Deeply considered and information rich, a useful, fascinating work of comics history.
Digging into a popular medium’s roots.
Manga, in its current form, is inextricably linked to Japan’s cultural profile and exercises aesthetic influence on cartooning trends worldwide. But Japanese cartooning—manga as a medium—has always been at once a reflection of and a testing ground for cultural conventions, as well as a canvas for creative experimentation. Horbinski’s adaptation of her doctoral dissertation considers manga’s development through five eras, exploring publishing practices, the expansion of fan culture, and the development of gender- and age-segregated genre trends. Some manga histories begin with the classical ukiyo-e (woodblock print) tradition, and others lean in on Osamu Tezuka’s copious midcentury output, but Horbinski begins her study with Kitazawa Rakuten’s deliberate reimagining of Western-style political cartoons introduced to Japan during the Meiji era (1868-1912). Next, the book considers comics as a locus of cultural cohesion and dissent during the Japanese government’s power consolidation approaching World War II. After the war, capitalism drove culture, and manga sold widely and well and was consumed ravenously, causing many artists to put in long hours for low pay in response to public demand. The 1960s and ’70s saw genres splintering and narrative experimentation broadening, with impressively varied results. Even Tezuka, midcentury manga’s standard-bearer, formed an avant-garde magazine for aspiring artists—understanding that manga must respond to its moment. Finally, the author arrives at century’s end, wherein manga commingled content and themes with anime and video games. What’s truly impressive about Horbinski’s project is that she returns, insistently, in every decade, to the many layers of historical precedent for manga’s marvelously multifaceted nature. What might appear uniform or formulaic to the untrained eye is instead, by Horbinski’s excellent estimation, a priceless, powerful record of Japan’s modern cultural development.
Deeply considered and information rich, a useful, fascinating work of comics history.Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9780520403994
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Univ. of California
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.
Portraits in a post-pandemic world.
After the Covid-19 lockdowns left New York City’s streets empty, many claimed that the city was “gone forever.” It was those words that inspired Stanton, whose previous collections include Humans of New York (2013), Humans of New York: Stories (2015), and Humans (2020), to return to the well once more for a new love letter to the city’s humanity and diversity. Beautifully laid out in hardcover with crisp, bright images, each portrait of a New Yorker is accompanied by sparse but potent quotes from Stanton’s interviews with his subjects. Early in the book, the author sequences three portraits—a couple laughing, then looking serious, then the woman with tears in her eyes—as they recount the arc of their relationship, transforming each emotional beat of their story into an affecting visual narrative. In another, an unhoused man sits on the street, his husky eating out of his hand. The caption: “I’m a late bloomer.” Though the pandemic isn’t mentioned often, Stanton focuses much of the book on optimistic stories of the post-pandemic era. Among the most notable profiles is Myles Smutney, founder of the Free Store Project, whose story of reclaiming boarded‑up buildings during the lockdowns speaks to the city’s resilience. In reusing the same formula from his previous books, the author confirms his thesis: New York isn’t going anywhere. As he writes in his lyrical prologue, “Just as one might dive among coral reefs to marvel at nature, one can come to New York City to marvel at humanity.” The book’s optimism paints New York as a city where diverse lives converge in moments of beauty, joy, and collective hope.
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781250277589
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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