About half an hour to the midnight of the new year 2023, I’ve finished reading “Sputnik Sweetheart”. In pure honesty, reading Haruki Murakami’s books is like daydreaming as Murakami has truly mastered the core of magical realism in literature. In this case, the Japanese author makes readers feel like they’re connecting with the hidden or forgotten pieces which they may have left in their previous dreams that they can find in the mystical part of the split-in-two world. Dreams and hope are similar things. They are both connected to possibility, and for that possibility to happen, you have to live mindfully and be in the present. This year, I want to focus on what the protagonist said about being mindful: “Not prejudging things, listening to what’s going on, keeping your ears, heart, and mind open.” That is what my definition for hope is like for 2023.
The story follows the life of K who tells us the story of Miu and Sumire’s developing relationship. The novel is written from a point of view of a person who’s in love with his best friend, who just happens to be Sumire. A love triangle begins in which all of the sides walk the path of finding their true identity, and as they do so, they trip against love and loneliness, all tangled together. The story starts quickening its pace when K has to rush from Tokyo to the little island where Sumire has suddenly disappeared into thin air when visiting with Miu. In the end, it seems that what he truly searches for isn’t Sumire but the answers to the following questions: “Who am I? What am I searching for? Where am I headed?”
There is one Japanese saying that reminds me of this book because it describes the path to finding the lost pieces of yourself, the path to finding who you are as an individual that sometimes crashes into loneliness. The proverb says you have three faces. The first face, you show to the world. The second face, you show to your close friends and your family. The third face, you never show to anyone. There are things that are locked inside us and only come out in our subconsciousness.
I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that I just happened to read “Sputnik Sweetheart” half an hour before the new year. I’m going into 2023 with a strong feeling of entering a journey of self-discovery. “I dream of my future […] becoming myself in truth” — it’s a line from a song by Men, which I believe sums up the core of the book perfectly. If you feel detached while reading this novel, just think that that’s exactly what Murakami would have wanted because that way you can put back the pieces of your missing self.
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