By Shaun Tan, 2008.
This is a book whose shadow lingers after you close it and you are glad that it does.
Tales from Outer Suburbia is a creative and genre-defying work made up of a series of 15 stories told in an array of pictures, words, and pastiches that run on the theme of suburbia. Tan’s particular suburbia is one from Australia but the book manages to have a quality of anywhere and nowhere to it while still coming across as intimate. One segment, “Alert But Not Alarmed”, explores a reality in which every yard has an intercontinental ballistic missile in it to protect neighbourhoods from harm, but overtime the missiles become banal objects serving as decorating projects instead of objects of fear. Even in his use of humour, Tan is very perceptive and contemplative.
I was personally tempted to rush through the stories in my utter rapture with this work, but ended up limiting myself to reading one or two segments at a time to fully savour the brilliant storytelling and incredibly detailed illustrations that often contain more of the narrative than the words do.
This book is classified and marketed as a YA (young adult) title, but it has definite appeal to an older audience (my father was intrigued) as well who will be able to understand more of the nuances than younger children. It also offers an opportunity to slow down your reading and pay attention to the pictures and reminds us that pictures are certainly not always indicative of simplistic content. Check out Tan’s The Arrival if you like the illustration style.
