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    Sputnik Sweetheart
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    Sputnik Sweetheart
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    Sputnik Sweetheart
    Audiobook7 hours

    Sputnik Sweetheart

    Written by Haruki Murakami

    Narrated by Adam Sims

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Haruki Murakami, the internationally bestselling author of Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, plunges us into an urbane Japan of jazz bars, coffee shops, Jack Kerouac, and the Beatles to tell this story of a tangled triangle of uniquely unrequited loves.

    A college student, identified only as "K," falls in love with his classmate, Sumire. But devotion to an untidy writerly life precludes her from any personal commitments-until she meets Miu, an older and much more sophisticated businesswoman. When Sumire disappears from an island off the coast of Greece, "K" is solicited to join the search party and finds himself drawn back into her world and beset by ominous, haunting visions. A love story combined with a detective story, Sputnik Sweetheart ultimately lingers in the mind as a profound meditation on human longing.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 15, 2013
    ISBN9780804166676
    Unavailable
    Sputnik Sweetheart

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    Reviews for Sputnik Sweetheart

    3.5/5

    1,957 ratings57 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      7/10

      Murakami's writing has been more and more problematic for me as I read more and more of his novels, (Sputnik Sweetheart being the 9th), yet this book is among his best. This review is going to sound pretty disjointed and mostly negative, but I really did like the book, promise.

      While sections of it are written in the faux-lofty style I've come to dread in Murakami's work, there are many scenes that were rendered quite excellently. One of these scenes is the night when K is climbing the mountain. (By the way, could Murakami ride Kafka's dick any harder? The protagonist didn't need a name and he definitely didn't need the name "K".) The section of Sumire's writing is (for the most part) cringe-inducing. However, her dream sequence was very vivid and well executed. The ending I was pleased with, and then less than pleased with as I reached the last two pages. The character's love for very specific classical music is a recurring Murakami theme that very much took me out of the story anytime it came up. In contrast, Sumire felt like a very fleshed out person. At least I could picture her with extreme clarity, something that cannot be said for many other of Murakami's protagonists (Kafka and the man from Hardboiled being notable exceptions). I could have done with more time depicting K on the greek island, and less exposition time back in Japan.

      OK, I think that's all I can write. The rest of the book is whirling into an imperceptible blur. Given that this is my 9th and I only get more critical as I proceed I'd be interested to see what I think of Wind-Up Bird Chronicle now. It was my first Murakami and I read it 3-4 years ago. I wonder if it's changed in that time.
    • 2/5
      So this was the fourth recommendation of Murakami that I've read... When will I learn? At this rate, I shall have ended up reading the entire oeuvre of an author for whom I have no great affinity, purely because people whose opinions I respect have recommended him. "Ah, but you haven't read 'The Wind-up Bird Chronicle' yet!" I hear my fellow readers saying. Aaargh!

      I liked this more than 'Hard-boiled Wonderland' and 'Kafka on the Shore' and less than 'Norwegian Wood', which is much the strongest of his novels that I've read, from my point of view.

      On the plus side, it was brief and easy to read and rather charming at times. Some of the imagery is quite beautiful, but too often, you can hear it applauding itself as it makes its entrance.

      On the minus side were all the usual objections. His works are so formulaic, which might prove comforting if you happen to like the niche that he has carved for himself, I suppose. The narrator was absolutely indistinguishable from all the other twenty-something, male, cool/not cool Murakami narrators that I've encountered. Once more, there's some beautiful, unattainable, young female love interest. Inevitably, there's the sexy, older female love interest there too. Next to arrive is the listing of cultural items, which may be unaffected enthusiasm on the author's part but which comes across as showing off. Then the mystical element makes its appearance and it's New Age business as usual.

