Book title: Sputnik Sweetheart
Author: Haruki Murakami
Genre: Novel, Fiction
Rating: 4.3 out of 5
Originally published: 1999
The Sputnik Sweetheart Book Review
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami is one of those books which is referred to me by the bookseller. I will admit, I knew nothing about this author. But the snippet looked good, so I decided to go with this one.
The story follows the protagonist Sumire, a young aspiring writer who does not fit in the traditional theory of society. She loves to write about anything, everything, and nothing. As the story moves forward, she falls in love with her older friend Miu whom she met at the wedding.
Sputnik Sweetheart is one of the heavy readings that require your attention and understanding though the language used in the book is quite lyrical and poetic that helped relieve some of the heavy content.
Sputnik Sweetheart is somewhere inclined towards the dark and lonely side of the world. It gives you a sense of void, an eerie feeling of incompleteness, and a sense of uneasiness in the world. Despite all the ambiguities, Sputnik Sweetheart makes you feel different and let you explore the untapped side of your thinking. Talking about the beautifully sewed metaphors, there are many but, one that caught my attention is when Haruki Murakami reflects in the book about why a dog would be sent into space? What can a dog do in space? What is it looking at?
Haruki Described his Feeling with Few Lines that Say,
“And it came to me then. That we were wonderful traveling companions but in the end no more than lonely lumps of metal in their own separate orbits. From far off they look like beautiful shooting stars, but in reality, they’re nothing more than prisons, where each of us is locked up alone, going nowhere. When the orbits of these two satellites of ours happened to cross paths, we could be together. Maybe even open our hearts to each other. But that was only for the briefest moment. In the next instant, we’d be in absolute solitude. Until we burned up and became nothing.”
The most debatable thing about this book is the latter part. Haruki Murakami left the story with unanswered questions. You require critical thinking to understand, Was Miu really split into two worlds losing, by that her true self? what might have had happened to Sumire in the end?
I feel it is better to leave things as Haruki wanted to. There are many How’s and Why’s though it is better to understand the psychological aspect of the book rather than figuring out the practical answers.
Sputnik Sweetheart is a good story, different from the monotonous characters and storyline. The first part of the book is quite engaging but the latter part is filled with unanswered questions and is quite ambiguous. There is no proper ending. The readers are left with their own ideas and theories.
After reading Sputnik Sweetheart Book Review you must be wanting to read other book reviews and Comment Down your Favorite part of the book:
- Shiva Sutras
- Start with Why
- To kill a Mockingbird
- The Great Gatsby
- Think and Grow Rich
- One Indian Girl
- A Second Chance
- The Alchemist
