning of characters, structure of story, last phone call, Reiko and Miu abandoned playing piano, Naoko and Sumire are the beings lost existences and emotionally unstable, they are resemble. I think Sputnik Sweetheart is the 90’s variation of Norwegian Wood that story is around 1969-1970. And the structure of many elements made the story and its content and meaning, then we have resemble feeling.
  • But, the difference between Norwegian Wood and Sputnik Sweetheart is the former is tragic, humid and melancholic. Instead, the latter is light, dry and refreshing.
  • The chapter 9 resembles the part of chapter 6 of Norwegian Wood, Toru Watanabe saw Naoko was beautifully lighten by moonlight.
  • The sub theme of this novel is writing, writing novel and story, and what is the story and writing.
  • Sumire wanted to write a novel and to be novelist, but she had no reality and existence, so by her fate she can’t complete a novel and must disappear in her youth. Also Naoko had no existence and suffered mental illnesses, so she can’t play music and must die in her youth.
  • Sumire is a person has a fate that she can’t write and complete a novel like the Rat in the Adolescence Triology, because she has no genuine genius or talent.
  • The ”Sputnik Sweetheart” is the secret nickname of Miu named by Sumire. So Sputnik Sweetheart is Miu, and Sputnik is Sumire.
  • Sumire and Miu are beings like a satellite or Sputnik, lost existence, reality and lively feeling. Their hearts were shunted by shell and went away from others by centrifugal force.
  • So, Sumire and Miu can’t express or perform true moving or emotion art expressions.
  • In this novel, few times it mentioned the word “lesbian (love)”. But rather than it, I think this novel expresses women’s platonic love and intimate friendship, and people in today can’t fall in love seriously and passionately.
  • The episode Sumire got and wears Miu’s friend’s clothes of which she have more than enough, resembles the episode of the wife of Tony Takitani.
  • I think chapter 5 is Murakami’s literary and philosophical reflection on self and his thought of writing novels. And this novel is a reflection on himself through Sumire by the narrator or Murakami.
  • Physicality and embodiment were a key of this novel, the narrator by Murakami plays a sport first time. Sumire and Miu are persons lost their physicality, so they can’t do and feel sexual love.
  • The narrator’s experiences in the Greek island is a kind of dream. “I couldn’t separate the bounty between what was real and what only seemed real.” (10, p. 135)
  • Carrot’s shoplifting is a real, foolish and tiny incident in Japan, contrast with dreamy and mysterious occurrences and the scene of the Greek island. And the occurrence of Carrot is contrasted and identified with one of Sumire. (15)
  • By a real, ordinary and boring occurrence in Tokyo in chapter 15, we can’t comprehend the phone call by Sumire is real or dream. (15, 16)

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) | Norwegian Wood

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Note | Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami & Jay Rubin, Vintage Books, 2003 (Originally Published in 1987) in progress

Information of the Book

Haruki Murakami's 5th long novel was originally published in 1987 by Japanese. His first romance novel, but this novel is an unusual romance novel.

Original Japanese edition of this novel is cosist of 2 volumes. And, the book covers designed by Murakami himself. Volume one, the ground is painted by red and the title is wrote by green characters (the Christmas colours). On the contrary volume two is green ground and red characters. This design may mean Murakami’s two world theory (the world of live and loss of life), or from Kizuki through Naoko to Midori (red is Kizuki’s colour, paper’s white is Naoko’s colour and the Japanese word Midori means green).

Form, Style & Structure

11 chapters long novel. The description is a reminiscence of a man, Toru Watanabe from 20 years later, and it is not chronicle.

Background of the Work & Author

This novel is based on Murakami’s short novel Firefly published in 1983. The chapter 2 and 3 of Norwegian Wood is the almost same to it.

I think this novel is the background and alternative story of Hear the Wind Sing and the Trilogy of the Rat. The two novels describes the same era and might be written by Murakami’s same experience. The world of Nowegian Wood is the dark side of the era in a fierce and brutal capital city, Tokyo. It of Hear the Wind Sing is the bright side in a harbour town, Kobe. But the narrater is not same character, and the worlds of the two novels are parallel worlds.

This novel describes the era of the late 60’s student activism movement, but it published in 1987, (the rise or peak of) the Japanese asset price bubble era.

Characters

Toru Watanabe – Narrator of this novel. A student of a private university in Tokyo studied drama (just read scripts and do research), is from Kobe, Hyogo.

Naoko – A student of a girls’ college on the rural western edge of Tokyo, studied English and a girlfriend of Toru. (She must be a student of Tsudajuku University, Kodaira.) An 10,000 runner at high school. Lived in a tiny flat in Kokubunji. And she was Kizuki’s girlfriend, and Toru first met Naoko at the second grade year of a high school. (It seems the same character of the third girl in Hear the Wind Sing and Naoko in Pinball, 1973.)