      I remain unconvinced and fearful that before too long, I shall be in the company of another cool/not cool male narrator on the trail of his young and unrequited love interest... Ah, well, there'll always be that older love interest as compensation.
    • 4/5
      To me, this book has two protagonists - the narrator himself and the object of his adoration, an aspiring writer. Sad story of unrequited love (an odd triangle, actually), exploration of feelings - of friendship and love and problems of being ill fit for society... A meant-to-be writer's pure, almost painful necessity to write... In the first few pages of the book, I didn't care for too many metaphors that seemed forced and reaching... Maybe that's why this novel didn't grab me from the beginning, like some books do. Later on, the metaphors drastically diminished (and those that did occur were much better!) and the story flowed easier due to that. So it's fair to say that the book "grew on me". This author was on my list for a while, but I have a strange feeling that maybe I should have started reading him with another book, not this one, that maybe this is not his typical work... Still - a few very good insights into human nature here, like this one:"Given the chance, people are surprisingly frank when they talk about themselves. 'I am honest and open to a ridiculous degree', they'll say, or 'I'm thin-skinned and not the type who gets along easily with the world'. Or 'I am very good at sensing others' true feelings'. But any number of times I've seen people who say they're easily hurt hurt other people. For no apparent reason. Self-styled honest and open people, without realizing what they're doing, blithely use some self-serving excuse to get what they want. And those "good at sensing others' true feelings" are duped by the most transparent flattery. It's enough to make me ask the question: How well do we really know ourselves?"
    • 5/5
      The unnamed narrator is in love (unrequitedly) with a girl who is in love (unrequitedly) with another woman. When she disappears, he drops everything to go find out what happened. Weird and touching in all the ways of Murakami's stuff. Another win.When she spied Sumire's father, Miu was speechless. Sumire could hear the intake of breath. Like the sound of a velvet curtain being drawn aside on a peaceful morning to let in the sunlight to wake someone very special to you.If I listened very carefully, somewhere far far away I could hear the cats lapping up my brain. Three lithe cats, surrounding my broken head, slurping up the mush gray soup within. The tips of their red, rough tongues licked the soft folds of my mind. And with each lick of their tongues, my mind - like a shimmer of hot air - flickered and faded away.
    • 3/5
      Nowhere near as good as Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and spoiled for me by a sense that Murakami had suddenly got bored of the plot and decided just to wrap it all up. I felt as though most of the book was building up to K's meeting with Miu, and yet afterwards the plot just faded quietly away. Maybe I'm being unjust. But I prefer his more lushly-plotted, epic stories
    • 4/5
      "Sputnik" is popularly known as the first manmade satellite sent up for a few orbits by the USSR back in 1957. The word in Russian means "fellow-traveler" or "traveling companion.""Sputnik Sweetheart" is my first experience with Haruki Murakami and, while his writing style is remarkable -- credit to the translator, too -- it's difficult to connect to his characters. Perhaps disconnectedness is part of the motif he was going for because it did have a somewhat ethereal feel to it.The story is namely about Sumire and slightly older woman, Miu, with whom she's desperately in love. Narrated by K, a college friend of Sumire's, who has a deep friendship with her and an unrequited love of her. The book falls loosely into the "magical realism" category and is equal parts love story and mystery.Sumire disappears on a brief holiday with Miu. In K's search for clues over her disappearance, we find that at some point in the past, Miu became two separate people, one filled with passion and life and the other a more hollow shell, searching for missing pieces. Murakami describes well the feelings of loss when someone disappears from or leaves us as well as the disconnected feeling when we might lose a part of ourselves, that sense of longing.Murakami's work is thought-provoking and stylistically a very good read. The storyline itself is wandering and does leave the reader hanging, so to some it may be a bit unsatisfying.
    • 4/5
      ... aw. Sputnik Sweetheart.

      This book makes me sad just thinking about it.

      I'm not sure I can review something that I had such a strong reaction to, but I'll give it my best shot.

      Firstly, can I just say, that I admire Haruki Murakami so much for writing a story about two characters who are attracted to the same sex, and writing it so well. Same-sex attraction is often fetishised in Japanese culture, and there's a lot subversive homophobia that churns beneath the surface, so, thank you, Murakami, as always, for the work that you do.

      I really enjoyed this book, although it took a while for me to get used to the narrative style. It was a little different from Murakami's other works, and I didn't think I would like it as much, because his narrative voice wasn't the one I was used to reading.

      This book has a little bit of everything, dream sequences, angst, horror(?), beach scenes, the dreaded concept of work-life balance, a narrator on the outside looking inwards, desperate love and the slightly-unresolved last few chapters of a classic Murakami novel.

