So since it was my first week back to work, I decided to choose something short and sweet and farmiliar from THE LIST, which led me straight back to Haruki Murakami. I was thinking, I'm really glad I decided to re-read books from the list that I had already read once, because books like this I can remember reading, but can't remember the plot or anything significant that happened, and rereading it is like...I don't know, almost like when you're having a dream and then you wake up and realize that you've had the dream before? That's a flowery way to put it, I guess, but blame Murakami, he puts me in that mood.
Sputnik Sweetheart is about three people living in Japan and connected by love: The narrator, who goes only by K, falls in love with his best friend Sumiere, an eccentric writer who dreams of becoming a famous novelist. Sumiere, however, meets and falls in loves with the mysterious Miu, a woman much older than her and with a dark secret. When their three lives intersect on a small Greek island, very strange things begin happening, and then, like in all Murakami novels, the confusion begins!
You know I love this book, for all the reasons I love Kafka on the Shore and everything else Murakami has written - it's beautiful, makes you think, and doesn't have to make sense to be evocative. In a way, it's one of his simpler books - the plot centers around only these three characters and doesn't deviate much. In fact, for about the first 3/4 of the book you can even pretend that the plot makes sense, but then of course that's all shot to hell once he really gets going. Parallel universes and snow-white hair and mysterious music and doppelgangers in small French towns? This man is insane and I love it. And I must admit, one of the few television shows I do keep up with is Fringe (which, if you are a science dork like me, you should start watching IMMEDIATELY) and so I started grinning a little when all the talk started about of doubles from other worlds messing around with our lives.
Okay, and one other thing I've noticed about Murakami- I don't think he's ever painted a loving family relationship. If he has, I can't remember, and I've read most of his books. In most of the stories, the protagonist either gets along fine with his family, but feels like he doesn't belong (they are simple, uncomplicated people and he is in a Murakami novel, so of course he's insane and crazy things are happening to him) or they are cold and hostile (Kafka on the Shore, for example.) It's an interesting trend, and it doesn't stop with this book.....there's no terrible mistreatment, but parents really don't figure in at all, and K especially feels alienated from his own family and in fact alienated in the world. For Murakami, the biggest thing to know about any of the family members of the main characters is that Sumiere's dad has one hell of a nose.
In summary: Short, sweet, confusing, 100% Murakami to the core and full of wonderful observations about longing, friendship, "rock hard erections" and the other world. Haruki Murakami strikes again!
No comments:
Post a Comment