Publisher's Weekly Review
Tsuge's quasi-autobiographical series of vignettes are a masterpiece of mundane struggle. This, his first full-length book to appear in English, was the last major work by Tsuge (b. 1937), who was influential in establishing a literary, alternative Manga scene before he retired from comics in 1986. The story is set in early-1980s Japan, as Tsuge's stand-in, Sukezo Sukegawa, attempts to make a living selling stones, used cameras, and other detritus instead of drawing comics (which is the only thing he's good at, at least according to his beleaguered wife). Sukegawa longs to disappear and is frustrated by a society obsessed with Western vulgarity and competitiveness. He can't escape the feeling of being a loser, and his wife berates him for losing more money on his business ventures than he brings in. Despite Sukegawa's frequently callous behavior toward his wife and his young son, it's his son who regularly brings Sukegawa back from the abyss, imploring him to come home when he strays. Tsuge's realistic manga carefully balances the beauty of the countryside with the family's shabby and desperate poverty. The book's tone is darkly satirical, and Tsuge makes Sukegawa the frequent butt of jokes. Every page feels lived and desperate, yet shot through with poetry, becoming a meditation on finding meaning in life despite trying circumstance. (Feb.)
Kirkus Review
This first English-language edition of a work by influential Japanese comic-book artist Tsuge follows an impoverished, embittered comic-book artist whose unconventional search for riches keeps him in league with schemers at the fringes of societymuch to his wife's angst and young son's distress.Whether it's selling stones he finds near his home, repairing and reselling cameras bought from a junk store, or even carrying people on his back across a shallow river, Sukez Sukegawa will do just about anything for moneyexcept create the comic books for which he has received critical acclaim. He pridefully resents the lack of money in comic books, though he fails to sell any stones either. Sukez's pursuits introduce him to shady characters, such as the alcoholic head of an "art stone" association and the man's libidinous wife, and to outsiders such as a homeless man whose uncanny connection to birds allows him to effortlessly gather exquisite specimens for sale. Though Sukez's wife resents his inability to make moneyand the costs associated with his offbeat vocationsSuzek provides for the family in his own, unbalanced way, as when he combines a stone-hunting trip to the countryside with a hiking trip for wife and son. The trip is a disaster: Sukez's asthmatic son melts down over the train schedule, fecal matter likely slips into the family's noodles, and the three of them lie by a river and wryly contemplate suicide. Tsuge's raw and profound work is equal parts pathos and poetry, streaked with irony and ribaldry. His lines are beautifully clean and wonderfully expressive, the pages sometimes presenting expertly cartoonish simplicity and other times almost photorealistic detail. Tsuge has a soft spot for outsiders yet is acutely aware of how they can end up dead in a field somewhere, covered in their own filth.Humanity stunningly observeda treasure. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Once an acclaimed cartoonist, Sukezo Sukesawa no longer finds any value in his own work and devotes himself to a series of largely misguided schemes in order to provide for his family. After some initial success selling restored antique cameras, he becomes interested in the aesthetics of stone appreciation, an art dating back to ancient Japan and still practiced by a small number of devotees, and begins hunting the river near his home for rare specimens he believes he'll be able to sell for a healthy profit. His wife's insistence that he's a lazy fool only grows after he takes her and their son to a stone auction where his samples are deemed worthless. VERDICT While the opening chapters deliver a portrait of an artist's ennui, later scenes depicting Sukesawa's interactions with the owner of a bird store and a bookseller in his village reveal that Tsgue's (Nejishiki) actual interest lies in a withering dissection of male entitlement in a rapidly changing society.