      I wouldn't say this book is a favourite of his, but he is one of my favourite authors, and I really couldn't choose a favourite anyway. c:
    • 3/5
      Interesting / compelling concept behind the story - maybe it’s because of translation but the words aren’t well woven. It’s feaux-sophistication masking ‘skin-emax’ eroticism to keep you listening. Other authors like Italo Calvino hypnotize you with the magic in their words - even if translated.
    • 5/5
      A typical Murakami book with solitude, longing and mysticism. As most of his other books this one is more like a poem than a novel which you don`t really have to understand more like only feel it.
    • 4/5
      Wow I just loved this book, it's the first book I've read by Murakami and it won't be my last. For me it was a modern adult Alice who hears the story of the woman she loves and falls through the rabbit hole. We don't see where Sumire goes when she disappears or even why, we see the consequences for the people left behind.

      So far this year I've read Russian and Japanese authors translated into English, I need to read more translated works because I read mostly English language novels.
    • 4/5
      Six-word review: Typically puzzling yet rewarding Murakami story.Extended review:There's something about the novels of Haruki Murakami: I read them, I enjoy them (or don't: that would be Norwegian Wood), I'm moderately mystified by them--and then, a little while later, I find that I can't remember what happened. I remember that there was something about cats, or moons, or train stations, or wells--a lot of wells--but the story and the characters have diffused into a kind of dreamlike otherworldly vapor.They seem to want to be classed as existentialist novels, and yet when I think of them in comparison with Camus, I find them far more elusive and less concrete.I know I liked Sputnik Sweetheart. I even wrote this in my notebook as soon as I finished it: "I found this more coherent than any of the other five Murakami novels I've read." I also harvested a lot of good quotations, from which the following selection comes:•     "[I]f I can be allowed a mediocre generalization, don't pointless things have a place, too, in this far-from-perfect world? Remove everything pointless from an imperfect life, and it loses even its imperfection." (page 4)•     "I felt like I was a meaningless bug clinging for no special reason to a high stone wall on a windy night, with no plans, no beliefs." (page 77)•     Sumire: "On the flip side of everything we think we absolutely have pegged lurks an equal amount of the unknown. Understanding is but the sum of our misunderstandings." (page 134; bold in original)•     Sumire: "Only a handful of writers--and I'm talking the most talented--are able to pull off the kind of irrational synthesis you find in dreams." (page 137-138; this is followed in the narrative by a dream sequence)•     In my notebook I labeled this "statement of theme": "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."I guess I'll take my word for it.
    • 5/5
      Easily my favourite Murakami book. I enjoy the simplicity and emotional rawness of Sputnik Sweetheart over Wind-Up Bird Chronicle or Norweigan Wood
    • 4/5
      this Murakami novel seems a bit less focused than usual, and the characters are not as indelible either. though it's also a bit more emotional than his style generally allows, which is interesting, it doesn't quite nail that territory. it seems to want to move away from his trademark magic realism too, into some dialogue about the power of words to build worlds, speaking of signs vs symbols, but that doesn't quite take either. maybe it needed another pass before it went to the printer.
    • 3/5
      While this certainly isn't one of the best stories that Murakami has written, I still thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I love how he always manages to write in that magical 'inbetween' place between dreams and reality. I love that as the reader you find it very hard to distinguish between these realms when you're immersed in all of his works. In Murakami's world anything is possible. Although I felt this story was a little rushed, I'll be contemplating this ending for a very long time.
    • 5/5
      It is of course wonderfully written by Murakami and is a heartbreaking study of loneliness with the three central character drifting past each other, either disappearing into loneliness or expressing physical love through the aid of a doppleganger. I liked how it wasn't the narrators story yet he came to dominate the proceedings after a time.The interesting title derives from the one of the triade of central characters to remember the difference between “Sputnik” and “Beatnik”. There is great romantic love between,among the male narrator and the two women but a great deal of the dramatic tension is based on which if any of the members of this triangle will ever declare or act upon their love for either of the other.As is usual in Murakami books the narrator is a nameless male. He is employed (a grade school teacher) even if he never seems to do much except be available for his younger college friend Sumire. While she is described as a previously un-romantic and socially disassociated soul. The book begins with the announcement that love has entered her life in a single moment “A veritable tornado sweeping across the plains, flattening everything in its path tossing things up in the air, ripping them to shred, crushing them to bits. “ She has fallen in love with a person 17 years her senior, married and female. So much for the first two paragraphs.This is not a classic Murakami combination, but we will find a number of his usual conventions, tropes and assorted accoutrements. The woman with money and time to burn. European classical music, the aforesaid nameless detached narrator, the face in the crowd and late in the book, magical realism. Again another page turner from the master of Weird Lonely Magical Realism.
    • 4/5
      Ich behaupte, dass es hier eher um Einsamkeit geht als um Leidenschaft, wie angepriesen, und das ist mir eigentlich sehr recht. Wunderschön, wenn auch kaum atemberaubend. Mein bisher liebstes Einsamkeitsbuch, und auch sonst ein ziemlich nettes, ziemlich flüssig lesbares, ziemlich fesselndes und ein bisschen liebenswertes, mit den richtigen Ausschweifungen an den richtigen Stellen.
    • 4/5
      “A deep silence ensued. Her mind was as clear as the winter night sky, the Big Dipper and North Star in place, twinkling brightly. She had so many things she had to write, so many thoughts and ideas would gush out like lava, congealing into a steady stream of inventive works the likes of which the world had never seen. People’s eyes would pop wide open at the sudden debut of this Promising Young Writer with a Rare Talent. A photo of her, smiling coolly, would appear in the arts section of the newspaper, and editors would beat a path to her door.

