"She was good at remembering things," he said. He was remarkably handsome, his well-formed nose reminding you Marketplace, Quick News | Like Shiga Naoya was in the White Birch School. Soon, Sumire finds herself changing aspects of her life, such as dressing better and giving up bad habits. Sumire is an aspiring writer who survives on a family stipend and the creative input of her only friend, the novel's male narrator and protagonist, known in the text only as 'K'. What kind of novelist, though, she couldn't recall. The two strike up a conversation and Sumire finds herself attracted to the older woman. And as it turned out,Sputnik Sweetheart hinges on the uncanny, and lonely. Rather, I think it is a place the characters go to when something traumatic occurs, something akin to PTSD. as thin as one of those war orphans in an old Italian movie—like a stick with eyes. Knife and fork poised in midair, she gave it some thought. She always had her literary Idol of the Month, and at that point it happened to be the out-of-fashion Kerouac. myself. Until that very moment Miu ran her fingers through Sumire’s hair she hadn’t known she was gay. Her resolve was a regular Rock of Gibraltar. She tells him about the string of events that led to the point of Sumire's disappearance, in which Miu was unable to reciprocate physically when Sumire initiated a sexual encounter. Sputnik Sweetheart is a story about Sumire. Sports | In an instant—whether their dental plan covered the costs was beside the Add to this the girls I slept with once or twice, and the list would be Sumire wanted to be like a character in a Kerouac novel—wild, cool, dissolute. The dark, lustrous eyes She has stopped dying her hair, and it is now pure white. He soon gets a surprising call from Miu, who asks him to fly to Greece and mentions that something has happened to Sumire. Even She had an expressive face and a great sense of humor, though she hardly ever laughed out loud. And, I should add, was a woman. As usual, my practical, humdrum opinions didn't faze her. ... Miu is a middle-aged Korean woman who leads Sumire around Europe. Sumire's mother passed away of a congenital heart defect when she was just thirty-one. life, and it'd lose even its imperfection. sure she would have. The characters in Sputnik Sweetheart learn a … A love story combined with a detective story, Sputnik Sweetheart ultimately lingers in the mind as a profound meditation on human longing. The other is a story that Miu told her about an event that transformed her 14 years ago. At least, that is, until she meets an older woman to whom she finds herself irresistibly drawn. Let me get back to how Sumire and Miu met. The Sputnik Sweetheart Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. We use cookies to give you the best possible experience. 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. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sputnik_Sweetheart&oldid=995852460, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 23 December 2020, at 06:17. That's the life! Page One Plus | Sumire hadn't quite turned three. What's your take on it? If I had been able to tell her my feelings, she would have just laughed at me. Sputnik Sweetheart is my first Murakami novel, so maybe I am wrong in my interpretation of going to the "other side" as not being about death. At the time, Sumire—Violet in Japanese—was struggling to become a writer. K is madly in love with his best friend, Sumire, but her devotion to a writerly life precludes her from any personal commitments. Miu and Sumire went on a European escapade which culminated in Greece. Sumire's mother was—to put it mildly—a completely forgettable pencil and commit them to memory like they were Holy Writ. Sumire wasn't particularly close to her cousin; in fact, they didn't get along at all. 4. . Sputnik was 58 cm in diameter, weighed 83.6 kilograms, and orbited the Earth in 96 minutes and 12 seconds. I couldn't picture any of those relations ever getting very deep. Business | Her home was near the seashore, and she grew up with the dry sound of sand-filled wind blowing against her windows. The characters in Sputnik Sweetheart learn … Click to open expanded view. Miu runs a wine importing business and is impossibly classy, impossibly polished; she hires Sumire as a secretary slash personal assistant, and Sumire jumps at the chance so she can be near Miu. Try as she might to remember her mother's Going back to Japan, he returns to his everyday life. Throughout the novel, the reader experiences the joys, expectations, and pain that come with falling in love. Sputnik Sweetheart; Roll over image to zoom in. The novel develops in phases, beginning as a descriptive character driven love story before becoming increasingly metaphorical and abstract. K suddenly begins to receive letters from Europe written by Sumire. Status: Out of stock. Sumire loved the sound of it. It made her think of Laika, the dog. For a second, the light dyed her eyes the crimson of the wine. Sputnik Sweetheart; Roll over image to zoom in. The first 70 pages or so of "Sputnik Sweetheart" construct this romantic triangle: He loves Sumire, Sumire loves Miu and whatever goes on in Miu's head is … The Sputnik Sweetheart Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. to brand her mother's face on her memory. ISBN: 0-375-41169-0, Home | Miu is very pleased to have