{"product_id":"a-single-match","title":"A Single Match","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA new author in D+Q's acclaimed \u003ci\u003egekiga\u003c\/i\u003e line\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this collection of hauntingly elliptical short stories, Oji Suzuki explores memory, relationships, and loss with a loose narrative style, filling each tale with a sense of unfulfilled longing. He plumbs the dissolute depths of human psychology, literally bathing his characters in expansive shadows that paradoxically reveal as much as they obscure. A young man catches a cold after being soaked in the rain and is tended to by his grandmother. He drifts, dreaming of a train trip with an older brother he doesn't have. A traveling salesman comes across a boy lying in the middle of the road and stops to have a cigarette and tell a story that sifts through memories of faces and places before settling back on the boy and pretending to not look at the stars. A young woman walks along the river with her bicycle and a friend who is nothing more than a disembodied head--discussing past times together, memories they have of each other. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAlthough he touches on many of the same themes as his contemporaries in the field of postwar alternative manga--Yoshihiro Tsuge (\u003ci\u003eL'Homme Sans Talent\u003c\/i\u003e) and Seiichi Hayashi (\u003ci\u003eRed Coloured Elegy\u003c\/i\u003e)--Suzuki uses an ever shifting narrative approach and dashes of surrealist humor to distinguish his work from that of his peers.","brand":"Drawn \u0026 Quarterly","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":62085050106226,"sku":"BS-R4W-460096","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/2972\/2226\/files\/9781770460096-HD.jpg?v=1784504686","url":"https:\/\/www.novelpanel.com\/products\/a-single-match","provider":"Novel Panel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}