      But it never happened that way. Sumire wrote some words that had a beginning. And some that had an end. But never one that had both a beginning and an end.”

      A while ago, I’d had too much of Haruki Murakami and had to take my leave of him (it was a pretty long one – I didn’t read any in 2010, and only his non-fiction, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, in 2009. So the last Murakami I read was in 2008.) But when I returned to Murakami, it felt good. It was comforting, falling into his world of quiet, of music and literature, of Japan, of friendships and love again. An interesting relationship between a man and a woman, and another woman with that woman, a tale of early morning phone calls, of changes, of affection, repressed and unrequited love and longing. And as I read about this relationship of Sumire and the unnamed narrator (we never get to know our narrator’s name although this story is as much his), and of Sumire and an older woman Miu, who eventually becomes her boss, I am waiting, expecting that bit, that twist in the story. And then it comes and it is bizarre, a little creepy in its own way, a little like thinking you heard something in the middle of the night, then you wake up the next morning wondering if you had actually heard it or if it were just a dream.

      “Sumire and I were a lot alike. Devouring books came as naturally to us as breathing. Every spare moment we’d settle down in some quiet corner, endlessly turning page after page, Japanese novels, foreign novels, new works, classics, avant-garde to best-seller – as long as there was something intellectually stimulating in a book, we’d read it.”

      It takes a while to emerge from this book and back to the gloom and wet of my own settings. I am a little jealous of their journey to that little Greek island. It brings a little warmth into my living room where I am seated on my couch with the fleece throw over my socked feet.

      I am glad to have picked up Murakami again. I just reckon one requires quite a breather in between his books, although two years is probably too long a break. However, I have to be honest and say that I am constantly confused by which of his novels I’ve read!
    • 4/5
      Excellent!! Haruki's work echo in my mind and heart his work is memorable...look forward to my next journey with his work.
    • 4/5
      Sputnik Sweetheart is one of Murakami's shorter novels but that does not mean it is any less odd than his longer novels.

      The plot centres on three characters: K., Sumire, and Miu, who together form a sort of love triangle. When Sumire goes missing on holiday with Miu, K. discovers how little he knows about the girl he loves though on his return to his solitary life in Japan, out of nowhere, he receives a sudden call from Sumire. Yet, Murakami leaves much of the plot unresolved so the reader questions how much of the plot is objective and not just character perceptions.

      This novel explores the nature of loneliness and whether one can truly know one's love or even themselves.

