Sputnik Sweetheart (Paperback)

Interesting ideas in this book include Murakami's brief exploration of the idea of being "attentive". When the main character/narrator had an affair with an older woman earlier in his life, he was "instructed" in how to go about being with a woman when the woman used the analogy of being a good driver versus an attentive driver. The woman insists that being a good driver does not matter as long as the driver is "attentive" and alert. The narrator began to see the connection to his sexual being... being alert and attentive to the things around him. "Not prejudging things, listening to what's going on, keeping your ears, heart and mind open."

Another interesting idea is the idea of your existence being split into two parts. One of the main characters, Miu, felt herself split in half one night... one side had all her sexual desire, her youth. The part the character in the book was left with was a woman with no sexual desire, who held everyone at arm's length and whose hair had turned white overnight. The narrator explores the idea of what is on "the other side"... can people cross over between these two existences?

Finally, Murakami writes, "So that's how we live our lives. No matter how deep and fatal the loss, no matter how important the thing that's stolen from us-that's snatched right out of our hands-even if we are left completely changed, with only the outer layer of skin from before, we continue to play out our lives this way, in silence. We draw ever nearer to the end of our allotted span of time, bidding it farewell as it trails off behind. Repeating, often, adroitly, the endless deeds of the everyday. Leaving behind a feeling of immeasurable emptiness."

I have given these ideas a great deal of thought. No matter the impression we have left nor how intense the experiences we shared with someone, when circumstances change, you lives are separate and you go on like nothing has happened. This is a theme that re-emerges in life multiple times.

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.