The Arrival

Shaun Tan's "The Arrival" is an enormously engaging book that captures solely through illustration, the pathos, despair, joy, longing and tenderness of leaving one's country and family to come to a new land. In this new land of fantasy architecture, peculiar pets and wonderfully bizarre foods, the protagonist discovers many friends who give him comfort and share their knowledge with him. In an underlying theme, the reader experiences the tension of political upheaval and conflict through Tan's evocative presentation of chaos, war and armies on the march. Especially to be treasured and pondered over are the wonderfully drawn, ethnically diverse faces that the artist portrays on the book's endpapers. Even traversing the surreal landscape and environment Tan creates, it is easy to feel that is as familiar as a dream.,

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

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R6E48L5RFAURT A truly astonishing wordless artistic work from Australian Shaun Tan. A universal migrants' story described using archetypal imagery and symbolism. A 'Salvador Daliesque' deliciousness of a book- stunning. If a picture is worth a thousand words then Shaun Tans book with 700 plus pictures is an art gallery that speaks volumes.

I'm an 8th grade history teacher and I look forward to using the beautiful imagery of this book in my lessons on immigration in early America. This book was recommended by my professor and she was spot on.

I found out about this marvelous book through Neil Gaiman's Journal. The Arrival was my first graphic novel and I was awed by the intensity and yet nuanced storytelling accomplished with absolutely no text!
Even though the country the immigrant comes to is very foreign in some major ways and the feeling of dislocation and fear are strong for the man who is the main character, still there are little touches of familiarity in this strange place, and the people open up to him.
The drawing is quietly compeling, and I found myself pouring over the pages, finding new delights on every street corner and windowsill.
I would recommend this book to all ages; after I read it, I shared it with my granddaughters, and they loved it, too!