Midori Kobayashi – Toru’s classmate of the private university and daughter of a small bookshop, Kobayashi Bookshop in Toshima, had an extremely short hair or a pixie cut and always wore dark sunglasses suits her. During summer holidays she had her hair permed, but it looked like a “seaweed stuck”. So she had her hair cut extremely short. Against for her name, she don’t suit green clothes (Midori in Japanese means the colour green, and the Nature and plants). Toru felt a fresh and physical life force and an independent organism from her. She always wore a dark sunglasses because very short hair is defenceless and naked. (4 -)

Kizuki – The best and only friend of Toru, and the boyfriend of Naoko. Kizuki and Naoko had been together and had close family relationship from their childhood. At May, 1967, after cut the afternoon classes and played billiards with Toru, at the night he suddenly passed away by using gas of his car, at 17 years-old. (2)

Reiko-san (Doctor Ishida) – A music teacher or a music therapist also a patient of Ami Hospital and the room-mate of Naoko. A not only nice woman 38 years old. She had been there for seven years, she had no family, friends and home to come back. (6 -)

Nagasawa-san – A resident of the private dormitory, a son of a wealthy family run a big hospital in Nagoya and a student of the prestigious Tokyo University studies law, aimed become a diplomat. And he was a national top class fast track runner. A playboy went girl-haunting many times and slept with more than 70 girls. (3 -)

Hatsumi-san – Nagasawa’s steady girlfriend was a student of the absolute top girls’ college in the country. Toru thought she is quiet, intelligent and caring but so ordinary girl for Nagasawa. (3 -)

Storm Trooper – A room-mate of Toru in a private dormitory, two years older than Toru. A too serious and punctual and a student studied geography at a national university, wanted to work for the Geographical Survey Institute and make maps. In September 1970, he didn’t return to the dormitory from summer holidays and moved. (2 – 3)

Sir Nakano – A superintendent of the private dormitory. A right winger, there is a rumour that he was graduated the war time Nakano spy school. (2)

Uniform – A typical right-wing student always wore students’ uniform, was next to Sir Nakano everyday when he did the routine ceremony raised the Rising Sun flag with the Japanese anthem. (2)

German stewardess (1)

Momoko – A sister of Midori, suits pink clothes. Momo in Japanese means peach and pink colour. (4)

Two student activists (4)

Greek tragedy professor (4)

Midori’s mother – She dead two years ago by cancer. (4)

Midori’s father – He went off to Uruguay to help a farm of his old army buddy. (4)

Two girls Toru met in Shinjuku – Two girl were well dressed and made don’t match the midnight in Shinjuku, shared a table with Toru in an all-night café. (4)

Reiko’s pupil girl (6)

Reiko’s ex-husband – An engineer of an aeroplane manufacturing company and was pupil of Reiko’s piano lesson. (6)

Girl of a café (6)

Reiko’s piano lesson pupil girl (6)

Midori’s Father (7)

Owner of the house (10)

Kamome (10 – 11)

Ito – A co-worker of the Italian restaurant and an art collage student. (10)

Locations

Hamburg (1)

Yotsuya (2, 4) – Toru Naoko came across at the Chuo commuter line and got off at Yotsuya. Midori led Toru to a fancy boxed-lunch speciality shop in Yotsuya.

Tokyo – The capital and the largest city of Japan places Kanto (eastern area) region.

Kobe – The home town of Toru, Naoko and Kizuki. A harbour city of Kansai (western area) region, next to Osaka and Kyoto.

Kokubunji – A western suburb town of Tokyo.

Shibuya – A large cultural, commercial and business district and a main transfer station in Tokyo, is equal to Shinjuku and Ikebukuro. It developed rapidly in 1980’s.

Shinjuku – The largest cultural, commercial and business district in Tokyo, especially between 1960’s to 70’s. A symbol of Nagasawa and his practicalism and greed.

Kyoto – An ancient capital of Japan, a cultural and academic center of Kansai region, and places next to Kobe and Osaka.

Toshima – A north-west suburb of Tokyo, in which Ikebukuro, one of main transfer stations, and the third cultural, commercial and business district in Tokyo places. Toshima and Ikebukuro were a main transfer and commercial district also an old residential area, so they are a symbol of Midori.

Kichijoji (10 – 11)

Ueno (7, 11)

Places

Hamburg Airport (1)

Private dormitory (Central Tokyo) – A private’s dormitory run by right wingers, in which Toru, Nagasawa and Storm Trooper lived.

