Information of the Book
Murakami’s 9th long novel, and third romance novel follows Norwegian Wood and South of the Border, West of the Sun, originally published in 1999. Also this novel is unusual romance novel describes today’s persons has no existence or reality who can’t love seriously and passionately.
When the time this book published, three of nine works of Murakami were romance. But he has not been wrote a romance long novel again for now.
Form, Style & Structure
This novel is story about Sumire, and substantially main character in this novel is Sumire. (5, p. 59) The main description of the first half of this novel is describing Sumire by the viewpoint of the narrator (like Nick Carraway in the Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald) and talks about Miu of which the narrator heard by Sumire.
Background of the Work & Author
Murakami lived in Greek in the late 80’s, he described the days in his first travel literature Far Drums (1990). And he arrived a Greek island and went around monasteries of the Greek Orthodox Church in Rainy Days, Sunny Days (1990).
Characters
Narrator – A teacher of an elementary school. He born in Suginami, Tokyo, and raised in Tsudanuma, Chiba. He enjoyed read novels but studied history, because reading novels is his pure personal enjoyment. (5, p. 62) He loved Sumire, but she had no romantic feelings. (5, p. 64)
Sumire (Violet in Japanese) – A friend of the narrator, 2 years younger than him, and the narrator was in love with Sumire. She was born in Chigasaki, Kanagawa. She was named by Morzart’s song the Violet. After she graduated from a public high school in Kanagawa, she entered a little private college in Tokyo the narrator was enrolled. She dropped out the University in the sophomore year to be a novelist. But she wrote every night by a word processor, but couldn’t complete a novel. She wasn’t a beautiful but had a certain charm. She wore an oversized herringbone coat, a pair of rough work boots and a black plastic-framed Dizzy Gillespie glasses to become wild and cool like a character in Jack Kerouac’s novel. She has no sexual desire for men. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Sumire worked at Miu’s office and she was taken Italian private lessons twice a week.
Miu – A Korean married, beautiful, extremely lovely and slim woman, 17 years older than Sumire, born and raised in Japan, graduated Catholic strict but progressive junior high and high school, then studied at a music academy in France. But her father fell ill and she suffered a mysterious occurrence in a small town in Switzerland, she retuned to Japan and never touch keyboard again. After she abandoned studying and playing piano, she had taken over her father’s trading company, but then her husband and brother did main business, and she became a merchant of wine or something and a coordinator of music as her own private business. When she was 25 years old she suffered from “the Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel” (12), and her hair became white and lost half of her, then she stopped playing piano. She married at 29 years old, the private life is without making love and they see each other only at weekends, their life basically went well.
A girl friend – A lady friend of the narrator and a mother of narrator’s pupil. They slept together about twice a month. (5) His son “Carrot” was caught in the act of shoplifting. (15)
Sumire’s cousin (1) – Miu assisted or advised for her to taking an examination of a Music University. At her wedding ceremony, Sumire came across Miu.
father of Sumire (1, 14) – He run a dental clinic in Yokohama, Kanagawa.
mother of Sumire (1, 12) – When Sumire was three years old, she passed away at 31 years old by a congenital heart defect.
stepmother of Sumire (1, 14) – Sumire’s father remarried when she was six. A kind and fair person loved Sumire. When Sumire decided to quiet the collage and become a novelist, the stepmother persuaded the father to provide Sumire with a small stipend until she became 28.
younger brother of Sumire (1) – Two years after the remarriage, Sumire’s younger brother was born.
father of Miu (1)
a woman eight years older than the narrator (4)
husband of Miu (4) – A Japanese man is five years older than Miu and fluent in Korean. Because he studied at the Seoul University for two years. So, in fact he substantially run Miu’s company.
father of the narrator (5)
mother of the narrator (5)
older sister of the narrator (5) – Only sister of the narrator is five years older than him. She is very smart and matters outside of her sphere is nor concern. She graduated from Tokyo University law school and passed the bar exam the following year.
English gentleman – He owned a villa in a Greek island, and he recommended Miu and Sumire to stay there. (6, p. ; 8 p. 109)
Wealthy old Spanish lady (8, p. 109)
The policeman who spoke English (9, p. 131)
Ferdinando (12) – He was born from Barcelona, and moved for the small village in Switzerland to work in furniture design. A handsome, thirty-six, Latin, tall man with a thoroughly nose and dark straight hair, had a sexual desire for Miu. And his presence made Miu anxious.
