Sputnik Sweetheart

Title: Sputnik Sweetheart
Author: Haruki Murakami
Published: 1999 in original Japanese, 2001 first time in English. This edition 2002 by Harvill
Genre: Murakami.
Pages: 229




Oh, I really should write about each and every book as soon as I've read it, to remember everything I wanted to mention. Not after I've already finished another book after it. But there were circumstances. Aren't there always?


This was, I think, the third time I read this book. First time around was in Finnish, as soon as it had come out in Finnish. Second time sometime after I bought this copy from Berlin, in 2004. Third time now, obviously, and I think I'm finally understanding very many things. Or then I just forget the Ohhh!!! -things every time and think I'm only realising them whenever I read it again.


See? This is why I should write about books as soon as I've finished them.


Sputnik Sweetheart, first book I read from Mr. Murakami, is told by the narrator known only as K. He tells us of his long time friend and secret love, Sumire, a productive yet not very accomplishing author-to-be, who suddenly finds herself head over heels with a much older woman, Miu. She can't even write anymore, but with Miu close by, she doesn't care.


And then things get weird.




Why do people have to be this lonely? What's the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking for others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the Earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?