Ami Hospital (Kyoto) – A psychiatry sanatorium or hospital is in the hills outside Kyoto, Naoko entered. There is not a profit-making enterprise, a community like commune, performs the natural and voluntary therapy with spending a quiet and sufficient life helps patiences to naturally recover from mental illnesse. (3 -)

Kobayashi Bookshop (Toshima, Tokyo) – A small and old bookshop of Midori’s family places in Kita-Otsuka, Toshima near Otsuka station. (4)

Café on a mountain (6)

DUG – A famous jazz café in Shinjuku. (7, 9)

An elegant restaurant in Azabu (8)

An apartment in Myogadani (10 -)

A house in the outskirts of Kichijoji (10 – 11)

Casual Italian restaurant (10 -)

Key Elements

Beatles’ song Norwegian Wood – Naoko’s favorite song. She requested the song for Reiko, the Reiko took a porcelain beckoning cat coin bank and Naoko put a JPY 100 coin to the bank, it’s a rule between them. But Naoko said the song make her feel so sad and alone in the dark, and she thought nobody comes to save her. (6) Toru remenbered the memories of 20 years ago by a sweet orchestral cover version of this song. (1) The title of this song implies Ami Hospital is in a deep forest, Naoko’s mind is very depressed and she would die in a forest. And the lyrics of the song expresses and implies lack of communication between men and women, and clumsy love. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) is a song by the Beatles, composed by John Lennon, the second track from the album Rubber Soul released in 1965.

Map & Drama (2) – Map is a symbol of practical and useful things. Drama is a symbol of useless and boring things. But both of them, almost ordinary people are not interested in. Midori wrote

Walking (2, 3) – The most favourite thing and a pastime of Naoko. Naoko and Toru dated and walked many times and long distances all over Tokyo. Also, walking means Naoko’s mind has no destination and her unstable heart.

Billiards (2, 8)

Long Distance Runner (2) & Fast Track (3) – The two elements symbolize and compare the characteristic of Naoko with it of Nagasawa. Long distance runner means the mild and nervous characteristic of Naoko. Fast track athlete symbolizes the greedy and practical characteristic of Nagasawa.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (3) – Toru’s most favorite novel and the trigger to get to know Nagasawa. And it means Nagasawa is a kind of brilliant and greedy person like Jay Gatsby, and Toru is an onlooker to the world like Nick Carraway.

Straight Black Hair (2) & Extremely Short Hair or Pixie Cut (4) – A straight black hair is the symbol of Naoko, and her beauty, tenderness and nervousness. An extremely short hair is the symbol of Midori, and her cheerfulness, boyish characteristic and life force.

Firefly (3) – It may be a symbol of Naoko’s gloomy mind and her transient life, and the omen of the vanishment of Storm Trooper.

Cooking & cuisine – Present or exchange of love or friendship. To cook together or to have dinner together is turning points in this novel.

Hairslide

Music – Music in this novel is trigger, storage or media of memories including bad memories. Also, music is story which is equal to a novel. Music is a thing reflects and expresses mind.

Playing music – Playing music in this novel is a practical rehabilitation or a treatment to face with the real world, equal to write a novel. But who is in emotional pain can’t play music, so Naoko can’t play music and pay a JPY 100 penny for Reiko.

Greek tragedy – The symbol of view to the world of Toru. The real world is a drama or tragedy, but is not saved by gods like “Deus ex-machina”. We must live in the real tragic world without gods, but it also is a drama or story made by a society or a person. (4, 7)

Germany & the North

German & French languages – In this novel German is a symbol of reality and pragmatism. French is a symbol nervousness. To study foreign languages is to gain a rule. Nagasawa can use English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.

Language study – A symbol of Wittgenstein’s language game. Language game is all human activities, and each of them is a game has a rule. By Nagasawa’s view to live is a game, and gains, follows and makes use of rules. French is a principle of nervousness, and German is a principle of practice. Nagasawa is splendid person has knowledge of many rules, so he mastered English, German, French and Italian, then he began to learn Spanish.

Cucumber (7)

Cultural Things on This Novel

Truman Capote, John Updike, F. Scott Fitzgerald & Raymond Chandler – Toru’s favorite American novelists.

Kazumi Takahashi, Kenzaburo Oe, Yukio Mishima & contemporary French novelists – Political, artistic and existentialist authors to which students of the 1960’s preferred. But Toru’s favorite is weak and sissy (regaerded by other students) American novelists.

Great Gatsby – The trigger to Toru came across Nagasawa.

The Magic Mountain – A metaphor of Ami Hospital, a sanatorium in Kyoto, to which Naoko went.

Timeline

Naoko and Kizuki were childhood friends from thier infancy.

(Perhaps,) In 1966 – I met Naoko first time in the second grade of high school.

A nice afternoon in May 1967 (third grade of high school) – Toru and Kizuki cut afternoon classes and played pinball games. That night Kizuki passed away by himself. (2)

Spring of 1968 (Toru, age 18) – Toru entered a private university and a right-wing private dormitory. (2)

Sunday afternoon in the middle of May 1968 – Toru had a date with Naoko at Yotsuya. (2)

September 1968 – Naoko invited Toru to her flat first time.

