Word: sputnik
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Though it briefly seemed that the days of Sputnik had returned, Americans can stop worrying that Russia is winning the race to put boy bands in space. Early last week 'N Sync's LANCE BASS reported that he was negotiating to visit the International Space Station aboard a Russian rocket, an idea hatched by the Amsterdam-based MirCorp. When MirCorp approached Bass, he enthusiastically embraced the proposal, issuing a statement saying he was "looking forward to completing this lifelong dream." But by week's end the Russian space agency said it was not MirCorp's prerogative to book passengers aboard...
...magic realism, but is a much tamer and less venturesome writer. But novels such as Dance Dance Dance and Norwegian Wood have been runaway best sellers, racking up sales in the millions, and his short stories have been published in prestigious American magazines such as The New Yorker. However, Sputnik Sweetheart (Kodansha International; 210 pages), the latest shot out of the Murakami cannon, sadly promises more than it can deliver and proves...
...Sputnik in the title is derived from a character who confuses it with novelist Jack Kerouac (a beatnik), a hero of the heroine who turns out to be quite spacey herself; a pun is also intended since sputnik in Russian means "fellow traveler." Sumire, a compulsive wanna-be writer, is loved by a young male teacher but she herself has an unrequited crush on an older woman. On a trip to a Greek island with her "girlfriend," the sapphic Sumire disappears "just like smoke." And what has started out as a boy-loves-girl-loves-girl love story winds...
...more famous writers, and has been called that country’s most likely candidate for a Nobel prize in literature. He has a good number of novels (including The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Dance Dance Dance and Norwegian Wood) and short story collections in English translation. Sputnik Sweetheart, translated by Philip Gabriel, is the latest effort in a long line of fun and outlandish tales featuring desperate quests and characters that could easily...
Murakami’s work skillfully avoides the standard literary categories and tired non-plots that plague so many other contemporary writers. Sputnik Sweetheart tells the story of a student in love with a woman in love with another woman, all against the backdrop of the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of the Sputnik satellite. Don’t worry, it’s more bizarre and wonderful than it sounds, and the adventure leads us from Japan to Europe to the coast of Greece and then to the satellite itself. You need to be somewhat cool...