PAST EVENT
Manga Historian and Translator Ryan Holmberg talks the trade at Bubbles Con in Richmond, VA
Saturday, May 4, 2024 to Saturday, May 4, 2024
09:30am
Talk to My Back
A celebrated masterwork shimmering with vulnerability from one of alt-manga's most important female artists.
"Now that we've woken from the dream, what are we going to do?" Chiharu thinks to herself, rubbing her husband's head affectionately.
Set in an apartment complex on the outskirts of Tokyo, Murasaki Yamada's Talk to My Back (1981-84) explores the fraying of Japan's suburban middle-class dreams through a woman's relationship with her two daughters as they mature and assert their independence, and with her husband, who works late and sees his wife as little more than a domestic servant.
While engaging frankly with the compromises of marriage and motherhood, Yamada remains generous with the characters who fetter her protagonist. When her husband has an affair, Chiharu feels that she, too, has broken the marital contract by straying from the template of the happy housewife. Yamada saves her harshest criticisms for society at large, particularly its false promises of eternal satisfaction within the nuclear family - as fears of having been "thrown away inside that empty vessel called the household" gnaw at Chiharu's soul.
Yamada was the first cartoonist in Japan to use the expressive freedoms of alt-manga to address domesticity and womanhood in a realistic, critical, and sustained way. A watershed work of literary manga, Talk to My Back was serialized in the influential magazine Garo in the early 1980s, and is translated by Eisner-nominated Ryan Holmberg.
"Now that we've woken from the dream, what are we going to do?" Chiharu thinks to herself, rubbing her husband's head affectionately.
Set in an apartment complex on the outskirts of Tokyo, Murasaki Yamada's Talk to My Back (1981-84) explores the fraying of Japan's suburban middle-class dreams through a woman's relationship with her two daughters as they mature and assert their independence, and with her husband, who works late and sees his wife as little more than a domestic servant.
While engaging frankly with the compromises of marriage and motherhood, Yamada remains generous with the characters who fetter her protagonist. When her husband has an affair, Chiharu feels that she, too, has broken the marital contract by straying from the template of the happy housewife. Yamada saves her harshest criticisms for society at large, particularly its false promises of eternal satisfaction within the nuclear family - as fears of having been "thrown away inside that empty vessel called the household" gnaw at Chiharu's soul.
Yamada was the first cartoonist in Japan to use the expressive freedoms of alt-manga to address domesticity and womanhood in a realistic, critical, and sustained way. A watershed work of literary manga, Talk to My Back was serialized in the influential magazine Garo in the early 1980s, and is translated by Eisner-nominated Ryan Holmberg.
$29.95
In stock
Globe and Mail Top 5 Graphic Novels of 2022, Guardian Best Graphic Novels of 2022
"This early feminist manga follows a suburban Tokyo woman as she navigates her relationship with an emotionally distant husband, her two maturing daughters and the fear of having been 'thrown away inside that empty vessel called the household.'" — The New York Times
"This groundbreaking alternative manga moves with a spare poetry through daily routines and moments of solitude as a woman wrangles her children, chafes at the limitations of the housewife’s role and wonders where half her life has gone." — Guardian Best Graphic Novels of 2022
"Serialized in 1980s Japan, Yamada’s hushed vignettes about Chiharu’s home life – raising her daughters, enduring her husband’s casual disrespect, finding independence through work of her own – stood out in a male-oriented publishing landscape. Their measured, patient pace, and their steady attention to domestic detail, continue to be rare in comics today." — Globe and Mail Top 5 Graphic Novels of 2022
“The first English translation of these subtle stories of self-worth and domestic frustration is a revelation.” — The Guardian
"[Murasaki's] pioneering manga—mostly black-and-white and strikingly expressive—was some of the first to realistically confront the difficulties of womanhood, a feat for which she deserves wider, greater recognition." — Booklist, Starred Review
"Murasaki Yamada was one of the most acclaimed and groundbreaking women working in manga. Talk to my Back, serialized between 1981 and 1984, challenged domesticity, patriarchy and women’s roles in Japanese society." — Ms. Magazine
"Hauntingly genuine art." — BlogCritics
"Yamada’s housewife reminds us that a better future is possible, that even under the crushing weight of patriarchy, capital, everything that makes people casually inhuman to one another, a woman’s small hope just to be herself resounds and will always be beautiful - beautiful enough to love." — The Comics Journal