October 1968 – Toru got to know Nagasawa trough Fitzgerald’s novel Great Gatsby. (3)

The middle of April 1969 – Toru went to Naoko’s flat to celebrate her birthday. And he slept with her first time. (3)

Three days before next Sunday – Naoko had moved out from her flat suddenly. (3)

End of May 1969 – Lectures of the University suspended, Toru started working at a delivery company.

June 1969 – Toru went out to sleep with girls twice with Nagasawa. (3)

Middle of September 1969 – Midori Kobayashi, a classmate of the university, called out to Toru at a small restaurant and they chatted. After a while, she invited him to her home, Kobayashi Bookshop, and she cooked the lunch for Toru. (4)

Autum 1969 – Toru visited Ami Hospital in Kyoto. (6)

Middle of December 1969 – Toru visited Ami Hospital again. (10)

Spring 1970 – Toru left the dormitory and moved to an apartment in the suburb of Kichijoji. (10)

Age 37 (1)

Outlines

(Toru remembered the memory of 20 years ago by the Beatles’ song Norwegian Wood.) (1)

Naoko’s family and Kizuki’s family were neighbourhood, and they went around. Naoko and Kizuki were childhood friends. (2)

At 12 years old, Toru first met with Naoko. (2)

Toru, Naoko and Kizuki are class mates of a high school and dated by the three. (2)

Suddenly, Kizuki passed away by himself after cut afternoon classes and played billiard games with Toru in a nice afternoon in May 1967. (2)

Next April (1968), Toru entered a private university in Tokyo. And he lived in a right-wing private dormitory. (2)

Next year (1969), Toru happened to meet Naoko on the Chuo commuter line. They dated and walked from Yotsuya to Komagome. (2)

In the spring, Toru and Naoko would dated almost every weeks. And Naoko invited Toru up to her flat and cook for him. (3)

In October, Toru got to know Nagasawa. (3)

Toru and Nagasawa went to Shibuya or Shinjuku, picked up girls, and slept with them three or four times. (3)

Toru met Nagasawa’s steady girlfriend Hatsumi. (3)

In the winter, Toru started a part-time job in a little record shop in Shinjuku. (3)

April 1970, Toru went to Naoko’s flat and they celebrated her 20th birthday. That night, Toru slept with Naoko first time. (3)

Next Sunday, Toru visited Naoko’s flat, but Naoko had moved out from there at three days earlier. (3)

In end of May, Lectures of the University suspended, Toru started working at a delivery company. (3)

In June, Toru went out to sleep with girls twice with Nagasawa. (3)

Middle of September 1970 – Midori Kobayashi, a classmate of the university, called out to Toru at a small restaurant and they chatted. (4)

On a Sunday, Midori invited Toru to the Kobayashi Bookshop, and she entertain Toru to a lunch of delicate Kyoto style meals. (4)

Horu got a letter from Naoko, and she invited him a psychiatrist sanatorium, Ami Hospital she entered. (5)

Toru visited Ami Hospital in Kyoto, met Naoko and Reiko and stayed three days. (6)

Plots & Episodes

A. Toru’s life (in a private dormitory or a flat in Kichijoji)

B. The past story among Toru, Naoko and Kizuki (2)

C. Strange and awkward love story between Toru and Naoko (main episode)

Toru first met Naoko, Kizuki’s girlfriend when the second grade of high school, and they dated by the three many times. (2)

Suddenly, Kizuki passed away by himself after cut afternoon classes and played billiard games with Toru in a nice afternoon in May. (2)

(Next April (1968), Toru entered a private university in Tokyo. Naoko may enter a girls’ college in Tokyo, too.) (2)

Next year (1969), Toru happened to meet Naoko on the Chuo commuter line. They dated and walked from Yotsuya to Komagome. (2)

In the spring, Toru and Naoko would dated almost every weeks. And Naoko invited Toru up to her flat and cook for him. (3)

Halfway through April 1969, Toru went to Naoko’s flat and they celebrated her 20th birthday. That night, Toru slept with Naoko first time. (3)

Three days before next Sunday, Naoko had moved out from her flat. (3)

D. Toru, Nagasawa and Hatsumi

In October 1969, Toru got to know Nagasawa by Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatzby. (3)

Toru and Nagasawa went to Shibuya or Shinjuku to pick up girls, and slept with them three or four times. (3)

Toru met Nagasawa’s steady girlfriend Hatsumi. (3)

(Naoko moved out suddenly.)

