However, the first seeds of doubt are sown in the reader when it becomes apparent that Murakami either has a short attention span for maintaining motifs or anchor references in his story telling, choosing to introduce them and then just ignore them, or he has an inability to keep them in check. Murakami initially draws the characters well enough and Sumire’s somewhat grungy bookishness bodes well in the potential of the pages to come. The plot of Sputnik Sweetheart (Vintage Books, 2002, translated from the original Japanese by Philip Gabriel originally published by Kodansha Ltd, 1999) involves three main characters: the young, first person narrator (known only as K., a teacher) his friend, Sumire, who he fantasises over the enigmatic Miu, she who acts as a catalyst for Sumire’s disappearance. The Vintage Books copy reviewed here has, on its back cover, a journalist’s line which states: ‘ Sputnik Sweetheart has touched me deeper and pushed me further than anything I’ve read in a long time.’ (Julie Myerson, The Guardian) - alas, closer analysis of Murakami’s writing leads to other conclusions. Ultimately, this is a tale that attempts to press some deeper concerns into the short- and long-term conscious process of the reader, but which falls short of this presumed target because of the shortcomings of its details. This is a novel that is at once readable yet frustrating, promising but clumsy.

As a first time reader of Murakami, the overall affect of Sputnik Sweetheart is one of ambiguity and ambivalence.

Sumire haruki murakami