"This manga is unquestionably art from start to finish. It uses the medium to convey so much longing and resentment. It tackles topics that are distinctly adult, with sincerity and deftness." — Manga Librarian
"Defying conventions expected still by many manga fans, this will appeal best to manga-curious indie comics readers, especially fans of comics parenting chronicles by the likes of Keiler Roberts or Glynnis Fawkes." — Publishers Weekly
"To talk of feminism was difficult because it was a topic treated with much wariness, so for Murasaki to focus on a housewife’s depression, her reaction to infidelity, and her ambivalence about children was a ground-breaking act of artistic independence." — Broken Frontier
"This early feminist manga follows a suburban Tokyo woman as she navigates her relationship with an emotionally distant husband, her two maturing daughters and the fear of having been 'thrown away inside that empty vessel called the household.'" — The New York Times
"This groundbreaking alternative manga moves with a spare poetry through daily routines and moments of solitude as a woman wrangles her children, chafes at the limitations of the housewife’s role and wonders where half her life has gone." — Guardian Best Graphic Novels of 2022
"Serialized in 1980s Japan, Yamada’s hushed vignettes about Chiharu’s home life – raising her daughters, enduring her husband’s casual disrespect, finding independence through work of her own – stood out in a male-oriented publishing landscape. Their measured, patient pace, and their steady attention to domestic detail, continue to be rare in comics today." — Globe and Mail Top 5 Graphic Novels of 2022
“The first English translation of these subtle stories of self-worth and domestic frustration is a revelation.” — The Guardian
"[Murasaki's] pioneering manga—mostly black-and-white and strikingly expressive—was some of the first to realistically confront the difficulties of womanhood, a feat for which she deserves wider, greater recognition." — Booklist, Starred Review
"Murasaki Yamada was one of the most acclaimed and groundbreaking women working in manga. Talk to my Back, serialized between 1981 and 1984, challenged domesticity, patriarchy and women’s roles in Japanese society." — Ms. Magazine
"Hauntingly genuine art." — BlogCritics
"Yamada’s housewife reminds us that a better future is possible, that even under the crushing weight of patriarchy, capital, everything that makes people casually inhuman to one another, a woman’s small hope just to be herself resounds and will always be beautiful - beautiful enough to love." — The Comics Journal
"This manga is unquestionably art from start to finish. It uses the medium to convey so much longing and resentment. It tackles topics that are distinctly adult, with sincerity and deftness." — Manga Librarian
"Defying conventions expected still by many manga fans, this will appeal best to manga-curious indie comics readers, especially fans of comics parenting chronicles by the likes of Keiler Roberts or Glynnis Fawkes." — Publishers Weekly
"To talk of feminism was difficult because it was a topic treated with much wariness, so for Murasaki to focus on a housewife’s depression, her reaction to infidelity, and her ambivalence about children was a ground-breaking act of artistic independence." — Broken Frontier
ISBN : 9781770465633
Binding : Paperback
Pages : 384
Trim Size : 6.1 x 8.4
Color : Black-and-white illustrations throughout
July 12, 2023
Rachel León writes about how Talk to My Back helped her
She was, of course, right. Luckily, I no longer considered being a school counselor my dream job. Dreams change. We g...
September 21, 2022
Talk to My Back included in The New York Times ‘Newly Published’ column!
TALK TO MY BACK, by Yamada Murasaki. Translated by Ryan Holmberg. (Drawn & Quarterly, paper, $29. 95. ) The first...
August 4, 2022
Talk to My Back reviewed by Broken Frontier!
In 2017, Martine van Elk, professor of English at California State University, published a comparative study of early mo...
July 26, 2022
TCJ reviews Talk to My Back!
Talk To My Back is a collection of short comics exploring the bitter, solitary struggles of a lonely person. This subj...
July 15, 2022
Manga Librarian reviews Talk to My Back
This is a quiet and beautiful manga about what it means to be a mother and a wife. A gentle yet simmering contemplation...
July 12, 2022
Blogcritics reviews Talk to My Back
Talk to My Back by Yamada Murasaki and translated by Ryan Holmberg, published by Drawn and Quarterly, is a collection ...
July 1, 2022
Talk to My Back reviewed in Publishers Weekly
Alt-manga pioneer Yamada’s nuanced depictions of marriage and family life make their English-language debut in this pe...
June 20, 2022
The Guardian reviews Talk to My Back
How to describe Talk to My Back, a classic collection of graphic stories by alt-manga’s feminist star, Yamada Murasaki...