Carrot (15) – A son of the lady friend of narrator, and a pupil of narrator. His real name is Shinichi Nimura, so he called Ninjin (Carrot).
Nakamura (15) – A security guard of the supermarket in Tachikawa.
Locations
Kunitachi – The narrator lived Kunitachi.
Kichijoji (- 5) – Sumire was living in a one-room apartment in Kichijoji.
Kanda (1, p. 15) – The second-hand bookshop Mecca in Tokyo.
Omote Sando – Miu and Sumire had a dinner. (3)
Harajuku – A cultural center of Tokyo, near Shibuya. There’s the office of Miu.
Aoyama (4) – Miu’s apartment was in.
Jungumae (4) – A district of Harajuku. Miu’s office is in.
Suginami (4)
Tsudanuma (5) – A bedroom suburb of Tokyo in Chiba prefecture.
Yoyogi Uehara (5) – Sumire moved to a usual apartment of Yoyogi Uehara.
Roma (6, p. 75)
A Greek Island (7 – 14) – A English gentleman whom Miu and Sumire came across, have a villa on the Island, and he recommended them to stay there. So they decided to stay as a vacation. (6) A so small island near the Turkish border. (7, p. 89) A pretty typical Geek island. The population ranged from 3,000 to 6,000, depending on the season. In summer, people are in business for the tourists, and, in winter, go elsewhere in search of work. The island has pretty limited industries, such as agriculture of ovules and fruits, fishing and sponge-diving. So majority of residents moved to Florida, where they could make use of their skills. The flat space is little and mostly steep and unforgiving hills, and there’s only one town along the south shore. (7, pp. 98 – 100)
Athens (10, 14)
Tachikawa (15) – A big town of suburban Tokyo next to Kunitachi.
Places
A posh hotel in Akasaka (1)
Inogashira Park (1, p. 13) – Sumire took a walk around the park in the afternoon.
Miu’s office (4) – Her own small office at Jingumae, Harajuku.
Acropolis (pp. 193 – 194)
Key Elements, Key Words & Key Phrases
Sputnik – When they talked about Kerouac, Miu slipped a tongue to say Sputnik, instead she wanted to say Beatnik (the literary movement includes Kerouac). Since Sputnik Sweetheart is private name for Miu in Sumire. (1, pp. 7 – 8) And Sputnik in Russian means “travelling companion”. (8, p. 108) “Like a little lost Sputnik?” (5, p.69) It maybe the symbol of Sumire and Miu, beings were in the other side.
writing, novel – Sumire want to write a “massive nineteenth-century-style Total Novel”, but she can write only fragmetns of novels, her writing had a remarkable freshness. (1) Writing is equal to playing piano. (4)
piano – Miu studied playing piano at a music academy in France. But she (4, )
Chinese gates – An allegory or a metaphor signifies a living, breathing and real novel needs a king of baptism or sacrifice. (1, pp. 16 – 17) Miu sacrificed every ounce of flesh, every drop of blood and everything for piano, but she couldn’t become a pianist. (4, pp. 52 – 53)
time and experience (1, p. 18 ; 3, p. 41)
sign and symbol – Abruptly, Miu asked Sumire about the difference between a sign and symbol. (1, pp. 24 – 25) A symbol represents a thing, but the thing is not the symbol. But a sign represents a thing, also the two things are equivalent and interchangeable. (2, pp. 30 – 31)
Spanish, Italian (1, 3)
Dark Night of the Soul called Scott Fitzgerald (2, p. 28)
talent (3, p. 41 ; 4, p. 44) – The woman eight years older than the narrator said “Some people are nimble, others are all thumbs … Some people are quite attentive, and others are’t.” (p.44) Both of them agreed the later is a good driver.
narutal ability (3, p. 41)
being alert (4, p. 45) – The notion implies Sumire can’t feel and comprehend deeply things and persons.
cucumber (4, p. 46) – It maybe a sign or metaphor of love affairs. Sumire can’t understand the meaning.
impoverrished intellect (4, p. 47)
PowerBook – The model Apple Computer, Macintosh PowerBook equips a floppy disk drive.
