Sputnik sweetheart is a good novel with many strenghts, as with all novels though, it also has weaknesses. For me, i think the biggest strength of the novel is the length of it. I enjoy books that are concise without being too short, i think that a good novel should not be too long and ramble on and not too short and leave too much unsaid. In my opinion, sputnik sweetheart has the perfect balance. It is short enough not to drag on but it covers evrything important. Murakami does leave some things left unsaid and leaves the reader to answer a few questions by themselves but I do not think that he left too much unsaid. Another strenght of the novel was the way in which Murakami presents his characters. I felft like i new K and sumire well and I think hat it is important for readers to feel this way about characters as if the characters are too mysterious or under-described (if that is even a word) the reader cannot get into the book.
The biggest weakness of the novel, i found, was the lesbian references. I found some of the scenes too explicit (for example the ferris wheel bit).It seemed at times that murakami only wrote theses scence because he was feeling aroused at the time. ( i dont mean to be rude here by the way) it just seemed to me that certain scenes were inappropriate and too explicit. Another weakness in the novel was the translation. Im not trying to say that the translation was bad but i feel that if the book was initially written in english, it would maybe have been even better. The translation isnt really a weakness i suppose but it is only a small factor that, if it had not had to be translated, would have further improved the novel.
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5 comments:
I agree with you about the lenmgth of the book, it doesn't have any unecessary bits in it. I also agree with the Trabnslator point and the explicitness comeents.
is cammy alright? her typing seems to be a bit off....
anyway, i personally felt the explicit sections were to shock us as readers in the same way they shocked the characters i.e. ferris wheel - miu's shock = our shock. helps us to empathise witht he characters?
I like the length of the book too- and i like that you say that it is a positive thing that he leaves things unsaid- making the reader draw their own conclusions. do you like that or not? I didn't find the scenes too explicit(although I am pretty hardcore.)
Just wondering like Lyn really did you actually like the book then? And how come the Lesbian scenes etcetera affected you?
i think that you are right with the point you made about a good amount of things being left unsaid. it provides us with a greater reader involvement
Dan makes a good point about shock helping us to emphasise with the characters, this is something that murakami shows a strength in, paticularly through the way we are able to view the characters through k's narration. i think that the 'explicit' scenes you are discussing make the book more interesting, because its something you probably weren't expecting and i think the factor of the unknown is what can make or break a book!!
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