Strengths and Weaknesses of Sputnik Sweetheart

Murakami has taken risks in writing this book, but I think they have paid off. His plot and the way in which he writes is more than a step off the ordinary, and his style doesn't warm to everyone.

I think one of the things Murakami is particularly good at is making the reader see things from a different perspective, in fact, this is what the book is all about. About half way into the book Murakami introduces the idea that a person can 'split' metaphorically,but explains it literally. Miu describes to Sumire of seeing another Miu in her hotel room from a Ferris wheel, and K describes Miu at the end when she has white hair (to symbol the other half of her) as "an empty shell." Here, Murakami is saying that we can lose a part of ourselves, and I think that by explaining this as though it happened literally was a clever thing to do because it allows the reader to work out what he the author is saying without being spoon fed, and adds depth to the idea as it allows Murakami to explore the analogy more elaborately, and gives him more artistic license.

However, this argument can be turned around and readers could believe that the surreal nature of the book is the very thing that ruins it. When I first read it, it was hard to see what point Murakami was trying to make, and I felt that literally splitting Sumire was a little too far fetched, and ruined the credibility of the book. If Murakami wanted to be poetic in the way he presented his idea about our ability to split ourselves, he needn't have been so crude as to write that Miu and Sumire physically separated themselves. The book looks on life very romantically, saying things like, "I loved the beautiful stillness of the songs, " and I don't think the metaphor of splitting physically fits in with the rest of the book.

Despite this, I still think that this book by Murakami is a success- I believe it will make a change from the usual standard of books that are around at the moment, and will broaden the minds of the English speaking population.

Review of Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea is a sensuous, fast paced, exotic novel based on the life of Bertha (Antoinette) before she was moved to England by Rochester. It is Antoinette's chance to tell her part of the story. The book tells us things straight and without unnecessary flamboyancy's, it is a book which opens up the whole new world of the Caribbean to the reader, who can immerse themselves in it wholeheartedly. This is absolutely not a book which can be described as tepid- the characters and the setting are passionate, strong, vibrant; which makes the read an exciting journey.

The novel is inevitably compared with Jane Eyre, and there are certainly links to be made between the lives of Jane and Antoinette, but the style in which they are written are like two sides of a coin. The fact is, Jean Rhys is writing of a wildly different culture to Britain, as she herself explores with the character of the very English Mr Rochester. In part II we watch as Rochester struggles to acclimatise to the vividness of the Caribbean, and then we see the clashes of the two cultures come to a head. If anything, this book highlights the incompatibility of Antoinette and Rochester, and tries to explain the reason why Antoinette went insane, and why she ended up under lock and key by Rochester in England. It is a book which won't let us just blame Antoinette for her insanity.

The book contains a whirlpool of emotions- passion, anger, regret, sorrow... the list goes on. Jean Rhys never explains them explicitly, she lets us as the readers feel and see them for ourselves, so on first reading it may seem strange that there are so little adjectives and paragraphs of description- but this is all part of Rhys' subtlety. Very much like the way of the Caribbean people, the face of the novel seems bland and ordered, but bubbling underneath is the fiery emotions which make the book the success that it is.