K around, but worries that Sumire may have committed suicide; K reassures her that Sumire would not do that. Kodansha first published the novel in Japanese in 1999 and then an English version in 2001. of the dog gazing out the tiny window. Through K, Sumire, and her eventual love interest, Miu, Murakami weave a hauntingly beautiful story about love and loss and the effect that it has on individual identity. But whereas Miu is glamorous and successful, Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots like a character in a Kerouac novel.Sumire spends hours on the phone talking to her best friend K about the big questions in life: what is sexual desire, and should she ever tell Miu how she feels for her? The transition is smooth and stimulating - Sputnik Sweetheart never fails to surprise and engage as its narrative moves through… in a good mood she talked like she was half a step away from picking a fight. Her cheeks were sunken, her mouth a little too wide. help myself. In the instant Miu touched her hair, Sumire fell in love, like she was crossing a field and bang! Sputnik Sweetheart is a story about Sumire. She'd get so engrossed in her thoughts at times that she'd forget to eat, and she was She was born and raised in Japan and studied at a music academy The event caused her hair to turn completely white and divested her of sexual urges. But things weren't that easy. For a long time she was the only thing I could think about. If she did experience sex—or something close to it—in high school, I'm sure it would have been less out of sexual desire or love than literary curiosity. Forums | About midway through "Sputnik Sweetheart," while Miu and Sumire are in Greece, Murakami starts adding layer upon layer to the text until every detail hums with significance. At a wedding, Sumire meets an ethnic Korean woman, Miu, who is 17 years her senior. In short, a love of truly monumental proportions. Miu didn't go into all the details, but it seemed she'd tutored Sumire's Sputnik Sweetheart (スプートニクの恋人, Supūtoniku no Koibito) is a novel by Haruki Murakami, published in Japan, by Kodansha, in 1999. Sumire was a hopeless romantic, set in her ways—a bit innocent, to put a nice spin on it. 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. Sumire meeting Miu at a banquet she finds herself entranced by this elegant mysterious older woman. Sputnik Sweetheart is a story of unrequited love, desire and loneliness. She scrutinized me for a while, like I was some machine run by a heretofore unheard-of power source. Yes, she and K. are best friends. a bolt of lightning zapped her right in the head. Miu mistakenly refers to him as a 'Sputnik' poet instead of 'Beatnik.' most. While Sumire is an emotional and spontaneous individual who often appears to be a misfit in society, "K", the narrator, is a person who has through sheer force of will moulded himself into another person, one who integrates seamlessly into the wider society and culture around him, and the transition leaves him emotionally stunted and unable to express his feelings. Sumire was waiting expectantly, snow-white first page of her notebook open, for nourishing words that could have been a source of warmth and comfort—a pillar, an axis, to help prop up her uncertain life here Travel, Help/Feedback | She found the college totally out of touch, a lukewarm, dispirited place, and she loathed it—and Sputnik Sweetheart gave a voice to a thousand of Sumire's around the world. Forget about dreams—if Sumire had passed her mother on the street, in broad daylight, she wouldn't have known her. Sumire's father was an almost mythic figure to the women in the Yokohama area who needed dental care. He finds Sumire's computer and a floppy disk that contains two documents, named simply "Document 1" and "Document 2". Her favorite lines were from the fire lookout section of Lonesome Traveler. Miu returns after a couple of days. was a waste of time. She loved the sound of it. Sumire is in love with a woman seventeen years her senior. Author: Haruki Murakami; 2210 DA. Ever since that day, Sumire's private name for Miu was Sputnik Sweetheart. in France, so she was fluent in both French and English in addition to Japanese. Sputnik Sweetheart, narrated by the elementary school teacher simply known as K, revolves around Sumire and her infatuation with her older boss Miu.Business obligations take the pair to Europe and they eventually decide to relax for awhile on a small, unnamed Greek island. Automobiles | In fact, Sumire believes she has fallen truly in love for the first time, with an enigmatic older woman called Miu who has given her a job in her wine … She was trapped in a Ferris wheel overnight and, using her binoculars to see inside her nearby apartment, witnessed another version of herself having a disturbing sexual encounter with a man. K feels his time there is up, even though he feels a connection to Miu. Miu smiled. At a wedding, Sumire meets an ethnic Korean woman, Miu, who is 17 years her senior. K falls in love with Sumire. It wasn't a long or very close relationship, clearly, but Miu felt obliged to She asks him to come to get her from the phone booth. Arts | Wasn't he a Sputnik? Miu doesn't explain much, but it's clear the matter is urgent. The Sputnik Sweetheart Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. 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