The Arrival
by Shaun Tan
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Book Reviews of The Arrival
Book Review: The Joy of Graphic Reading
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Arrival" by Shaun Tan is perhaps the most unique and charming book to come along in years. The cover appears quaint and a bit battered; it seems to represent a long-ago era. Inside, the reader discovers what appear to be marvelous old time photographs; but no, closer scrutiny tells him these are graphic drawings. This is, in fact, a graphic novel with no words on the pages. The plot is told entirely in pictures.
Is it for children? Of course it is. It tells the story of a family moving to a new country where everything -- animals, plants, buildings, people -- are strange and exotic. The story and its method of telling intrigues adults as well. The tale comes alive as older readers take a chance, sort out the events of the story, and "translate" it into an adventure.
I have read "The Arrival" many times since I first discovered it. I find myself lingering over pictures and discovering new interpretations each time. I fondle the sepia pictures and resurrect people I knew long ago and those I have since met in each new country I have visited.
Shaun Tan, a self-taught artist and many times winner of book awards makes "The Arrival" a joy to explore.
The Arrival
Book Review: The plight of the immigrant in graphic novel form
Summary: 5 Stars
This book tells the story of a man who leaves his home and family and comes to start a new life for them all in an alien culture. Because The Arrival is a graphic novel that takes as it's setting an imaginary land with a unique language, the reader is able to enter the world as the protagonist does, completely at the mercy of the world he's trying to call home. The fine and suggestive illustrations allow the reader to experience the confusion, isolation, terror and wonder of this journey. This book helped me to appreciate the struggles my own ancestors, and everyone else in America's ancestors, must have faced in their passage of immigration. I also found a new compassion for those future citizens hoping to live within our borders, whose difficulties and challenges they must face daily. In California you meet so many different nationalities, so many people trying to make a new life for themselves and their families, and they're doing it for the most part with dignity and purpose, starting with the simple desire to begin again in a land of opportunity. The Arrival depicts this ambition with genuine sincerity and truth. I highly recommend it.Book Review: A Silent Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
If you want an example of pictures conveying more than words ever could, this book is the perfect example. This is an absolutely beautiful story, told not with words but a series of absolutely breathtaking, life-like black, white, and sepia pencil drawings. The story is about one of the thousands of immigrants coming to America in the early twentieth century, and the book tells his journey of traveling, saying good-bye to his family, getting accommodated in his new world, and learning to connect with people/find a job, etc. without speaking their native language.
When the main character arrives in the new world, everything is drawn in a magical, fantastical, yet almost-realistic-with-only-a-couple-of-variations-from-real-life fashion, and letters are drawn as obscure symbols. It gives you a real taste of what America must have looked like to the immigrants who came here so many years ago. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. The author noted in the back that it took four years to compete this book, and if you want an example of a quiet, simple masterpiece, look no further.
Book Review: Simply Wonderful!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was not sure what this book was when I decided to order it. It has quickly become one of my very favorite books ever. The pictures are beautifully rendered and the story is an 'every immigrants' story. The thing that sets this aside from the average telling of a story of immigration is that it happens in a world none of us knows. There are very subtle but important differences in landscape and neighborhoods as well as animals, architecture, language, clothing etc that make you realize that though the storyline, the people, the feelings and emotions are so very familiar you can't put a finger on where the people are all coming from or where it is they have arrived. And the beauty of it all is that this graphic novel is in pictures only... no words. It is a silent movie on paper. A book to take your time looking for all the large and small details to help tell the story. This book will remain with me for many years to come and surely be one I not only look at over and over again, but share over and over again.Book Review: powerful beyond words
Summary: 5 Stars
This is not your normal graphic work. It is told completely without words so the illustrations alone must carry it. Under any other artist the work might break, but Tan's illustrations are so real they appear to be photographs.
While the story maybe one as old as time, you still get swept away by the emotion and power of the illustrations. A father leaving behind his wife and son to head to a new world looking for work. And gradually settling in. You would think something like this would be difficult to tell without words, but Tan's illustrations make it clear the sorrow of parting, the scariness of making it to a new world and trying to fit in. Even more amazing is that the illustrations capture the difference of the father trying to understand the new world and interacting with the people in it to be able to find shelter, food, a job, or just someone to talk to. The illustrations capture with their detail and tell a powerful story without a single word.