By: Shaun Tan Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Arthur A. Levine Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 128 Publication Date: October 01, 2007 Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Product Description: "A shockingly imaginative graphic novel that captures the sense of adventure and wonder that surrounds a new arrival on the shores of a shining new city. Wordless, but with perfect narrative flow, Tan gives us a story filled with cityscapes worthy of Winsor McCay." -- Jeff Smith, author of Bone
"A magical river of strangers and their stories!" -- Craig Thompson, author of Blankets
"Magnificent." -- David Small, Caldecott Medalist
In a heartbreaking parting, a man gives his wife and daughter a last kiss and boards a steamship to cross the ocean. He's embarking on the most painful yet important journey of his life - he's leaving home to build a better future for his family. Shaun Tan evokes universal aspects of an immigrant's experience through a singular work of the imagination. He does so using brilliantly clear and mesmerizing images. Because the main character can't communicate in words, the book forgoes them too. But while the reader experiences the main character's isolation, he also shares his ultimate joy.
Stranger in a Strange Land The thing I really like about graphic novels is that you can usually read them in less than an hour. There are notable exceptions, of course, such as Alan Moore's The Watchmen. But most of the time, they read fast. I finally gave The Arrival a viewing, and it's quite an intriguing read.
The problem with describing it is that it's wordless. Much of the content is up to the viewer. You can make a guess as to what is happening or what is represented. Then, in about a year, you could look at it again and have a new take.
From what I can tell, this is the story of an immigrant that comes to a new land. We don't know why, only that he decides to pack up his bags and travel to a new home. He leaves a spouse and a daughter behind with great sadness. You can tell this parting brings them all pain. You can tell because of the drawings Shaun Tan made. Each one is packed with emotional punch.
I can only assume the immigrant is coming to America, although you wouldn't know it at first glance. To give us a sense of what it must be like for an immigrant, Tan creates a world in which nothing makes sense. There are strange symbols, pets, and foods. As the people on the boat arrive at the dock, they don't see the Statue of Liberty. Instead, they see a statue of two men shaking hands. On their shoulders are two animals, and one man holds a fruit. This is Tan's stroke of genius. He allows us to feel what immigrants must feel when they enter a strange country. No words are readable; no speech can be understood. Every vision is unfamiliar and sometimes scary. The man must use crude drawings he makes to communicate his needs for shelter or food.
We follow this man around as he tries to make sense of his new home. The reader will have many questions. For instance, why are there dragon scales following the man as he leaves his home? Why does he see the creature that follows him around as an alien baby? Is this because to immigrants, dogs and cats would not be common pets? What are the spaceships flying around supposed to represent? Buses? Planes?
I suppose that Tan could be going for a non-literal translation. In other words, maybe every item viewed on the pages isn't supposed to represent a counterpart that would be identifiable in America. Maybe the spaceships just represent transportation, and the alien creature just represents another life form, rather than a literal dog or cat.
The drawings are certainly beautiful, and readers will enjoy following the man's story. This is recommended for all ages.
astonishing arrival This is a brilliant masterwork of ....what exactly?
Well, it's a graphic novel with the overwhelming force of franz Masereel's pioneering work 'The City'
But it's also evocative of great literature, like Kafka's introductory chapters of 'Amerika' and 'The Castle', or his short story, The Animal in the Synagogue, and the dazzling architectural fantasy of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities.
But it's also a dark fairy tale of uncertainty and catastrophe, survival and wonder, one that brings the ghastly sweep of the twentieth century into mythical focus. Yes, it's that good.
But it's also an amazing book for children on the verge of arriving into the strange world of adulthood.
But it's also a revelatory book for adults to come to terms with what they have wrought, look through the eyes of a visitor, like an innocent child, and arrive to a new conclusion about where they "fit".
But it's also a philosophic parable on the Lacanian sinthome, broken letters or words struggling to come into existence for the child/visitor/adult.
But it's also a silent film on paper, with a Buster Keaton hatted protagonist arriving into a new world.
But it's also a beautiful album of artwork, each page can stand independently as an image, or ensemble of images. So the narrative runs through each page, but the page does not depend on the next page to have meaning, beauty, and integrity.
But, because of these important aesthetic accomplishments, it's also more than the sum of its parts.
We have here a standard of art few have realized, a deeply empathetic and compassionate allegory of human being anyone on the planet can read and close their eyes when they close the book and know something beautiful has arrived.
Show, Don't Tell The number one rule for writers everywhere is "Show, don't tell," and Shaun Tan's lovely, fragile, evocative wordless picture book is the ultimate expression of that rule. In an era when even in the enlightened United States of America, immigrants tend to be mistrusted, this book serves as a powerful reminder that the immigrant experience is fundamental to our heritage. But it is far more universal than that--it captures the dreads and hopes of ANYONE seeking to make a new life for themselves ANYWHERE. The ways in which, not only through the main character, but through visual flashbacks from his new friends, we are shown symbolically the kinds of oppression that drive people from their homelands, are particularly striking, as are the tender ordinary moments such as the man's cherished memories of his wife and child, who have yet to join him.
This is a picture book for older children and adults--and why shouldn't they have something this strange and wonderful? Why should small children be the only recipients of an art form whose full potential may arguably be realized for the first time in an extraordinary work like The Arrival?
I bought this book, not only because it was well reviewed, but because I own and love Tan's book, The Red Tree. But this book takes Tan's artistry to a whole new level. I was moved in so many ways, I can't even begin to name them. I'm usually inclined to offer some kind of congratulations to the author or illustrator of a particularly fine work, but in this case, all I can say to Shaun Tan is "Thank you."
The best picture book you'll ever own This book has - no words - amazing pictures - emotional depth - magical settings - terrible monsters -
This is a book everyone can relate to - we've all felt like outsiders at some point in our lives. At 128 pages, it takes only 30 minutes to 'read' before you'll want to go over it again more slowly in detail.
It is the tale of a man leaving his family for a distant foreign land and facing all the strange things there, unable to speak the language, understand the food, the animals, the people, the rules.
Every time I've shown this book to friends, I've eventually had to prize it out of their hands as they pour over the detailed drawings, tears welling up at the beautiful story.
You'll never get tired of it.
Not Your Ordinary Picture Book This is NOT a little kid picture book as subject matter and the pictures won't make sense to you unless you're a bit worldly and know something about the HOT topic of immigration and immigrants. I would say, at least, a teenager or older. As you move through the pages, you become the immigrant trying to decipher the world of the exotic -- nothing looks like or sounds like or behaves like the familiar back home. How do you navigate this world when navigation is a MUST as conditions back home are unliveable and others are depending on you. Try it; you'll gain a new respect for what the newcomer is up against. Try it with your children or grandchildren. It was certainly a lesson in empathy for me.
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