Published: 1999 (Kodansha)
Setting: Tokyo, Greece
Summary: This short novel packs a powerful punch of longing and desperation. The narrator “K” chronicles the torrid and star-crossed love affair between Miu, a 40-year-old Korean woman who has pure white hair, and Sumire, the woman he loves. K’s backstory isn’t so important, this novel is about Sumire and Miu. Sumire speaks through K, to the reader, explaining the moments where she fell in love with Miu.
K is a teacher in a Tokyo Elementary school, and he is causally sleeping with the mother of one of his students. He meets with Sumire often and takes her phone calls into the wee hours of the night. He loves her, but they were never meant to be. Sumire is a scrambled-up but intelligent aspiring writer who with the faint touch of a hand is subsumed into Miu’s orbit. She ends up working with Miu. Miu had a mysterious incident happen to her 14 years ago which made her unable to feel sexual pleasure or keep her hair color. Sumire follows Miu to Europe, where they connect, even though Miu keeps her at a distance, and they end up on a small Greek island. They share an awkward but sweet sexual experience that shows the extent to which Miu closed herself off from Sumire. Sumire disappears after four days on the island, which prompts Miu to call K and ask him to travel to Greece to find her.
K’s time in Greece is short, but he reads a few documents Sumire wrote and meets Miu. Before Sumire disappeared, she wrote about what happened to Miu. Miu got stuck on a Ferris wheel in Switzerland and her “other half” was defiled, through her voyeurism, in her own apartment by a Spaniard named Fernando. Form this time, Miu lost all desire and lives life as an empty shell. K reads this, understands Miu better, but their search fails. K goes back to Tokyo and only sees Miu once more in Tokyo from the window of a cab.
K travels back to Tokyo, deals with the shoplifting of his girlfriend’s son, and breaks up the affair. He gets a call from Sumire asking him to wait for her, that she isn’t dead, and is ready to see him soon.
This novel is a refreshing change of pace after reading the Wind-up Bird Chronicle. What these novel lacks in meat it shines in taste and refinement. This Avant-pop novel dives into alienation and the forlorn better than any of his novels up to this point. The plot falls short, and this could have been much longer and more intricate, but the simplicity of the plot lets the message shine through. Sputnik Sweetheart is the antithesis of his previous novel, which was full of plot but was confusing to the point of distraction.
Quote of the book: “But tomorrow I’ll be a different person, never again the person I was… Blood has been shed, and something inside me has gone. Head down, without a word, that something makes its exit” (178).
This book is about what we lose within us, and how, ultimately, life is lonely.
Favorite character: Sumire, her disorganization and earnest love makes her the most likable character in this novel. Her character, although less surreal than Miu, was more mysterious and interesting.
Favorite setting: The hill in Greece, that hill, with its faint scent of music, would be a perfect summer thinking spot.
Favorite pop culture reference: Apple PowerBook, I remembered when people said “Macintosh” as much as “Apple”.
Please Stay for: The quick strike of emotions that come from an economical plot. Deep emotions lie within this page turner.
Please Question: I felt the ending, where Sumire calls K to meet him at some point soon, was an interesting choice. I wanted to sit in the loneliness knowing that K would never meet Sumire again. Unless it was a dream sequence (it doesn’t clearly indicate if it is or not), I wanted K to go through life with the memory as opposed to shoehorning Sumire back into his life.
Will Reviews Things 