Sputnik Sweetheart- The strengths and weaknesses
Sputnik Sweetheart: Captivating, exhilarating and surprisingly readable. This post-modern novel is filled with cleverly thought out questions and elements of the surreal. This Japanese translated novel is full of great strengths which help to make it such a readable book. The use of metaphors throughout are particularly strong as the reader is able to get a deeper, more meaningful insight into the story, they also lend the novel a rather poetic twist. The plot itself is both fascinating and capricious; it keeps the reader guessing through the duration of the story. An added strength is the narrative voice. Seeing the book in the main from K’s point of view is most interesting because he is a relatable character and we are able to see how the relationship between himself and Sumire grows. Another strength of the novel in my opinion is the way the sentences are formed and structured. The varied sentence structure conveys the rhythms of real speech, how it would be spoken in real life, thus again proving the novel to be relatable. The most obvious strength is the surreal labyrinth which is created along with a unique sense of authorial freedom. Combined, the two give the book an overall sense of the unknown, which leaves the reader feeling much more satisfied than if they were being spoon-fed the entire story.
Nevertheless, whilst the novel has much strength it also carries a number of weaknesses. Some people may not enjoy the way that, as the reader you are left to come to your own conclusions. We make our own judgements concerning the characters and the story as a whole. Consequently the real essence of the story may be lost during the translation of the novel from Japanese to English.
Sputnik Sweetheart: Captivating, exhilarating and surprisingly readable. This post-modern novel is filled with cleverly thought out questions and elements of the surreal. This Japanese translated novel is full of great strengths which help to make it such a readable book. The use of metaphors throughout are particularly strong as the reader is able to get a deeper, more meaningful insight into the story, they also lend the novel a rather poetic twist. The plot itself is both fascinating and capricious; it keeps the reader guessing through the duration of the story. An added strength is the narrative voice. Seeing the book in the main from K’s point of view is most interesting because he is a relatable character and we are able to see how the relationship between himself and Sumire grows. Another strength of the novel in my opinion is the way the sentences are formed and structured. The varied sentence structure conveys the rhythms of real speech, how it would be spoken in real life, thus again proving the novel to be relatable. The most obvious strength is the surreal labyrinth which is created along with a unique sense of authorial freedom. Combined, the two give the book an overall sense of the unknown, which leaves the reader feeling much more satisfied than if they were being spoon-fed the entire story.
Nevertheless, whilst the novel has much strength it also carries a number of weaknesses. Some people may not enjoy the way that, as the reader you are left to come to your own conclusions. We make our own judgements concerning the characters and the story as a whole. Consequently the real essence of the story may be lost during the translation of the novel from Japanese to English.
5 comments:
Is the surreal, poetic nature of the book its most striking quality? I agree that it is a strength but could it put people off too?
Your comment about a surreal labyrinth together with authorial freedom is interesting. Is this the hallmark of a post-modern novel? What is the freedom Murakami gains here? Can you explain?
I think that the surrealness is definetly the most important strength of the novel. Because I think that within the surreality is the real emotion. The philosophical musings are entwined within the surrealism, that is where the true meaning of the book lies.
Yes- the surreal-ness is an important part of the book, I think it could be the whole point of writing it; maybe Murakami wrote it as he did to explore how far he could take metaphors, and to see how well he can explain real life with them, I suppose as a sort of experiment.
the surrealism of the book is definately a plus - otherwise it might be classed as an "average novel" and we dont want that.
and i agree with megan, perhaps this book could be called a literary experiment due to its bizarre yet attractive nature.
I'm not sure I agree that Murakami was experimenting, because he's written others previous to this which are said to be just as surreal. However it is true that surrealism is key to the book.
Oh and Katey...perhaps I'm going to sound stupid, but I've never come across the word Capricious? What does it mean?
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