The Arrival
by Shaun Tan
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Book Reviews of The Arrival
Book Review: Beautiful, complex story
Summary: 5 Stars
I reached the last page of this wordless book wanting only to go back to the first page again. It leaves a warm whirl of different impressions, none in conflict with each other but never wholly fitting together, either.
The drawing itself leaves many of those impressions. These delicate monochrome images, possibly pencil drawings, range from sepia to cool grays. Their beautiful, literal style works equally well at showing the joy of a little girl or the confusion of immigration to an alien culture. Despite realism approaching photographic, Tan's fantasy world fills with strange beasts, impossible architecture, and foods almost too baffling to eat. Tan's invented written language clearly carries meaning, but meaning that the reader can not penetrate. Then, in another reversal back from fantasy to reality, it conveys the newcomer's new life in a new world with insight and sympathy. Tan's afterword says that this story derives from four years of research on the immigrant experience, research that paid off in every page and panel.
As you can see, the imagery and story tie inextricably into each other. That visual storytelling reaches its peak in nightmare metaphors of war - I won't even try to describe the emotional truth of those dark, impossible pictures. This ends on a high note, though, with the family reunited in their new land. I won't spoil it, but it brings a quote charmingly to life: "When you've reached the top, it's your responsibility to send the elevator back down."
-- wiredweird
Book Review: Perfect.
Summary: 5 Stars
Shaun Tan, The Arrival (Arthur A. Levine, 2007)
There's a single panel, towards the end of Chapter 2 of Shaun Tan's remarkable graphic novel The Arrival, that sums up a great deal of what you need to know about the book. Previously, a man has left his wife and daughter behind to emigrate to a new land, where everything is unfamiliar to him. When, despite the cultural and language barriers he faces, he manages to find lodging, he pulls out his suitcase and opens it. Instead of the things he packed, what we see is his wife and daughter, sitting and eating a meal alone in the house he used to share with them. Everything about the scene is rendered in exquisite detail, and it's a perfect synecdoche for Tan's approach to his material here; the fabulist attitude laced with a hefty dollop of surrealism, the feel of how it is to be a stranger in a strange land, and Tan's sure hand with his illustrations, right down to the way he gives us the kind of cracking you see on old photographs.
As our nameless protagonist journeys through the city, he meets other immigrants, and he assimilates culturally by listening to their own stories of what it was like to emigrate from their homelands to this wonderful city where all of them have ended up. Tan tells a universal-- clichéd, perhaps-- story in such a unique way that I would think it impossible not to be charmed. This is fine, fine work indeed, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. You need to read this book. *****
Book Review: The immigrant experience from the inside
Summary: 5 Stars
At some level, every book about immigrants lets you watch their story from the outside. After their arrival, they work hard to learn to cope in a world that the reader is already familiar with. In "The Arrival," however, Shaun Tan turns this view inside out. His immigrants travel to a land that is modeled on America, but is fabulously alien and incomprehensible. Weird statues jut out of the harbor. People speak in languages that cannot be understood. The alphabet is strange, the technology is miraculous, the architecture and clothing is otherworldly. Tan 's imaginary America is as wondrous, weird and terrifying as Oz on steroids. Tan tells the story without words, in the silent language of unshared language. His images are sepia-toned and sometimes cracked like photos pulled out of an old shoe box. His story-telling is sublime. He tells the story of a long ship passage by showing two pages of cloud pictures. His stories are poignant and frightening. His hero, a man who travels to America to prepare a place for his wife and daughter, flees in a dark Eastern-European world in which dragon tails (symbolizing tyranny or persecution) streak the sky. He meets other characters with tales as chilling as his own.
A fabulous book whose pantomime is easy to understand, and which allows native Americans to feel what it must be like to experience a telephone, subway, mailbox, pet dog, cucumber or hot shower for the first time.
Book Review: Definite Destination
Summary: 5 Stars
Stunningly illustrated I was awestruck by Tan's artistic ability. Immediately taken by the beauty of the story he'd presented I'd say my favorite pieces were those that showed the other-worldy almost ethereal feel of the locale. A land of sweeping loveliness the buildings and creatures that comprised it's inhabitants weren't to be feared but rather adored. Which is exactly what I did.
Not to be outdone, the story Tan wrote in accompaniment is wonderful as well. I could feel the emotions so clearly displayed on the young father's face. From the trepidation of leaving his family behind to the jubilation of their arrival to meet with him in a new land I felt every beat he did. Traveling from the safety and security of his home and family into the unknown abyss of a new life the loneliness jumped off the page as the man searched for a job and made new acquaintances.
Though I've not had much experience with this genre, I imagine that this is what any great graphic novel should do. Move the reader to feel and experience. If this is the case than Tan has certainly done so with The Arrival.
All in all, I'm excited to have been introduced to the world of graphic novels in such an exemplary way. I'm looking forward to not only reading more of Tan's work but also other authors as well. I would encourage all to pick up this wonderful book and place it out for everyone to see.
Book Review: Stunning, extraordinary, unique...
Summary: 5 Stars
As a librarian, I am familiar with the pros and cons of what is termed the 'graphic novel,' but to be honest have never seen such an argument for them. This book tells its tale entirely in pictures, no little 'bubbles' of thought to distract from its honest and beautiful theme...not that you need them. Its sepia-toned and varied artwork 'reads' almost like an old-fashioned film strip, the eye drawn from one to the next in a continuous story. I 'read' the story through in a few minutes, but there is so much gorgeous detail that I could spend a few minutes on each page. Each section feels like a separate work of art. Not to mention the extraordinary themes of sacrifices for love, overcoming the past, hope for the future, empathy with others, beauty in simplicity, and many many others. The perceptive reader will catch the references to the very real past of immigration and war among the fantastical, but even a younger reader may enjoy the story of the young man in a strange place, working to bring his family where there is still peace and beauty. This book shines like a jewel in a dark world. In my opinion, if there is any sense in the book-award-winning world, this will gain the shining accolades it well deserves. Buy it, read it, absorb it, read it again, and put its message into practice. The world will be a better place for the kindess of strangers.