Marlboro (4, p. 53) – Sumire’s favorite tobacco brand. Originally Marlboro was made as a brand for women by Phillip Morris, but it became a symbol of cigarettes and the American masculinity and culture. Tobacco is her energy for to write novel and tranquilizer.
metaphor (4, p. 55)
observer, narrator, narratee (5, p. 59)
objective reality of things outside myself (5, p. 60)
invisible boundary (5, p.60)
football (5, p. 62) – It maybe the first time, a narrator of Murakami novels do sports.
defection (5, p. 67) – To come across and to associate with Miu changed the mind and body of Sumire, and lost something of her.
commune, kolhoz (5, p. 68)
fictional framework (5, p. 68)
Fiction = Transmission theory (5, pp. 68 – 69 ; 11, p. 145) – All today’s people are in fictional frameworks. Fiction is the method adjusts and fills in the gap between self and the real world in each of their own levels. But Sumire hadn’t been suited the story or the world of Miu yet, because she couldn’t use her transmission well. Also Sumire is a person can’t suit and control well her real story. For Sumire, to write fiction, story or text is the method to fill the gap between her mind or existence and the real world, and is the meaning of life. But she can’t use the method well though she seriously want to write a novel.
gang of intellectual refugees (5, p. 71)
illusion (6, p. 77)
Greek Orthodox monasteries (7, p. 99) – In Murakami's travel literature Rainy Days, Sunny Days, he went around Greek Orthodox monasteries.
Cat (8) – On chapter 8, there are three episodes about cats. And Miu told the narrator that “they are just a lot of harmless memories, but now everything seems significant.” (8, p. 117) It should be a metaphor of Sumire (for Miu). Cat is companion animal of man, but sometimes, it harms man physically and mentally. Sumire’s episode of a pretty little six month old tortoiseshell cat resembles a episode in Murakami’s essay Abandoning a Cat.
moonlight (9, p. 124), brilliant moonlight (13, p. 185), pallid moonlight (13, p. 186) – On Murakami’s works, moonlight reflects and reveals a shape of the truth. And moon is a symbol and an indication of the other side, and opens a door or a path to the other side.
the edge of the world (10, p. 137)
wells, a deep well (10, p. 138 ; 13, p. 181) On Murakami’s works, well is the (symbol of) path to the other side.
two texts rested in a floppy disc written by Sumire (10, 11, 12, 13)
Document 1 (11) – The content is philophical and literal reflections and confessions about writing, thinking and understanding, dream in which she met her dead mother, and love for Miu.
feeling of alienation (11, p. 144) – Sumire was a being like Sputnik covered by iron shell, and she was in the other world, so she adjusted the gap or reduced the alienation by writing.
thinking (11, p. 145) – “Thinking” Sumire mentioned is a kind of literal and philosophical thinking from zero. It is the pragmatic strategy keeps what we know and what don’t know as they are, and it’s a method for living and to existing in this world for Sumire. But she stopped writing and thinking when she had met with Miu.
Did You Ever See Anyone Shot by a Gun withtout Bleeding? (10, p. 143) & Blood must be shed. (10, p. 154) – These phrases mean to confess sexual love for Miu causes a risk, and if it would be rejected Sumire must live in this real world or she must vanish from this world if her love is rejected by Miu. And true expression of art needs lively force, reality and sacrifice.
Document 2 (12) – Document 2 is the despriction of Miu’s mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss, that Sumire heard from Miu. imaginary death. Her heart or real existence was dead.
Miu’s white hair (12)
the other side (13, p. 179, p. 181) – The common motif of Sumire’s documents must be the connection of “This side – the other side” (13, p. 180). The narrator thought Sumire went to see Miu on the other side.
dreams, dream (13, p. 181 ; 16, p. 226) – One of the important elements on this novel. The life in Tokyo of the narrator was ordinary and real. The vacation and experiences of Sumire, Miu and the narrator were dreamy. Miu and Sumire were beings lived in a kind of dream. And, our life can’t be divided reality from dream by stories or a personal story.
pasta (13, p. 183) – On Murakami’s works, spaghetti is the ominous sign of chaos and confusion.
loneliness (14, p. 193, p. 196)
subtle emotional imbalance (15, p. 206) – This notion compared and identified Carrot with Sumire.
empty shell (16, p. 224) – Miu is also a being has no reality, existence or heart like Sputnik equal to Sumire.
