re:mote voices: literature

Title: Sputnik Sweetheart
Author: Haruki Murakami
Publisher: Vintage

Initially it would seem that Sputnik Sweetheart will be comparable to Murakami's most well known novel Norwegian Wood, but it quickly becomes clear that it isn't the same deal at all. Like Norwegian Wood there are three main characters, forming a potential love triangle to some degree.

This is the fourth book by Murakami that I have read, and the fourth in which the lead character/narrator is male. However in this context it initially seems an odd decision and doesn't entirely work. Though in the end, I suppose it makes a certain degree of sense, considering how things turn out. The narrator, who I don't think is named, but is referred to at one point as K, met Sumire in college. The two of them hit it off and became great friends. The narrator gradually fell in love with Sumire, but as long as he had known her she had never really expressed any sexual desire for anyone, let alone him. However things change when Sumire meets someone at a cousins wedding - of course the fact that the person is 17 years older than Sumire, married and also female complicates matters. Miu gives Sumire a job and she is quickly transformed, from the somewhat awkward college drop out to an efficient and well groomed young woman. Things come to ahead though when Miu is going on a business trip to Europe and decides to take Sumire with her. The narrator is suddenly left with only the occasional letter as contact with his best friend and Sumire finds herself constantly in Miu's company.

Where the story goes from there is not something that is expected. The drive from that point being the question of what will happen next? Will there be a happy ending? And with this in mind the form of narration starts to make more sense. Though there is still a certain disjointedness and unlikely level of detail provided. Despite the fact that it is all supposed to be coming from the narrator's point of view, Murakami uses the familiar technique of shifting the narrative by using letters, but also he will switch to another characters thread with the theory that it is being recounted by the narrator as what that character said happened. The problem with this is that the level of detail is higher than one would expect from second hand information, which throws the balance a little.

On the whole, not the best book by Murakami that I have read - there isn't enough of his strong dialogue, and while there is a certain familiar "other" it doesn't seem to be pursued far enough. Though with that the result is something I wasn't expecting, and by not pursuing the other as would be done in say The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles he deepens the point of what he is doing with Sputnik Sweetheart. The version I have bought of Sputnik Sweetheart is the new UK paperback, which marks it as different from the Harvill Press versions of the rest of his book - the sprawling naked woman on the cover not being of the same appealing standard as the rest of the UK editions and it is a little misleading.

RVWR: PTR
November 2002