Talk to My Back
Talk to My Back by Yamada Murasaki, published by Drawn & Quarterly Publications on July 12, 2022, is a significant work in the realm of literary manga. This edition spans 342 pages and is presented in English. The narrative unfolds in an apartment complex on the outskirts of Tokyo, focusing on the complexities of a woman’s relationships with her two daughters and her husband, who views her primarily as a domestic figure. Through this lens, the book examines the disintegration of suburban middle-class aspirations and the realities of marriage and motherhood.
Readers will find a candid exploration of personal and societal expectations as the protagonist, Chiharu, navigates her evolving identity amidst familial pressures. The story delves into themes of independence, infidelity, and the constraints of domestic life, revealing the emotional turmoil that arises from societal norms. Yamada’s work is noted for its critical perspective on the nuclear family and the compromises inherent in traditional roles. As a pioneering figure in alt-manga, Yamada’s storytelling offers a profound commentary on womanhood and domesticity, making Talk to My Back a noteworthy addition to the graphic novel genre.
Official synopsis Publisher
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.
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