Firstly, that Tan's father was a Chinese immigrant to Australia and that communicating with his father, fluently has always been a challenge. Perhaps then, there are three elements of Tan's life and philosophy which help cast a little light on this wonderful but (potentially) sad story.

He also speaks of a need for his work to be honest and hopes that each book he writes helps make the real world a little more understandable. How clear that truth is remains up to the reader. Tan states that he often knows that he is writing about a universal truth with regard to humanity's impact on each other or the world. The world he inhabits flits between shades of grey and his green skill and dark bulbous eyes provide the only contrast in the dull world he inhabits.Īs with all Tan's books, meaning may not come to the reader immediately but this is purposeful. I think the story is pretty powerful and sad on reread, a book about difference and bullying, and yes, in the context of capitalism, but the drawing is typically amazing from Tan and I think a lot of people will like it.Ī picturebook that nudges close to being wordless with only 150 words throughout and many of them repeated, Cicada tells the story of a little bug who spends 17 years working thanklessly and largely ignored in a high-rise office. I thought of Kafka's 'Metamorphosis,' about another corporate guy who wakes up one morning to find he is a bug, with a different kind of ending, of course. It's not a young children's picture book maybe tweens can begin to appreciate it, but I prefer to think of it as an all-ages book. A happy and somewhat surprising transformation happens at the end-Cicada has the last laugh, shall we say-but in most of the book he is pretty miserable, and at one point he is even depicted as suicidal after he is no longer needed at the company. The job is data entry, he is underpaid, disrespected at every turn, and he works in these corporate offices for many years, bullied.

So Cicada the book is about racism and classism, as Cicada the character is mistreated at work by other people because they think he doesn't belong there even though he quietly and efficiently does his job without complaint. Cicada is less ambitious, more minimal on almost every level, though it does feature about 150 words, written in a kind of representation of how an outsider or newcomer might speak if they are learning English. Original review, somewhat revised, 2/5/19: Shaun Tan is the author of the wordless masterpiece, The Arrival. Initially I had thought that Tan may have wanted to see the guy in the story as Asian, but I agree that it is unnecessary to assume that, so I changed my review. 4/2/23: I rarely revise my reviews based on criticism I got, but my respondent below was right, and I reread the story a bit more slowly and sensitively.

Cicada by shaun tan