Rose Schreier

LIS722
Book Review #1

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Tan, Shaun. The Arrival. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine, 2007, 128 p.

4Q 4P M J/G

We’ve all witnessed the vast trove of black-and-white photographs immortalizing the turn-of-
the-century immigrant experience: gargantuan steamer ships offering less-than-ideal
accommodations, snaking lines at Ellis Island filled with beleaguered shawl-wrapped women,
the slightly macabre physical examinations prospective émigrés endured. And though we view
these images through a lens of nostalgia for the antiquated items and experiences portrayed, an
air of familiarity prevails—a sense of how far we’ve come from the primitive times depicted.

All of that derails, however, with The Arrival. Lush with a neo-futuristic landscape reminiscent
of Lang’s Metropolis, Tan’s wordless, dichromatic graphic novel meticulously details the typical
émigré’s emotionally and physically exhausting journey. Each page consistently provides the
reader with an authentic sense of the befuddlement and wonder experienced by so many. Tan’s
artistic and conceptual mastery is apparent as we realize he elicits them without the aid of
verbiage. His nuanced depictions both large- and small-scale (terrifyingly foreign urban
landscapes, or a paper crane hidden under a hat), along with his clever riffs verging on the
almost-recognizable (e.g., a curiously “canine” companion) display the highly imaginative
thought process required to produce something genuinely jarring and incomprehensible to our
fast-paced contemporary minds. A lack of page numbers further lends an intimate, sketchbook-
like feel.

This work possesses an unimaginably broad appeal outside its intended age range and myriad
applications: a tale for the young to share with the old—or vice versa, as part of a history unit, or
simply for a pure, unfettered glimpse of a historic experience.