In June 1970, Toru went out to sleep with girls twice with Nagasawa. (3)

E. Toru and Midori Kobayashi

At a Monday of the middle of September, a classmate of the university, Midori Kobayashi called out to Toru at a small restaurant near the university, then they chatted during a certain amount of time. She borrowed Toru’s lecture note. (4)

At the promised time to return the note, she didn’t appear. (4)

Next week, she appeared the lecture of Greek Tragedy. Two student activist had entered the lecture room, and when they began political agitations, Midori took Toru out to lunch. Then, they went to a fancy boxed-lunch speciality shop in Yotsuya.(4)

On a Sunday, Midori invited Toru to the Kobayashi Bookshop, and she entertain Toru to a lunch of delicate Kyoto style meals. After the lunch, Midori talked about her dead mother and her father had went to Uruguay. (4)

F. Toru, Naoko and Reiko

On a Monday of Fall 1969, Toru went to Kyoto by bullet-train, and visited Ami Hospital by local bus. He met Naoko and her room mate and a music teacher of the hospital Reiko, and stayed three days. (6)

In the middle of December 1969, Toru visited and stayed Ami Hospital again. (10)

G. Toru, Naoko and Midori

The main plot of this novel, but Naoko and Midori didn’t see directly. Toru’s dilemma between Naoko and Midori is an important matter of this story.

Impressive Scenes

Naoko’s walking date with Toru from Yotsuya to Komagome (2 – 3)

Kizuki’s sudden passing away (2)

Toru and Midori watched a neighbouring fire on the veranda of Midori’s house (4)

Toru, Naoko and Reiko chatted in a room of the sanatorium, Reiko played guitar (6)

Summaries, Keywords & Comments of Each Chapters

Chapter 1

A cold November, Toru Watanabe was remembered the memories of Autumn 1969, 20 years ago by a sweet orchestral cover version of the Beatles’ Norwegian Wood on an huge 747 went to Hamburg.

747 ; Hamburg ; Beatles ; Norwegian Wood ; Billy Joel ; the North Sea

Chapter 2

Toru’s life in a dormitory.

the war time Nakano spy school ; May Our Lord’s Reign ; NHK’s radio callisthenics ;

Toru dated with Naoko in Yotsuya at a Sunday afternoon in the middle of May. He met Naoko by chance in the Chuo commuter line. They left the train at Yotsuya and Naoko started to walk and strolled to Komagome. (It’s very long distance to walk ! 8.4 km distance and it spents 110 minutes by walk.)

Chuo commuter line ; bookshops in Kanda ; walking ; stroll ; Iidabashi ; Jinbocho ; Ochanomizu ; Hongo ; Komagome ; long distance runner ; 10,000 metres ; mountain climbing ; wrong words ; opposite words ; Yamanote Line ; Chuo Live ; Shinjuku ; Kokubunji

Toru first met Naoko at 12. And Kizuki is a childhood friend and the boyfriend of Naoko and the best friend of Toru. They and one another girls double-dated any-number of times. But Kizuki gave up it, then the three would do things together.

zoo ; pool ; cinema ; dentist ; Kuzuki’s funeral

Naoko had been angry with Toru, he was the last person to see Kizuki. A nice a nice afternoon in May (third grade of high school), Toru and Kizuki cut afternoon classes and played billiards four games. Kizuki was lost the games. That night, suddenly, somehow, Kizuki gassed himself to pass away used by his Honda N-360. After 10 months, Toru applied and entered a private university of Tokyo, and he left his hometown Kobe.

nice afternoon in May ; pool (billiards) ; N-360 ; flower ; Tokyo ; 500 miles from here ; Kobe ; bullet train

Chapter 3

Naoko and Toru dated almost every weeks and many times, they said nothing (about the past) and only kept on walking in Tokyo. She would invited him up to her flat and cook for him. Toru realized Naoko had wanted to begin a new life far from anyone she knew. Little by little they grew accustomed.

girls’ collage on the rural western edge of Tokyo ; English ; new life far from anyone

In September, a new term started. They dated and walked together all over Tokyo, but Toru felt painful and her long and frequently walkings means she has no destination in mind.

a new term ; no destination in mind ; religious ritual ; heal our wounded spirit ; zelkova leaves ; pullover ; suede shoes ; Amsterdam canal ; the Golden Gate Bridge

When autumn ended, they still dated and walked. They walked arm in arm, but Toru felt his warmth was not what she needed.

duffel coat ; rubber-soled shoes ; sycamore leaves ; tranparent clarity of Naoko’s eyes ; searching for words in space

The deep winter came, they would dated still, but Toru can’t told his feeling, worry and distress to Naoko.

18 to 19 ; my dead friend’s girl ; Claudel ; Racine ; her word-searching sickness

Toru’s favorite is American literature, especially Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald. But, guys in the dorm reads Kazumi Takahashi, Kenzaburo Oe, Yukio Mishima and French novelists. In October, Toru got to know Nagasawa when Toru read Great Gatsby in a hall of the dorm. Nagasawa read the book three times. He is brilliant, but he has both loftiness and irredeemable nature.

