Crenshaw's Books & Decks

The arrival is a must for any graphic book lover, a wondrous piece of Art that engages the reader from the very cover.

There are many reasons why I consider this a jewel and a must have. The first one, is the quality of Tan's drawings and artistry. Each page, each image, each vignette is a masterpiece of its own regarding technique, detail and creativity. The drawings and images are drawn with a chilling beautiful virtuosity. The illustration is done in a very warm dark-brown and cream duotone, which conveys the overall faux-vintage feeling of the book.

The second one is the fact that the book has a narrative that is universal in nature that uses multiracial characters and alien beings (the tiny monsters). I think it can be understood no matter your culture of origin. The images convey meaning with the need of any word being uttered. Tan does so in a masterly way.

The third is the story itself. This is a story of immigration and challenges in a new foreign land. A story that million of people have lived, are living and will live. I am an immigrant, so the book directly speaks to me. Many of the images reminded me of the early 1920-1950s when million of emigrated from Europe to the States or Australia. Tan's land of arrival is incomprehensible and mysterious. The story is universal because Tan has the ability of distilling real immigration stories and experiences into something that is full of meaning, respects the reality that immigrants face but is full of hope, and shows well how the arrival is also a process of inner transformation and learning to relate in different ways.

The fourth is the wondrous mix of real and surreal elements in the story in a very functional way. This is Tan's speciality and he does so with great easiness and mastery. Tan creates wonderful magic creatures that interact with humans with normality, and vice versa, as if the world was an harmonious mismatch of all sort of beings.

I truly love this book. I don't get tired of it. I revisit it often. Wonderful.