Hardcover, 272 pages
Published Jan. 21, 2009 by Jonathan Cape.
After developing his acclaimed style of firsthand reporting with his bestselling graphic novels Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea and Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China, Guy Delisle is back with Burma Chronicles. In this country notorious for its use of concealment and isolation as social control-where scissor-wielding censors monitor the papers, the leader of the opposition has spent twelve of the past eighteen years under house arrest, insurgent-controlled regions are effectively cut off from the world, and rumor is the most reliable source of current information-he turns his gaze to the everyday for a sense of the big picture.
Delisle's deft and recognizable renderings take note of almsgiving rituals, daylong power outages, and rampant heroin use in outlying regions, in this place where catastrophic mismanagement and iron-handed rule come up against profound resilience of spirit, expatriate life ambles along, and nongovernmental organizations struggle with the risk of co-option by the …
After developing his acclaimed style of firsthand reporting with his bestselling graphic novels Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea and Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China, Guy Delisle is back with Burma Chronicles. In this country notorious for its use of concealment and isolation as social control-where scissor-wielding censors monitor the papers, the leader of the opposition has spent twelve of the past eighteen years under house arrest, insurgent-controlled regions are effectively cut off from the world, and rumor is the most reliable source of current information-he turns his gaze to the everyday for a sense of the big picture.
Delisle's deft and recognizable renderings take note of almsgiving rituals, daylong power outages, and rampant heroin use in outlying regions, in this place where catastrophic mismanagement and iron-handed rule come up against profound resilience of spirit, expatriate life ambles along, and nongovernmental organizations struggle with the risk of co-option by the military junta. Burma Chronicles is drawn with a minimal line, and interspersed with wordless vignettes and moments of Delisle's distinctive slapstick humor.
This one felt different from Delisle’s other work: more episodic, more editorial commentary, more dad jokes. I didn’t like those bits as much, but as ever, his drawing is wonderful. A little comics journalism and memoir gives us his particular experience in this country where his wife is in Medecins Sans Frontieres. The silent stretches were often my fave, as well as the Water Festival and Buddhist retreat.