Truman Capote ; John Updike ; F. Scott Fitzgerald ; Raymond Chandler ; Kazumi Takahashi ; Kenzaburo Oe ; Yukio Mishima ; contemporary French novelists ; Great Gatsby ; a rule never to touch a book by any author who had not been dead at least 30 years. ; Balzac ; Dante ; Joseph Conrad ; Dickens ; Civil Servant Exam ; the Foreign Ministry ; hospital in Nagoya

Nagasawa was a playboy, and was rumoured he slept with more than 100 girls. Toru and Nagasawa picked up a pair of girls in Shibuya and Shinjuku, and played around with them three or four times.

more than 100 girls ; 75 ; 70; Shibuya ; Shinjuku ; dencent human being ; Dostoevsky ; gambling

In the winter, Toru started a part-time job in a little record shop in Shinjuku. Toru bought a Henry Mancini album to Naoko for a Christmas gift. She gave him a pair of handmade knit gloves.

Henry Mancini ; Dear Heart ; Christmas ; a pair of woollen gloves

In late January and February of 1969.

raging fever ; Brahms’ Fourth Symphony

Halfway through April 1969, Naoko turned 20. (Toru’s birthday is in November.) Toru bought a cake and they celebrated her birthday in her flat. But Toru and Naoko felt strange and stupid she became 20. Naoko talked to Toru various things. But Toru felt strange her storied separated A from B, B from C, like a cycle of records. Then Toru told he want to go back, Naoko suddenly cried and was upset. Then Toru slept with Naoko first time (Naoko slept with a man first time).

(age) 20 ; between 18 and 19 ; 17 ; Roman Colosseum ; Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band ; Bill Evans’ Waltz for Debbie ; own internal logic ; story A, B, C ; endless April rain

  • Each tale of Naoko’s talkings had its own logic, also "the link from one to the next was odd”, and turned into A to B, B to C like cycles of record that may imply Naoko’s emotional unstable state and an sign of her mental illness.

Next, Naoko said nothing. On Naoko’s calendar, there were no memos or marks for future schedules written.

French verb chart ; calender

On next Sunday, Toru visited Naoko’s flat, but the manager of the flat told she had moved out three days earlier. Toru wrote a long letter to Naoko dressed to her home in Kobe. In May, lectures of Toru’s university was suspended by student strikes, Toru started hard labour work at a delivery company to forget the disappearance of Naoko. In June, Toru went out to sleep with girls twice with Nagasawa. The second girl asked various personal questions to Toru such as “Where was I (Toru) from ?” and “Which university did I go to ?”.

stopped smoking ; student strike ; whisky and books ; personal questions

The beginning of July, Toru received a short letter from Naoko. She told she was in a painful condition and needed rest, and she was considering to enter a psychiatry sanatorium in Kyoko.

writing is a painful process ; a quiet place cut off from the world

The end of July, Storm Trooper gave me a firefly and he went home during summer holidays. But, Toru decided he went home in Kobe and did a practical training session (part-time jobs) in Tokyo.

firefly ; summer holidays ; a practical training session ; Shinjuku ; Ikebukuro

  • Is a firefly symbol of Naoko’s mind and her transient life ?

Chapter 4

During summer holidays, the university called the riot police and they evicted and arrested students. In September, lectures of the university started, and students who had resisted the university calmly attended the lectures. Toru had a distrust of both (words of) students and the university. Toru managed to isolate from the other students.

barricades ; massive amount capital ; balance of power within the university structure ; joke ; technique for dealing with boredom

Till the second week of September Storm Trooper didn’t return, and he left the dormitory. Toru enjoyed living alone. A noon of Monday, When toru went to a little restaurant to take a lunch, a class-mate girl of the university, with extremely short hair and dark sunglasses, Midori Kobayashi approached Toru and called to him, then sat down next to him. They chatted, Midori borrowed Toru’s lecture note of History of Drama and appointed meet again at the restaurant on Wednesday.

Jim Morrison ; Miles Davis ; small stereo ; Euripides ; History of Drama ; omelette ; salad ; extremely short hair ; dark sunglasses ; white cotton mini-dress ; macaroni and cheese ; Electra ; perm ; corpse on the beach with seaweed ; pixie cut ; girls with long hair ; fresh and physical life force ; defenceless ; naked ; Humphrey Bogart ; hiking ; rucksack ; sleeping bag ; Kanazawa ; Noto Peninsula ; Niigata ; green polo shirt ; Momoko: “Peach girl”

  • Naoko and Storm Trooper have vanished, and, so Midori who cut her hair very short, appears on this story. (Long black hair is the symbol of Naoko.)

