On Friday my mum lent us her copy of Eric by Shaun Tan. On Saturday there was a wonderful newspaper interview of Shaun Tan, an interview by Neil Gaiman, no less, where the two author’s discussed the genesis of Eric’s story. And then on Sunday all the girls (and I) wanted to do was play “Eric”.
Eric is a foreign exchange student who has come to stay. His host family do their best to make Eric feel welcome but they never feel quite sure that Eric is enjoying his stay with them. And then one day, “with little more than a wave and a polite goodbye” Eric departs. The host family feel uneasy and a little confused until they find the secret Eric has left behind, a secret that shows Eric has indeed had a wonderful time.
Tan’s moving, thoughtful story is funny and profound; we cannot know the seeds we are planting with our behaviour and actions. But Eric allows us to believe that if we give people the space and time they need, if we are kind and generous, beautiful things will grow.
Eric also reminds me that even if people appear unmoved, uninvolved, they are not without emotion and internal life. Indeed, in the Guardian interview, Tan admits that Eric is perhaps a little autobiographical in this regard:
As an adolescent people would always say I was not expressive and they always made the mistake of thinking that I didn’t feel anything, because I didn’t react to things. My mind reacts but usually a long time after the fact – if something exciting happens I’ll just sort of go “okaaaay, let me process that”, and then three days later I’m excited about it, when everyone else has left the room.
Eric is a treasure of a book, the perfect book to match with the Chinese saying “A book is like a garden carried in your pocket”. It does fit perfectly in a pocket (or a Christmas stocking) and encourages us reflect with curiosity and trust on cultural differences (a recurring theme in Tan’s work) and how, even if differences are initially confounding they enrich our world.
Playing “Eric” is a variant of a very popular game in our home, “Mummy knows nothing”. It’s a game in which M and J get to explain what everything and anything is, and how the world works. Eric / Mummy doesn’t know that that thing on the wall is a bookcase. They think it is a fridge. M and J get to be the clever ones and explain what it really is. Eric / Mummy thinks what M and J call a bed is actually a trampoline (where on earth would I get that idea from?), so the girls go into lots of detail describing how to use a bed.
M and J share this delight with the narrator of Eric:
Secretly I had been looking forward to having a foreign visitor – I had so many things to show him. For once I could be a local expert, a fountain of interesting facts and opinions.
Whilst we played, Eric got his own house…
…and of course he brought his suitcases (cf the first illustration from the book above).
Later one Eric moved to a new house…
…one with a garden he’d planted inspired by this one he left behind in the story:
Whilst we played we listened to:
Other activities we could have enjoyed alongside reading Eric include:
Were you ever an exchange student? What experiences were particularly intriguing? Just days after I’d arrived in Hungary for the first time, I was repeatedly called “Bimbo” by the grandfather of a friend. I was flummoxed, until I found out it means “Rosebud” in Hungarian and is used as a term of endearement!
**Thanks** Mum for lending us Eric!
Clara
This is a pocket-sized treasure of a post, too. I love the way in which you brought the touching, wonderful story of Eric into family life with so much creativity and thought. Wonderful!
Zoe
Hi Clara, so kind of you to comment 🙂 All the play was kid-let – they just asked for me to cut out Eric and then help with the suitcases (which were a little bit fiddly – my tip is to use a saw to create little tracks at the bottom of the walnut for the string to sit in)
Stacey
So, so lovely!! Added to my list for sure! And I am inspired by the houses for Eric. My girls would love that idea.
Zoe
Stacey, I think you’d really like the story of Eric! I hope you can find it in your library.
Joanna
I love the sound of this gentle story. Having lived in so many different nations, I know I need a lot of time to absorb and reflect on the experience!
Zoe
Thanks Joanna for your help with book suggestions and for stopping by. Yes, those reflections can take years to settle, or at least in my experience.
Library Mice
Eric is a lovely, lovely book; I reviewed it when it first came out: http://www.librarymice.com/2010/05/eric.html
As you can imagine, I was an exchange student a few times, but always here (in Dorset and Hampshire).
The food was the most intriguing thing to start with, of course! I can still see myself, aged 14, sitting down on the banks of the Thames with my school friends, wondering what on earth my penfriend’s parents had given me for lunch … turned out to be a Scotch egg LOL.
choxbox
Wow. Adding to my ever-growing list.
Have never been an exchange student, but have lived in different parts of the world, mostly on my own. So can sort of relate 🙂
And Shaun Tan? Double wow!
Zoe
Thanks Library Mice for the link – yours is a great review. And yes, I can imagine being baffled by a scotch egg! Have you come to love them though?
Hi Choxbox, think you’d really like this one given your experience of living in different countries 🙂
maggy,red ted art
Oh my! How adorable!!!!
jojoebi
Ebi-kun was given this last Christmas and I was planning on doing a review, it is a lovely book, a firm favourite in our bedtime story pile
Zoe
Do let me know if you do end up writing a review jojoebi, would love to hear what you and Ebi-kun think of it.
Library Mice
I turned vegetarian aged 17 and I am not a big fan of eggs so no, never learnt to love them LOL. Did you look up The Flower yet? Amazing book!
Zoe
Yes, Melanie, I’ve added it to my Amazon wish list 🙂 Also saw a photo of it today in Tidy Books’ promotional literature!
Yvonne Keen
Another beautiful post Zoe. Well done. I will be looking up Tan’s books for sure.
Zoe
Thanks Yvonne, if you haven’t discovered Tan I think you’re in for a treat. He can be a bit of a slow burner – I know people who didn’t like him initially but now adore him. My favourite of his is The Arrival.
Bókasprottnir leikir; hugmyndaríkir foreldrar og enn hugmyndaríkari börn! – Bergrún Íris
[…] skemmtilegar bækur og bókasprottnir leikir eru What Mr. Darwin Saw, Eric (eftir snillinginn Shaun Tan) og Magic Beans ævintýrabókin. Fjölskyldan hefur einnig helt sér […]