Cultural Things on This Novel
Jack Kerouac (1, p. 5, p. 7) – Sumire’s Literary Idol. She always carried On the Road or Lonesome Traveler in her coat pocket.
twelve-cylinder navy-blue Jaguar (1, 16) – Miu’s car.
Naoya Shiga (1, p. 8)
the White Birch School (1, p. 8)
Beatnik (1, p. 8)
Gregory Peck in Spellbound (1, p. 10)
Schubert’s symphonies, Bach’s cantatas (1, p. 13)
Paul Nizan (1, p. 14)
Morzart’s song "Das Veilchen" (The Violet, Sumire) (1, pp. 19 – 20) – Sumire was named by the song. Sumire was shocked when she first read the lyric written by Goethe, the content is a little violet is trampled by a callous shred’s daughter. And her name is the only tangible thing left by her mother.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1, p. 19)
Walter Gieseking (1, p.19)
Astrud Gilberto’s old bossa nova song (2, p. 34)
Dance of the Blessed Spirits (2, p. 35)
Sanchiro by Soseki Natsume (4, p. 43)
Pushkin (5, p. 62)
red Toyota Celica (5, p. 66 ; 15, p. 210) – The lady friend’s car.
old black-and-white Jean-Luv Godard movie (5, p. 70)
Toyota Hi-Ace (5, p. 80) – Toyota’s minivan, is contrast to the lady friend’s Celica.
The Greatest Hits of Bobby Dain minus Mack the Knife (5, p. 71)
Groucho Marx (5, p. 73)
Luc Besson (6, p. 75)
blue Alfa Romeo (6, p. 78)
Martha Argerich playing Listz’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (6, p. 81)
Giuseppe Sinopoli (6, p. 81)
Vivaldi festival in Venice (6, p. 81)
Huey Lewis and the News (6, p. 86)
two Joseph Conrad novels (7, p. 90) – In A Wild Sheep Chase, Joseph Conrad novel is in a desk of the Rat. It may signify an omnious sign of Sumire.
old Peugeot sedan (7, p. 95)
Julius Kathchen’s recordings of Brahms’s ballads (9, p. 120)
Sam Peckinpah film The Wild Bunch (11, p. 148)
The Blue Danube Waltz (12, p. 162)
Mozart songs ; Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Walter Gieseking (p) (13, p. 183 ; 16, p. 222)
Ben Webster on the tenor sax (15, p. 199)
Mysteries (Riddles) & Questions
Why Sumire suddenly disappeared ? – Sumire and Miu were beings beyond this world. She lost anything by her mother’s death in the childhood. Also Miu lost her existence by “the Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel” (12). And, for Sumire, Miu was the only person who share with her loneliness and could keep alive her. Sumire want to have sexual relation with Miu, but she rejected. So “Blood must be shed” (10, p. 154), because Sumire’s story was rejected, then Sumire extinguished herself.
Sumire’s last phone call in chapter 16 is a dream or an actual event ? – By the effect of Carrot’s shop lifting in chapter 15 as a silly and stupid but real event in Tokyo, readers can’t comprehend the last phone call of Sumire is a real event or a dream.
Thought & Philosophy
The narrator’s literary and philosophical reflection (5) – In chapter 5, the narrator reflected on the self, his relationship to Sumire, the meaning of writing and the impossibility of literature. I feel common sense, universality and reason of Murakami by this notion, but I felt his disgusting usualness too.
somehitng out of an existential play (10, p. 136) – I think this novel is something existentialist novel of persons have no existences and realities, describes the absurdity and the crossings of humane love.
Writing and thinking for (of) Sumire (11) – For Sumire, writing is the way for thinking. And thinking is the method like phenomenology, existentialism, Hegelianism or Nishida philosophy, for living in this world.
Synopsis
Sumire is a close friend of mine. She dropped the university at her sophomore year to become a novelist. And she visited my apartment on weekends, she showed me her manuscripts. I love her, but she didn’t have love feeling for me. At a time, she came across a merchant lady Miu, she became an assistant of Miu, then Sumire couldn’t write a novel.
