Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
Fun fact, I hadn’t read any of Murakami’s work until this one, that started my Murakami’s depressing journey. This is my first, and definitely won’t be my last.
It was an easy read, but the emotions that came with it were not easy at all. I needed a break to recover from what I went through after reading it. A book fills with unforgettable memories, mysteries of life, and love.
The novel follows the story of a young Japanese aspiring writer, Sumire, who never has the experience of falling in love. At a wedding, she meets Miu, a Korean businesswoman who’s seventeen years her senior; that’s when Sumire slowly finds herself attracted to Miu, from endless conversations, dinner meet-ups, working for Miu, to going on a business trip, just the two of them. The story is told by the protagonist, K, who’s secretly in love with Sumire, but well, he’s in the friendzone. In the meantime, K is having an affair with one of his student’s mom. Yes, complicated.
During the time when Sumire and Miu are out on business trip, which they end their trip with a vacation on a Greek island, K receives a surprising call from Miu, asking him to fly to Greece because something has happened to Sumire.
Sumire disappears, like smoke.
While K does all he can to find Sumire before his new school year begins, he’s a teacher, there’s no news of her. I was a bit surprised that he isn’t worried at all; he goes on with his life when he’s back to Japan. Sometimes, things just don’t come with an answer; it is what it is. No matter how hard we try to find the why, or even, the harder you try, the further the answer drifts.
There are a few parts in the book have left a vivid scene in my head. One of the most memorable parts is Miu went on a ferry wheel when she was young. While it was close to the time that the park was closing, the staff forgot and left her in the cart, having her to stay overnight in the cart, up in the sky. From where she was, she could see her own flat, and she saw herself with the man who had been stalking him in the room. It was odd because she was fully aware that she was here. After that incident, her hair has gone white. Parallel universe? But there’s no explanation in the book, building another layer of mysteriousness to readers.
Another part that symbolises the concept of life goes on, which speaks to me the most, is when Carrot, K’s student and the son of the woman who he has an affair with, hands K the key that he steals from the supermarket. K then drops it into the river and they watch it flow until it disappears, echoing to the disappearance of Sumire with time goes by.
Many elements of the plot remain deliberately unresolved, such obscure leaves so much room for readers to interpret by resonating their life experiences, holding a certain depth of emotions.
Having the assumption of Sumire may have committed suicide, K holds on to the belief that Sumire is still alive, with the book ends with the telephone that Sumire used to call from, hearing her voice seems unreal, knowing that they’re still under the same moon. The obscure lingers as the story ends.
