Murakami seems to have begun to come into his own (or at least discovered some new inspiration) after the publishing of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle . Both this and Wind-Up Bird were deeper, more fruitful reads than the book published immediately prior, South of the Border, West of the Sun —Which I would not recommend.
Sputnik Sweetheart has a more intriguing premise than most of Murakami's novels, which start off relatively uninspired and then careen between different, nonsensical-yet-intriguing vignettes. It also pleasingly abandons some of the more common tropes he had been relying on up until this point that have begun to grow tired to somebody like me who has read most of his stuff. There are no lost cats and no wells (though they're mentioned to cheesy effect to those of us who have read Murakami before), though jazz does make an appearance. Sumire is probably his best, most 'whole' female character yet, and his exploration of her sexuality feels genuine rather than the perverted musings of a horny old man (a common criticism of Murakami that I've never found accurate), and he avoids any cloying sentiment that often gets caught up in love-triangle-literature. It's also paced far better than South of the Border—which was a novel clocking in at a scant 200-pages that felt like it was twice that length due to its meandering melodrama and the monotonous time we were forced to spend in the protagonist's less-than-pleasing brainspace.
This paciness was helped by Murakami's strong scenario writing. Being stranded on the top of a stopped Ferris Wheel, for example, is such a viscerally terrifying experience, much like the well of Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. That said, you can still see the same tropes redressed in different clothing; though the Ferris Wheel incident is affecting, it serves little difference in the story as the well did in Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. So I do still sometimes have a difficult time putting up with Murakami's formulaic tendencies, but this book is well-executed enough that it's still worth reading.
Sputnik Sweetheart is as underrated a Murakami book as Dance Dance Dance , except you don't have to read three books before Sputnik for it to have its full impact, like you do with Dance since it's book #4 in a series.
I'm looking forward to getting into some of Murakami's most famous works—Kafka on the Shore and 1Q84—as my chronological read of Murakami's oeuvre continues.
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