Miu and Sumire went to France and Italy on business, on their way home, they dropped in a Greek island as a vacation. At the Greek island, Sumire suddenly disappeared. I went to the Greek island requested by Miu, but we can’t find Sumire. A day, I found two texts in a floppy written by Sumire…
Timeline
Sumire born and raised in Chigasaki, Kanagawa. (1)
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Sumire’s mother passed away at 31 years old when Sumire was 6 years old. (1)
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2 years later, Sumire’s father remarried a woman. (1)
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After she graduated from a public high school in Kanagawa, she entered a little private college in Tokyo. (1)
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The narrator got to know Sumire at the collage. He was in love with Sumire but she wasn’t. (1)
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The narrator graduated the collage around the time sumire dropped out there to become a novelist. (1)
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On weekends, Sumire would visit narrator’s apartment to show her manuscripts the narrator. (1)
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Narrator told about the allegory of “Chinese gates”, then he and Sumire talked about “time and experience”. (1)
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After about a half a year later, in the spring of Sumire’s twenty-second year, Sumire and Miu first met at the wedding reception Sumire’s cousin, Sumire fell in love with Miu. And they talked about their circumstances, then Miu asked Sumire that she would work at her office. (1)
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Sumire and Miu had a dinner at Omote Sando, and they talked about Sumire’s backgound. (2)
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About two weeks after the wedding ceremony, at midnight (4:15 on Sunday) Sumire phoned the narrator and asked him about the difference between a sign and symbol. (2)
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The evening Sumire visited his apartment with an elegant outfit. (2)
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When Sumire visited Miu’s apartment, Miu showed Sumire gorgeous clothes of which Miu’s friend have more than enough. Because Miu got the clothes for Sumire to wear when she works, and Sumire shared shoes with Miu. (4)
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Sumire started working three days a week at Miu’s office. (4)
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At a midnight, Sumire phoned Narrator, and she talked about to stop smoking and writing. Then she said her novel-writing days are over and “I should shut the piano lid and come down the stage”. (4)
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Beginning of July, the narrator’s class went to mountain climbing in Okutama. (5)
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The next day, the narrator and Sumire at a café. They talked about Sumire’s defection by Miu, fictional framework and transmission. (5)
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Two weeks later, Sumire moved to an ordinary apartment of Yoyogi Uehara, and the narrator helped her. (5)
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Miu and Sumire tripped to Europe, and went around Italy and France on business. (6)
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The narrator suddenly got a letter from Roma, Italia by Sumire. (And Sumire wrote she will be back home around 15 August.) (6)
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They went to Venice to visit a Vivaldi festival in Venice. Then they returned to Milan and flew to Paris and Burgundy. (6)
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The second letter came from a obscure French village. And she wrote they changed their original plan to returning to Japan, and took a vacation in a Greek island. (6)
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In the village in Burgundy, Miu talked about her mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss , “The Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel”. (12)
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On the Greek island, Sumire wrote something on her PowerBook. (8)
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At the morning, four days after Sumire and Miu arrived the island, they spent the beach and talked about a report of a 70-years old lady in a small suburb of Athens and a Catholic old nun’s lecture and a pretty little six-month-old cat tortoiseshell cat leaped up a pine tree and vanished. (8)
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In the afternoon, at the cottage, Sumire so intently wrote Miu’s mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss on her laptop, and Miu listened to Brahms’s ballads. (9, 12)
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At the night, Miu’s bedroom, she found Sumire rolled up, head between legs, scrunched up and held a pink face facecloth in her mouth at the corner, she was stupefied. Miu cared Sumire on Miu’s bed and Sumire recovered. Then Sumire touched Miu’s body kissed her. But Miu refused Sumire’s act because she had lost anything of her heart 14 years ago, and Sumire sobbed into her pillow for a long time, then she went out the room. (9)
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Then Sumire disappeared. (7, 9)
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Next morning, Miu explained policeman who could speak English, but he paid no attention to the disappearance. (9)
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At 2 A.M., the day (before the new term at school began in ten days), the narrator coached a football practice and slept with his lady friend, he got Miu’s phone call from Greece. (6) And Miu asked him to come the Greek island as soon as possible. (7)
