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juushikaI want to read fewer, longer, more substantial books this year, I said. As soon as I'm done reading all these picture books &c!, I said.
Title: The Lost Thing
Author: Shaun Tan
Published: Simply Read Books, 2004
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 314,380
Text Number: 1079
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This is half pure aesthetic, a sort of "Machinarium pre-fall/with people" pseudo-steampunk, whimsical and visually dense with a touch of organic strangeness; it's charming and distinct. The half which is narrative is a mixed success. A meditation on the way that society encourages conformity and smothers individuality works well within the steampunk-esque style, capitalizing on the aforementioned visual density of cubicles, pipes, residents. But it's a trite, self-satisfied theme, and while the wry and melancholy tone introduces some depth there's not enough room in a picture book for nuance. This is interesting as the first picture book from & my introduction to a promising author/artist; it's not satisfying, but it encourages me to read more Tan.
Title: The Arrival
Author: Shaun Tan
Published: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 130
Total Page Count: 314,540
Text Number: 1081
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: The Van Allsberg-style diffused grayscale photorealism combined with the McKean-style statuary creates an engaging fantastic world with lush panoramas. But it doesn't feel like a fully realized world for the same reason that I don't love it as an exploration of the immigrant experience: everything has a 1:1 parallel, interchangeable except for initial confusion and strange appearance—and there's value in exploring displacement and acclimation, but I wish this went deeper to look at the ways that immigrants change and are changed by their new homes. There's not much room for that here, particularly because the wordless narrative demands a relatively straightforward plot (although there's room for mysteries to linger in the backstories). But that wordlessness draws the reader in, demanding they interpret—and inhabit—the narrative. It trades nuance for introspection and wonder, making it more emotionally affecting than substantial.
Title: The Osbick Bird
Author: Edward Gorey
Published: Pomegranate, 2012 (1970)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 314,410
Text Number: 1080
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This can be read as a charming odd couple or a metaphor for making peace with a life changed (say by illness or grief), but it succeeds because it's both. Gorey's style is a balance of humor and macabre, and here that creates a playful, knowing ambiguity. The use of negative space is effective (and unusual within the Gorey I've read thusfar), and the bird is distinctively drawn, with expressive legs that contort to mimic his human counterpart. While this isn't my favorite Gorey, I find that it lingers.
Title: The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
Author: Chris Van Allsburg
Published: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 16
Total Page Count: 314,540
Text Number: 1082
Read Because: reread/reading the author, hardback from my personal collection
Review: Faces and children (particularly mouths) are Van Allsburg's perpetual weakness, so the best panels here are the rare exception to that rule or obscure the faces. Otherwise, the art is phenomenal—a diffused grayscale photorealism which is dreamy but precise. It's the perfect style for the speculative elements: just on the edge of reality are silly golden-age SF concepts, are eerie and ominous magics, are stories just beginning. The panels with their single-sentence captions snapshot that moment of beginning and offload the logic of lead-up and resolution in the best way. This was a childhood favorite but, contrary to the introduction, it's never inspired me to write an accompanying story. I prefer the potential, enchanting and inspirational, of a story glimpsed but unknown—as thus perfect. (Apparently a tie-in short story collection came out in 2011 and I can think of no book less desirable.) This has a flaw or two but I love it beyond reason, as much on this reread as I did back then.
Title: The Lost Thing
Author: Shaun Tan
Published: Simply Read Books, 2004
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 314,380
Text Number: 1079
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This is half pure aesthetic, a sort of "Machinarium pre-fall/with people" pseudo-steampunk, whimsical and visually dense with a touch of organic strangeness; it's charming and distinct. The half which is narrative is a mixed success. A meditation on the way that society encourages conformity and smothers individuality works well within the steampunk-esque style, capitalizing on the aforementioned visual density of cubicles, pipes, residents. But it's a trite, self-satisfied theme, and while the wry and melancholy tone introduces some depth there's not enough room in a picture book for nuance. This is interesting as the first picture book from & my introduction to a promising author/artist; it's not satisfying, but it encourages me to read more Tan.
Title: The Arrival
Author: Shaun Tan
Published: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 130
Total Page Count: 314,540
Text Number: 1081
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: The Van Allsberg-style diffused grayscale photorealism combined with the McKean-style statuary creates an engaging fantastic world with lush panoramas. But it doesn't feel like a fully realized world for the same reason that I don't love it as an exploration of the immigrant experience: everything has a 1:1 parallel, interchangeable except for initial confusion and strange appearance—and there's value in exploring displacement and acclimation, but I wish this went deeper to look at the ways that immigrants change and are changed by their new homes. There's not much room for that here, particularly because the wordless narrative demands a relatively straightforward plot (although there's room for mysteries to linger in the backstories). But that wordlessness draws the reader in, demanding they interpret—and inhabit—the narrative. It trades nuance for introspection and wonder, making it more emotionally affecting than substantial.
Title: The Osbick Bird
Author: Edward Gorey
Published: Pomegranate, 2012 (1970)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 314,410
Text Number: 1080
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This can be read as a charming odd couple or a metaphor for making peace with a life changed (say by illness or grief), but it succeeds because it's both. Gorey's style is a balance of humor and macabre, and here that creates a playful, knowing ambiguity. The use of negative space is effective (and unusual within the Gorey I've read thusfar), and the bird is distinctively drawn, with expressive legs that contort to mimic his human counterpart. While this isn't my favorite Gorey, I find that it lingers.
Title: The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
Author: Chris Van Allsburg
Published: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 16
Total Page Count: 314,540
Text Number: 1082
Read Because: reread/reading the author, hardback from my personal collection
Review: Faces and children (particularly mouths) are Van Allsburg's perpetual weakness, so the best panels here are the rare exception to that rule or obscure the faces. Otherwise, the art is phenomenal—a diffused grayscale photorealism which is dreamy but precise. It's the perfect style for the speculative elements: just on the edge of reality are silly golden-age SF concepts, are eerie and ominous magics, are stories just beginning. The panels with their single-sentence captions snapshot that moment of beginning and offload the logic of lead-up and resolution in the best way. This was a childhood favorite but, contrary to the introduction, it's never inspired me to write an accompanying story. I prefer the potential, enchanting and inspirational, of a story glimpsed but unknown—as thus perfect. (Apparently a tie-in short story collection came out in 2011 and I can think of no book less desirable.) This has a flaw or two but I love it beyond reason, as much on this reread as I did back then.
