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I just read the most incredible book: The Arrival by Shaun Tan. It's a wordless book, the story told entirely in pictures, and it's beautiful. I took forever to get through it because I had to stop and examine all the stunning little details. If Doctor Seuss and Dali did historical fiction, this is what it would look like. If you want to experience the slow realisation what the book is actually about, do not read the back of the book and do not click the cut.
I started out thinking the book would be a fairly run of the mill story about man flees from war, man goes to a new city, man...is apparently going to meet a strange little creature, but other than that it would be, you know, normal.
But no. The man goes to a new city and it's like nothing you've ever seen before. You can recognise that things are buildings, transportation, and food, but you have no idea how to operate the machines or prepare the food, or even guess what it might taste like. You can tell those are words written on signs and in the newspapers, but that language doesn't even exist on earth.
There are many references to historical photographs in this book, but the first one I noticed was the reference to pictures from Ellis Island--people getting their eyes checked and so forth--which is when I figured out what I was reading.
This book, without any recognisable words whatsoever, is the best description of what immigration must be like that I have ever seen. When I read historical fiction about immigration, the book is in English. Foreign words are translated for me. If the people are going to the United States, I know what everything is because I live here. It's kind of like how I know that Italian sounds energetic and German sounds rough, but I don't know what English sounds like, because I've always spoken it.
But this book has taken recognisable objects and customs and made them totally foreign to anyone on the planet. And it doesn't translate anything for you. You have to figure out what's going on solely through the context. Also, I love the ending--this is a fiercely happy book, much happier than realistic historical fiction tends to be.
Don't think of this as a children's book just because it has no words. Any age could definitely appreciate it, though it was in the YA section at my library. I would recommend this to absolutely anyone. I gave it to my mom to read, and after she does I'm going to show it to my two-year-old nephew, and of course I'm telling you all because you have to see this, it floored me. God, I love it when a book makes me feel this good. I need to buy a copy for myself, and do you realise how rarely I buy actual books? Usually I am happy with reading a book once, then giving it back to the library (unless it's Harry Potter or Stephanie Meyer, in which case I am MINE NOW!! about it), but sometimes there are books that grab me and I absolutely need to own them when that happens. I want to put this book in my tea exactly like Pete Wentz wants a certain album in his tea.
I started out thinking the book would be a fairly run of the mill story about man flees from war, man goes to a new city, man...is apparently going to meet a strange little creature, but other than that it would be, you know, normal.
But no. The man goes to a new city and it's like nothing you've ever seen before. You can recognise that things are buildings, transportation, and food, but you have no idea how to operate the machines or prepare the food, or even guess what it might taste like. You can tell those are words written on signs and in the newspapers, but that language doesn't even exist on earth.
There are many references to historical photographs in this book, but the first one I noticed was the reference to pictures from Ellis Island--people getting their eyes checked and so forth--which is when I figured out what I was reading.
This book, without any recognisable words whatsoever, is the best description of what immigration must be like that I have ever seen. When I read historical fiction about immigration, the book is in English. Foreign words are translated for me. If the people are going to the United States, I know what everything is because I live here. It's kind of like how I know that Italian sounds energetic and German sounds rough, but I don't know what English sounds like, because I've always spoken it.
But this book has taken recognisable objects and customs and made them totally foreign to anyone on the planet. And it doesn't translate anything for you. You have to figure out what's going on solely through the context. Also, I love the ending--this is a fiercely happy book, much happier than realistic historical fiction tends to be.
Don't think of this as a children's book just because it has no words. Any age could definitely appreciate it, though it was in the YA section at my library. I would recommend this to absolutely anyone. I gave it to my mom to read, and after she does I'm going to show it to my two-year-old nephew, and of course I'm telling you all because you have to see this, it floored me. God, I love it when a book makes me feel this good. I need to buy a copy for myself, and do you realise how rarely I buy actual books? Usually I am happy with reading a book once, then giving it back to the library (unless it's Harry Potter or Stephanie Meyer, in which case I am MINE NOW!! about it), but sometimes there are books that grab me and I absolutely need to own them when that happens. I want to put this book in my tea exactly like Pete Wentz wants a certain album in his tea.