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The narrator prepared to trip to Greece and reflect the happening of Sumire. At first light he went to Narita. He went to Amsterdam by KLM, changed a plane and arrived Athens, then got on the 727 bound for Rhodes. Then he reached the island by a big ferry. (The eight days after Miu and Sumire had arrived the island.) (7)
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He looked and waited for Miu at a small café on harbour for a while. Then Miu appeared and she led him to taverna, and she didn’t talk about the “incident” of Sumire in detail while they eat dinner at a taverna. (7)
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Miu led the narrator to the cottage she and Sumire stayed. And he took a shower and shaved. (7)
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Miu explained the disappearance of Sumire to the narrator. Why they went to and stayed in the Greek island and how they spent their vacation in the island. (8)
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Miu left for Athens to explain about Sumire’s disappearance to the Japanese embassy and lead them to the island. (10)
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The narrator went to the beach Sumire and Miu had visited frequently, through the mountain of the island. (10)
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In the cottage, the narrator turned on Sumire’s Macintosh PowerBook and checked files in the hard drive, but there are documents related business only. Then he unlocked padlock of her suitcase by the telephone area code Kunitachi in which he lived, opened her suitcase, and found her diary and a floppy disk. (10)
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The narrator read two documents written by Sumire saved in the floppy disk. (11, 12)
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The narrator reflected that the two texts by Sumire and her disappearance at the café on the beach and in the cottage. (13)
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In the night, the narrator was awakened by loud live Greek music from the top of a mountain. He walked for the direction of the sound. On the top of the mountain, his body was bathed in the pallid moonlight, suffered awful chill, the unity of his body was collapsed and his cells rearranged. And he felt the shocking vision of the order of time and world was reversed, collapsed and stretched out endlessly. He became conscious, the music was over. He walked for the top and saw the coarse moon awfully near. (13)
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(…) (14)
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(…) (14)
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(…) (14)
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(…) (15)
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(…) (15)
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(…) (15)
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(…) (16)
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(…) (16)
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(…) (16)
Plots & Episodes (Plot & Episodes)
A. Sumire & Narrator
The narrator got to know Sumire at the collage. He was in love with Sumire but she wasn’t. (1)
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The narrator graduated the collage around the time Sumire dropped out there to become a novelist. (1)
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On weekends, Sumire would visit narrator’s to show her manuscripts for the narrator. (1)
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After two weeks after the wedding ceremony, at 4:15 AM, Sumire phoned the narrator and asked him about the difference between a symbol and sign. The evening Sumire visited his apartment with an elegant outfit. (2)
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At a midnight, Sumire phoned Narrator, and she talked about to stop smoking and writing. Then she said her novel-writing days are over and “I should shut the piano lid and come down the stage”. (4)
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Two weeks later, Sumire moved to an ordinary apartment of Yoyogi Uehara, and the narrator helped her. She said to him “I love you, next to Miu”, she leaned against his shoulder and held his hand. (5)
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The narrator suddenly got a letter from Roma, Italia by Sumire. (6)
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The second letter came from a obscure French village. (6)
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At 2 A.M. the (next) day, the narrator coached a football practice and slept with his lady friend, he got Miu’s phone call from Greece. (6)
(…) (16)
B. Sumire & Miu
In the spring of her twenty-second year, Sumire came across Miu at a wedding ceremony of Sumire’s cousin, and they talked about their circumstances, then Miu asked Sumire that she would work at her office. And Sumire fell in love with Miu. (1)
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Sumire and Miu had a sophisticated dinner at a restaurant on Omote Sando, and Miu officially requested to Sumire for work with her. (3)
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When Sumire visited Miu’s apartment, Miu showed Sumire gorgeous clothes of which Miu’s friend have more than enough. Because Miu got the clothes for Sumire to wear when she works, and Sumire shared shoes with Miu. (4)
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Sumire started working three days a week at Miu’s office. (4)
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A night, Sumire had a dinner with Miu. Miu said that she here now isn’t a real person and lost half of her fourteen years ago. (4)
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Miu and Sumire tripped to Europe, and went around Italy and France on business. (6)