Midori didn’t appear the appointed time to give back Toru’s lecture note.

beer ; German lecture ; Toshima ; Kobayashi Bookshop ; huge bureaucratic system ; sounds like a game ; Zen saint ; Dickens

The following week, in the middle of lecture, Midori walked in the lecture room and gave back to Toru his lecture note. Then two student activists entered the room and forced the professor to pass on the lecture. The professor said “The world is full of problems far more urgent and relevant than Greek tragedy.” But he admitted the demand and two students started a political agitation, then Toru and Midori got out the room.

dark blue sports shirt ; cream-coloured cotton trousers ; her usual sunglasses ; Greek stage ; political agitation handbills ; State Power ; Lack of Imagination ; counter-revolutionaries ; telephone toles

  • This scene signifies the student movement is a meaningless play (drama), and the importance of imagination, thinking and private life.

During classes, Midori took Toru to a fancy boxed-lunch speciality shop in Yotsuya, and they talked.

sleepier ; narrow silver bracelet ; like a monkey in the rain

Passing the Yotsuya station, Toru remembered Naoko. Toru and Midori sat on a bench in a park near the Yotsuya station. They saw the smokes of burning towels and tampons wipe away and dry menstruation from the girls junior-high and high school Midori had graduated. And, Midori talked about her private life and her families bookshop with full of complaints. Then Midori invited Toru to the Kobayashi Bookshop on Sunday.

endless walking ; ivy ; pigeons ; gables ; smoke ; sanitary towels ; incinerator ; 180 girls ; absolutely ordinary State school ; fancy place ; French dictionary ; German ; Mercedes Benz ; the Green Hornet ; Kita-Otsuka ; Kinokuniya ; ordinary working people ; typical house with a little garden ; Toyota Corolla ; hard up ; being rich ; ordinary people ; map

  • Burning sanitary towels is a metaphor for the loss of life of Naoko’s mind, and Midori hated French and selected German that implies she is the replacement for Naoko.
  • To hate rich people is a frequent motif or expression of Murakami’s novels. Rich people are greedy and haven’t fineness, they are opposed by poor people.

The Sunday morning, I went to the Kobayashi Bookshop by tram. When I reached the shop, Midori made a lunch.

daffodil ; Otsuka Station ; a few stubborn people who clung to old family properties ; reminiscent of old Polish film ; beer ; Apple Records logo ; to treat guests well

Midori cooked delicate Kyoto style nice meals because she was concerned with Toru is from Kansai. During the meal she talked about why she cooks well and mother’s loss of life. After she cleared the table, she said she had began to smoke unwillingly since one month ago, to forget her pain and to control her. During Midori and Toru was washing the dishes, Midori talked about his father went off Uruguay in June one years ago, to help a farm of his old army buddy.

big Kinokuniya in Shinjuku ; biggest, handsomest cookbook ; Marlboro ; Uruguay

  • Cooking in Murakami’s novels is a present of love or a exchange of love.

A fire broke near the Midori’s house. They watched the fire, drinking beer and singing folks songs, then talking about love on the porch.

folk songs ; Lemon Tree ; Puff (The Magic Dragon) ; Five Hundred Miles ; Where Have All the Folowers Gone? ; Michael, Row the Boat Ashore ; cold-hearted ; real sadness ; love me unconditionally ; perfect love ; perfect selfishness ; play-acting

  • This scene expresses detachments among people and the divide between persons around Toru and ordinary people. People think more important their private things and love than a serious incident occurs nearby.

Next Saturday night, Toru and Nagasawa went to Shinjuku to pick up girls. But girl pickings hadn’t gone well, and Nagasawa went to Hatsumi’s house and Toru watched The Graduate in an old rep house two times. Toru went to an all-night café to wait the first train. Toru shared a table with two girls well dressed and made up. At 5:20, They asked Toru to introduce a nice bar near here because they must drink for some reasons. So Toru bought sake and snacks from a vending machine, then they (including Toru) drunk at an empty car park. The big girl returned to Nagano, then Toru and the small girl went to a hotel and slept together.

gimlet ; margarita ; mysterious energy created by mixture of sex and alcohol ; cheeseburger ; The Graduate ; old rep house ; Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain ; Marvin Gaye ; the Bee Gees ; Nagano

Chapter 5

Toru got a long letter from Naoko. Naoko apologised and told her life and condition in Ami Hospital, and the free and voluntary therapy of there. And she suggested that Toru should visit there and see her.

pigeon, colours of the real world ; fair ; honest ; universally true ; circles ; self-justification ; therapy ; over-analytical ; simplify the world or complicate it ; patients ; accustom ; deformities ; idiosyncrasies ; growing vegetables ; Mahler symphonies ; the Beatles ; “outside people ; normal people in the normal world ; The Magic Mountain

Chapter 6

A Monday, Toru went to Kyoto by bullet-train. He arrived at Ami Hospital in deep mountains by local bus and walk around the noon.

Hikari express ; quiet place ; deep in the mountains

  • Ami Hospital is in very deep mountains and a rural area of Kyoto. This scene implies the depth of Naoko’s depression and darkness.

