"I spread my fingers apart and stare at the palms of both hands, looking for bloodstains. There aren't any... The blood must have already...seeped inside."
What a way to end such a magnificent book! I'm utterly speechless. My mind is abuzz with many, many questions. I thought I had it, an understanding of what this was all about, but the last pages said 'no closure for you. Not today.'
On the surface, Sputnik Sweetheart is about the love triangle of K, Sumire, and Miu. K is attracted emotionally and sexually to Sumire but Sumire sees him as her friend and confidant while she's attracted both emotionally and sexually to Miu who doesn't share the same feeling towards her. Yeah. It's a mess.
Everything went okay until Sumire met Miu and traveled with her to an island in Greece... where she disappeared without leaving a trace. But where did she go? What happened to her? Did she just leave? Was murdered? Committed suicide?
Or perhaps we just have to accept what the book tells us literally that she disappeared into another world.
Having read nearly 95% of Murakami's literary body of work, I can—to a certain degree—surely say that he's trying to build a shared universe in the majority of his novels. The connections are all over the place in The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, Killing Commendatore, Tsuku Tazaka and His Years of Pilgrimage, After Dark, to name but a few. It's not about the 'Murakami Bingo' of weird ear fetishes and jazz and unexplained vanishings and cats and moons, etc. These are but consequences of his world-building. It's about the rules that govern the shared universe, the philosophy, the principles that affect everyone and everything in his stories.
One wouldn't be aware of these rules if they pick up one book and are done with Murakami. It's like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle with only one piece while the other pieces are missing. That's why one should read a great deal of Murakami to at least come to an understanding of the ways of his universe. For instance, one of these rules is this: 'Dreams are realities.' Ergo, what happens in a dream affects reality.
The reason I mentioned that specific rule is because it plays a major part in Sputnik Sweetheart. For the longest time, I've been dreading to approach this book. It took me three years to give it a try. At first, I thought it'd be something about the drama of complicated relationships. And it is. But it's more than that. It's a thorough analysis of the human condition and the universal search to alleviate the loneliness and alienation of our world... even if this pursuit compels us to traverse another reality (which is possible in Sputnik Sweetheart).
The book is dense when it comes to how it is interpreted. If you put in enough time going through the catacombs of Reddit and Quora, you'll find outrageous theories concerning rape, murder, and suicide. After the ending, the aftertaste will last you a couple of restless nights thinking about what you read and what actually happened. This, by itself, is one of the reasons why the memory of this book will always stay with you.
I believe that the central theme revolves around 'change' and how it affects the very person that makes us who we are. Every one of the characters dreads the future and what hides beneath its sleeves. K is afraid of a world without Sumire. Sumire wants to be with Miu and abandons the things she loves to do (smoking and writing for instance) to make that happen. Miu puts her piano career behind her to become a shell of her own self.
Regardless of the reasons happening normally or abnormally, change is inevitable. It will happen whether you like it or not. The question is, how will you deal with it and finally accept it. That, I believe, is what Murakami is trying to say.
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Summary:
Not recommended as your first book by Murakami, but for experienced readers with his style and shenanigans, it'd prove a very stimulating read. I enjoyed every page. The beginning is a drag, but once you reach the middle, reality and unreality will go hand in hand, and what you are left with is an impression of it all, a feeling.
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