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They went to Venice to visit a Vivaldi festival in Venice. Then they returned to Milan and flew to Paris and Burgundy. (6)
↓
They changed their original plan to returning to Japan, and took a vacation in a Greek island. (6)
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In the village in Burgundy, Miu talked about her mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss, “The Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel”. (12)
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On the Greek island, Sumire wrote something by her PowerBook. (8)
↓
At the morning, four days after Sumire and Miu arrived the island, they spent the beach and talked about a report of a 70-years old lady in a small suburb of Athens, a Catholic old nun’s lecture and a pretty little six-month-old cat tortoiseshell cat leaped up a pine tree and vanished. (8)
↓
In the afternoon, at the cottage, Sumire so intently wrote Miu’s mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss on her laptop, and Miu listened to Brahms’s ballads. (9, 12)
↓
At the night, Miu’s bedroom, she found Sumire rolled up, head between legs, scrunched up and held a pink face facecloth in her mouth at the corner, she was stupefied. Miu cared Sumire on Miu’s bed and Sumire recovered. Then Sumire touched Miu’s body kissed her. But Miu refused Sumire’s act because she had lost anything of her heart 14 years ago, and Sumire sobbed into her pillow for a long time, then she went out the room. (9)
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Sumire disappeared. (7, 9)
C. Narrator and Miu in a Greek Island
At 2 A.M. of a day, the narrator suddenly got Miu’s phone call from Greece. (6) And Miu asked him to come the Greek island as soon as possible. (7)
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The narrator prepared to trip to Greece and reflect the happening of Sumire. At first light he went to Narita. He went to Amsterdam by KLM, changed a plane and arrived Athens, then got on the 727 bound for Rhodes. Then he reached the island by a big ferry. (The eight days after Miu and Sumire had arrived the island.) (7)
↓
He looked and waited for Miu at a small café on harbour for a while. Then Miu appeared and she led him to taverna, and she didn’t talk about the “incident” of Sumire in detail while they eat dinner at a taverna. (7)
↓
Miu led the narrator to the cottage she and Sumire stayed. And he took a shower and shaved. (7)
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Miu explained the disappearance of Sumire to the narrator. Why they went to and stayed in the Greek island and how they spent their vacation in the island. (8)
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Then Miu talked about the occurrence of the night Sumire had vanished. (9)
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Miu took the narrator to the room Sumire had stayed. And the narrator stayed at the room. (9)
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Miu left for Athens to explain about Sumire’s disappearance to the Japanese embassy and lead them to the island. (10)
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(…) (14)
(…) (16)
a. Narrator’s love affair with eight years older woman in Kanazawa in his freshman year (4)
b. Narrator & his lady friend
The narrator and his lady friend met and slept with twice a month. (5)
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(…) (15, 16)
c. Miu’s strange experience at a small town in Switzerland near the French border (12) – “The Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel”
d. Narrator & Carrot
At a noon of the second Sunday after the new school term began in September, the lady friend phoned the narrator and requested to go to a supermarket in Tachikawa and to wear a suit. (15)
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(…) (15)
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(…) (15)
Important or Impressive Scenes & Descriptions
The narrator’s reflection on himself on the chapter 5 – I think it is Murakami literary and philosophical reflection and consideration to himself and writing novel.
The view of narrator and its reflection on the business lounge on Narita Air Port (7, pp. 92 – 93)
Sumire and Miu’s vacance on Greek island (8, pp. 109 – 111) – The description is beautiful. Miu said “There we were, sitting quietly on the edge of the world, and no one could see us. That’s the way it felt – like Sumire and I were only ones here.” (8, p. 111)
A report of a 70-years old lady in a small suburb of Athens, on an English newspaper (8, pp. 111 -112)
A Catholic old nun’s lecture (8, pp. 113 – 114)
Sumire’s reflection to self on “Document 1” (11) – The content is philosophical and literal reflections and confessions about herself, writing, thinking and understanding, dream in which she met her dead mother, and love for Miu.
“The Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel” (12) – Miu’s mysterious experience in a small town in Switzerland near the French border. When 25 years old, at a summer vacation, Miu stayed a small town in Switzerland, for doing business with a wine maker, though the business was simple and easy. She got acquaintance with a handsome Spanish man, Ferdinando at a café, bumped into him many times, and his presence caused her anxiety. One evening, after a dinner, she decided to enjoy the night air for a change, and went to a park with a Ferris wheel. She ride the Ferris wheel as a last ride of the day, but the attendant disappeared, she was shut in a car and the car stopped near the top. She watched her room of apartment by her binoculars and saw her doppelgänger lewdly made love with Ferdinando, then she lost consciousness and following memory. The next day Miu waked up at a hospital, and her hair became white. And she lost half of her, or real, living and sexual side of her. Then after the summer vacation, she didn’t returned the musical academy in France, she stopped playing and studying piano.