Toru met Reiko, a music teacher or therapist also a patient and the room-mate of Naoko. Eating lunch, Reiko told about the particularity of Ami Hospital.

strong impression of cleanliness ; what an incredibly quiet place! ; play an instrument ; no ‘ordinary’ hospital ; ‘convalescence’ ; everybody helps everybody else ; everyone here is equal ; First you decide that you want to help and that you need to be helped by the other person. ; group session ; German exam ; self-sufficient ; Walt Disney ; Munch painting ; Yamaha 125cc

When Toru was lying a bed, Naoko came in the room and talked with Toru.

simple schoolgirl style (hair) ; hairslide ; butterfly

Evening of the next day, Toru, Naoko and Reiko ate dinner together and had a conversation. But Toru are suspicious of Ami Hospital and its perticular treatment. After taking the bath, the three drunk white wine and talked. Then Reiko took a guitar and played Bach pieces. When Reiko ended Bach, Naoko requested Beatles’ song Michelle, so Reiko played the song and Nowhere Man, Julia. Naoko requested Naoko’s favorite Norwegian Wood, Reiko took a porcelain beckoning cat and coin bank and Naoko put a JPY 100 coin to the bank, it’s a rule between them. Reiko played the song twice with real feeling without becoming sentimental, and Toru took put a JPY 100 coin too. But Naoko said the song make her so sad and alone.

Then Toru talked about Nagasawa, his behaviour and philosophy, and he was stoic to Naoko. And she said she thought he is a lot sicker in the head. Toru told he had already slept with eight or nine girls, so Reiko and Naoko were shocked. And Naoko talked about conditions when she slept with Toru and the special relationship with Kizuki, then she suddenly burst into tears.

unnaturally quiet room ; atmosphere of a specialised-machine-tool trade fair ; strong interest in a specialist field ; Bill Evans album ; moonlight ; large, white candle ; white wine ; guitar ; Michelle ; Nowhere Man ; Julia ; Norwegian Wood ; porcelain beckoning cat ; coin bank ; boss novas

stoic ; normal ; ordinary ; truly special relationship

Toru took a walking with Reiko. He talked he like to do things alone like hiking, swimming and reading, and he could never excited about games he play with others. Reiko told they (the doctors and the patients) had to wait for Naoko would recover herself a very long time. Reiko took a picture of her daughter and show it to Toru. And she said she had been wanted to be a concert pianist, but gave up it because her left hand stopped moving by a pre-competition stress. Then she talked about her marriage, husband, and childbirth.

hiking ; swimming ; reading ; do things alone ; waiting to recover yourself ; Izu ; total darkness ; jewel of energy ; Beyer ; sonatines

They returned to Naoko and Reiko’s room. Naoko became calm, and Toru and Naoko talked about memories of Kizuki. They went to bed. (Toru slept on a sofa in the living room.) Toru had a dream of willows and metal birds. In the midnight, Toru woke up and realized Naoko was sitting beside him and looking. Then Naoko slipped her nightdress and Toru felt her body was perfect flesh was stood out by moonlight and darkness.

moonlight ; willows ; metal birds ; silhouette ; perfect flesh ; reborn

The next day, after breakfast, they went to care of birds. In the morning, Naoko and Reiko went to the farm of the sanatorium, Toru stayed and studied German for a test at the kitchen table in the Naoko and Reiko’s room.

and a perfect girl of her piano lesson ideal pupil ; German ; all the forms in a grammar chart ; irregular German verb forms

In the afternoon, they went on a hike to nearby mountain.

village ; dead silent houses ; Pepé ; FM station

To be continued…

Remarks

  • At first, Naoko is bright and energetic girl. But, as she spent time with Toru, she remembered the trauma of loss of life of Kizuki, then she got sick mentally.
  • This novel is a story of two love triangles or many triangles. Such as Toru – Naoko – Kizuki, Toru – Midori – Naoko (the main plot of this novel, but Naoko didn’t meet with Midori), Toru – Nagasawa – Hatsumi, Toru – Naoko – Reiko, Toru – Midori – Midori’s boyfriend and so on. On the structure of narrative, according to Naoko spent time with Toru and she remember the trauma of Kizuki then she felt hurt got sick mentally. So Toru fall in love with Midori much more, then Naoko felt hurt much more.
  • The association between Toru and Naoko in Tokyo continued only about one year. And she entered a sanatorium in Kyoto, on chapter 3, page 56.
  • Midori Kobayashi is a mediator to Toru or nervous people around Toru with ordinary working people or the ordinary world.
  • This novel is a love story, but I think it’s also the peak of Murakami’s thought of detachment and dis-communication.

Details of the Book

Nowegian Wood
Haruki Murakami
Vintage Publishing, London, United Kingdom, 04 Jul 2003
400 pages, £8.99
ISBN: 9780099448222

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