Yoshihiro Tatsumi
The Push Man (1969)
Author: Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Genre: Manga (Gekiga)
Plot Summary:
Originally published in 1969, Tatsumi’s The Push Man is a collection of short stories focusing on the everyday lives of the Japanese working class. The content of the stories is broad, ranging from the mundane details of daily life to moments of sexual perversion and violence. Also implicit in each of the stories are similar themes of isolation, jealousy, and betrayal. In one story, a sewer main cleaner insists that his pregnant girlfriend get an abortion and is not confronted with the enormity of the decision until he goes to work and must extract the aborted fetus from the plugged sewer line. Another man secretly dresses up in his girlfriend’s clothes and makeup and then has an affair with another woman. In a third story, a man discovers that the woman he wants to steal from his friend is a bedridden sex slave. SPOILER:Although this is a collection of stand-alone stories, the themes are all quite similar. In addition, the male protagonists in each story, while different, appear strikingly similar and also help to give the work cohesion and flow. All of Tatsumi’s stories contain some aspect of sexual perversion and each story ends tragically.
Geographical Setting: Tokyo, Japan
Time Period: 1960s
Series: Volume one of the selected works by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, published by Drawn and Quarterly
Appeal Characteristics:
Readers will find that one of The Push Man’s most compelling elements is its story line. Scenes realistically capture the day-to-day experiences of the Japanese working class at work in the factory, the car garage, and in the sewer lines. These ordinary moments are also interspersed with explicit sexual and violent content, including suicide, murder, attempted rape, and the loss of limbs from work accidents. The tone of the work is urban and gritty. The stories are set in Tokyo and characters are often seen walking through cluttered, narrow streets or in large crowds. These scenes also help to create a sense of melancholy and isolation that is prevalent throughout the work. One Tatsumi character perfectly articulates the recurring theme of isolation in the story, “The Burden,” when he comments to himself, “To survive in the crowd, you have to struggle alone.” The stories in The Push Man are short in length and don’t allow for much character development, however, the characters are realistically portrayed. As the stories delve into the working class experience, the reader begins to understand the character’s motivations and sexual and violent reactions. The short length of the stories also lends itself well to a quick pace and a direct, storytelling style. Dialogue is short and sparse and is sometimes left out entirely to let the images tell the story. The artwork also exemplifies the gritty setting, melancholy tone, and the realistic style. The images are drawn simply and in stark black and white and depict realistic scenes trash-cluttered alley ways and lifelike characters, some of which are shown wrinkled or balding.
Read-alikes: Those who enjoy short, fast-paced stories in a gritty, urban setting might also enjoy the next volume of Tatsumi’s work, Abandon the Old in Tokyo. Much like the first volume, this work also contains similar slice-of-life portrayals of Japanese laborers. Readers who enjoy Tatsumi’s direct writing style and his spare black and white artwork might enjoy Screw-Style, by Yoshiharu Tsuge. Seeking treatment from a jellyfish sting, a young man’s wound is fitted with a mechanical screw by a woman gynecologist with whom the man becomes sexually involved. Those who like Tatsumi’s focus on realistic, working class characters and a gritty and melancholy tone may enjoy American Splendor, by Harvey Pekar. In the book, Pekar describes his day-to-day experiences working as a file clerk in Cleveland, Ohio. Readers who enjoy simple and unassuming black and white artwork and characters dealing with real-life issues of work and love may enjoy Sleepwalk: and Other Stories, by Adrian Tomine. This work is a collection of short stories with a twenty-something male protagonist who is struggling with the day-to-day aspects of life. Those who like The Push Man’s storytelling style and his simplistic and spare artwork might try Buddha: Volume 1, by Osamu Tezuka, one of Tatsumi's early mentors. This historical work is based on the allegorical novel of Siddhartha who lived during the time of Buddha.
Red Flags: Explicit sex scenes; suicide; depictions of physical violence including attempted rape, mangled limbs in machinery, and suffocation; abortion; infidelity; strong language
|top|
|