The narrator’s strange experience at the Greek mountain (13, pp. 184 – 188) – In a night, the narrator was awakened by loud live Greek music from the top of a mountain. He walked for the direction of the sound. On the top of the mountain, his body was bathed in the pallid moonlight, suffered awful chill, the unity of his body was collapsed and his cells rearranged. And he felt the shocking vision of the order of time and world was reversed, collapsed and stretched out endlessly. He became conscious, the music was over. He walked for the top and saw the coarse moon awfully near.
Comments & Remarks
- This novel is the story of Sumire. And the story of the relation and distance between the narrator and Sumire, Sumire and Miu, and the narrator and Miu. The story is description about Sumire by the narrator like Nick Carraway in The Great Gatzby, and Sumire narrated or told the story to the narrator. Sumire was an interface of the narrator, to see the world and to understand himself. And the narrator narrate the story is not a neutral and fair act. There’s choices, selections and interpretations by the narrator. (5, pp. 59 – 60, 63 – 64 ; 14, p. 193 – 194) I think the narrator is a reader interprets the story in the concept of death of the author by Roland Barthes.
- I think this novel resembles Murakami’s first romance Norwegian Wood very much. The relationship, the narrator-Sumire-Miu and Toru Watanabe-Naoko-Reiko is resemble. Also, positioning of characters, structure of story, last phone call, Reiko and Miu abandoned playing piano, Naoko and Sumire are the beings lost existences and emotionally unstable, they are resemble. I think Sputnik Sweetheart is the 90’s variation of Norwegian Wood that story is around 1969-1970. And the structure of many elements made the story and its content and meaning, then we have resemble feeling.
- But, the difference between Norwegian Wood and Sputnik Sweetheart is the former is tragic, humid and melancholic. Instead, the latter is light, dry and refreshing.
- The chapter 9 resembles the part of chapter 6 of Norwegian Wood, Toru Watanabe saw Naoko was beautifully lighten by moonlight.
- The sub theme of this novel is writing, writing novel and story, and what is the story and writing.
- Sumire wanted to write a novel and to be novelist, but she had no reality and existence, so by her fate she can’t complete a novel and must disappear in her youth. Also Naoko had no existence and suffered mental illnesses, so she can’t play music and must die in her youth.
- Sumire is a person has a fate that she can’t write and complete a novel like the Rat in the Adolescence Triology, because she has no genuine genius or talent.
- The ”Sputnik Sweetheart” is the secret nickname of Miu named by Sumire. So Sputnik Sweetheart is Miu, and Sputnik is Sumire.
- Sumire and Miu are beings like a satellite or Sputnik, lost existence, reality and lively feeling. Their hearts were shunted by shell and went away from others by centrifugal force.
- So, Sumire and Miu can’t express or perform true moving or emotion art expressions.
- In this novel, few times it mentioned the word “lesbian (love)”. But rather than it, I think this novel expresses women’s platonic love and intimate friendship, and people in today can’t fall in love seriously and passionately.
- The episode Sumire got and wears Miu’s friend’s clothes of which she have more than enough, resembles the episode of the wife of Tony Takitani.
- I think chapter 5 is Murakami’s literary and philosophical reflection on self and his thought of writing novels. And this novel is a reflection on himself through Sumire by the narrator or Murakami.
- Physicality and embodiment were a key of this novel, the narrator by Murakami plays a sport first time. Sumire and Miu are persons lost their physicality, so they can’t do and feel sexual love.
- The narrator’s experiences in the Greek island is a kind of dream. “I couldn’t separate the bounty between what was real and what only seemed real.” (10, p. 135)
- Carrot’s shoplifting is a real, foolish and tiny incident in Japan, contrast with dreamy and mysterious occurrences and the scene of the Greek island. And the occurrence of Carrot is contrasted and identified with one of Sumire. (15)
- By a real, ordinary and boring occurrence in Tokyo in chapter 15, we can’t comprehend the phone call by Sumire is real or dream. (15, 16)
Details of the Book
Sputnik Sweatheart
Haruki Murakami (Author), Philip Gabriel (Translator)
Vintage Publishing, London, United Kingdom, 3 October 2002
240 pages, £8.99
ISBN: 978-0099448471
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