<DIV><DIV><B>A NEW COLECTION OF STORIES FROM THE FOREFATHER OF THE JAPANESE LITERARY COMICS MOVEMENT<BR></B><BR>In <I>Fallen Words</I>, Yoshihiro Tatsumi takes up the oral tradition of <I>rakugo </I>and breathes new life into it by shifting the format from spoken word to manga. Each of the eight stories in the collection is lifted from the Edo-era Japanese storytelling form. As Tatsumi notes in the afterword, the world of <I>rakugo</I>, filled with mystery, emotion, revenge, hope, and, of course, love, overlaps perfectly with the world of <I>Gekiga </I>that he has spent the better part of his life developing. <BR><BR>These slice-of-life stories resonate with modern readers thanks to their comedic elements and familiarity with human idiosyncrasies. In one, a father finds his son too bookish and arranges for two workers to take the young man to a brothel on the pretext of visiting a new shrine. In another particularly beloved <I>rakugo </I>tale, a married man falls in love with a prostitute. When his wife finds out, she is enraged and sets a curse on the other woman. The prostitute responds by cursing the wife, and the two escalate in a spiral of voodoo doll cursing. Soon both are dead, but even death can't extinguish their jealousy. <BR><BR>Tatsumi's love of wordplay shines through in the telling of these whimsical stories, and yet he still offers timeless insight into human nature.</DIV></DIV>