Lovely Loners: Sputnik, mi amor (a.k.a Sputnik, sweetheart)

Hello lovely loners!

Luccia here, in this section we shall talk of random shenanigans, a.k.a books we like, mugs, teas, music selection, pets, personal problems, etc.

We open up this section with my review of Sputnik sweetheart, by writer Haruki Murakami.

Little disclaimer here: This review is barely based on my opinion of the book, I'm not an expert nor I intend to be.

This is my first time reading a Murakami's books and let me tell you folks, I was impressed and immediately captivated by the story. It is basically about un-required love (I think almost everybody can relate to that, right?) but also about exploring sexuality. The story goes somewhat like this: K is an elementary school teacher that is 25 year old and has nothing extraordinary about himself, except the fact that he's been deeply in love with Sumire, his best friend and aspiring writer that is not quite in touch with reality (she's not crazy, she just spend too much time wandering in her own mind), for quite a long time. You might think: Hey, the dude has a chance! Well, not quite, because it turns out Sumire is in love with another woman, called Myu, that is 17 years her senior and is married... and that's all I will tell you about the plot.

The way that Murakami writes is really non-pretentious, clear and quite relateable, although I must warn you, he does mix daily life events with magic realism and things can appear quite strange from one point on the story. Once things start getting weird the author incorporates deep metaphors in the characters dialogs that really makes you think and wonder about life's real meaning and why certain situations in your life were require to happen for you to become the person you are today. Not gonna lie, deep stuff here.

If you're on vacations and you're looking for a new book to read, this is definitely a good option. I give it 3 stars out of 5!