      Perhaps one of Murakami's weaker novels; nevertheless, it was enjoyable and like Murakmai's other works, merits at least a second reading if not more.
    • 4/5
      The characters are interesting, and the emotion to be transmitted is clear. After some paragraphs its hard not to smile or nod or just get nostalgic. Clueless about the ending, which I think leaves a very good aftertaste for what the book is.
    • 5/5
      This is a very Murakami novel. If you've ever read any of his others, you know you can expect awkward romantic situations, descriptions of the moon, phone calls, and disappearances. If you haven't read any Murakami, you might think knowing that going in will ruin some of the enjoyment, but that's not the case. The fun is really in how those elements unfold and work together. The male narrator is in love with his friend, Sumire, but she doesn't reciprocate his feelings. Sumire meets and falls in love with Miu, an older woman. Eventually, Sumire goes off on a trip with Miu, and disappears from a Greek isle. The narrator, K, tries to figure out what happened to her.It's kind of like a metaphysical Sam Spade novel, if Sam Spade were in touch with his more sensitive side. It's also kind of like a novel-length short story, with its economy of word and feeling, and its reluctance to provide closure of all the loose ends. Murakami tends to leave some strings untied, but this one is like a loosely woven cloth where the ends on both sides are just floating free. If you're willing to accept that and arrive at your own conclusions, you'll enjoy this one. If not, maybe some Dashiell Hammett? Recommended for: short story readers, fans of Alice in Wonderland.Quote: "It made her think of Laika, the dog. The man-made satellite streaking soundlessly across the blackness of outer space. The dark, lustrous eyes of the dog gazing out the tiny window. In the infinite loneliness of space, what could the dog possibly be looking at?"
    • 3/5
      Eh. Similar to Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but not as good.
    • 4/5
      Could just as well have been called "On Loss and Loneliness" but these are motifs in Murakami's writing. Besides they don't have the same ring to it as "Sputnik Sweetheart" I think the explanation of the title was one of my favourite things about the book.
    • 5/5
      This is one of those rare books where I will really miss the characters. I loved the story from start to vague finish. Murakami reminds me of Paulo Coelho, and seeing as Coelho is one of my favorite authors, I am definitely going to go through the rest of Murakami's work.
    • 4/5
      A tale of unrequited loves, at the surface, Sputnik Sweetheart tracks the disappearance of a young girl from a remote Greek island. This being a Murakami book, the use of adjectives like mysterious, before disappearance would be superfluous - in the world of Murakami, an action as mundane as climbing stairs can be mystifying and an event as big as the disappearance of a cat or a human being, full of possibilities, all of them uncanny if not paranormal.In this world, overnight changes like, appearance of a blue-black mark on the face, or losing the ability to speak, or all the hair turning white, are taken in stride - we would know that each of such changes have an implication, most of the times, a supernatural one. We learn to appreciate the shape of an ear and in the background of everything else, infidelity holds no shock value or indeed gossip value.In the undercurrent are, several small pieces woven together, stories in their own, discoveries, characterisations, all neatly bundling into Sputnik Sweetheart, one of his shorter works. And if you were still looking for more, this book will also give you a lesson or two in classical music and wine tasting.And yet, with the high standards and expectations, I hold Murakami to, this book somewhere fell short of delivering the satisfaction that ordinarily comes from reading a Murakami. This would seem to be an easy way out, but the works of Murakami are too exotic and my skills too rudimentary to even attempt a dissection to establish my lack of satisfaction with the book.
    • 4/5
      Starts with some descriptive parts that are not worthy of Murakami's genious, but when the story starts to unravel and Sumire disappears, things get more interesting, with a trademark Murakami ending. Well written and intruiging.
    • 4/5
      I have only read one other book by Murakami this year (the running memoir) which might be part of the reason I liked this one as much as I did (the last two years I have overdosed on Murakami). Sputnik Sweetheart starts of in a rather ordinary way, steering clear of the mystical dreamlike that are often present throughout his novels. A little over halfway through the story begins to pick up pace and the story becomes more Murakami-esque. While this novel isn't as good as Kafka or the Windup Bird I felt it was better than most of his other works that I have read.
    • 4/5
      Candidly, this isn't my favorite Murakami. But in part it's as good as anything I've read by him. In large part, I found it too slow to develop, and too slow-paced and distanced, even for Murakami. But it did take off and come together when the narrator found Sumire's writings, which makes perfect sense. So I applaud Murakami for the narrative risk, even though I think it decreases the readability of the work.
    • 3/5
      There really is no experience like a Murakami novel. He is his own thing.

      I thought this one was extra melancholy. I liked it alright, but I didn't like the main character at all. He gave me the creeps. Maybe you were supposed to dislike him, but I'm not entirely sure....
    • 3/5
      Apparently a great writer. I was all gripped and thrilled and happy reading Sputnik Sweetheart until the end happened and it was so - what? whatever! - I was made all grumpy and sad. The end it makes no sense, but the rest of the book was lovely.