Burma Chronicles [Paperback]

Guy Delisle (Author), Helge Dascher (Translator)

Book Description

Release date: December 7, 2010

THE POPULAR TRAVELOGUE NOW IN PAPERBACK

From the author of Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea and Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China comes Burma Chronicles, an informative look at a country that uses concealment and isolation as social control. It is drawn with Guy Delisle’s minimal line, interspersed with wordless vignettes and moments of his distinctive slapstick humor.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

DeLisle's (Pyongyang) latest exploration of Asian life is probably the best possible argument against the ruling junta in the embattled (and now nearly obliterated) nation also known as Myanmar. Readers will find themselves initially shocked and surprised at the country's differences, then awestruck by the new traditions and finally in love with and yet enraged by Burmese daily life. DeLisle's wife is a French aid worker with Medecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), leaving DeLisle alone with their son, Louis, and his cartooning. DeLisle's style is simple but highly eloquent, and he tells more about the depth and breadth of the Burmese experience in the book's little nonfiction vignettes than he ever could in an artificially imposed narrative. Burma Chronicles is not merely a neat piece of cartooning but a valuable artifact of a repressive and highly destructive culture that curtails free speech with unparalleled tenacity. Like Joe Sacco's The Fixer and Safe Area Gorazde, DeLisle uses cartooning to dig into a story that demands to be told. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New Yorker

In previous graphic memoirs, Delisle, a Qu�b�cois animator, has documented in spare, whimsical black-and-white line drawings his visits to North Korea and China. Here, he turns his hand to another authoritarian Asian regime, Burma, where he spent a year after the 2004 tsunami with his wife and their infant son. Drawn with charming simplicity and brio, the book mixes traditional travelogue with glimmers of the unexpected, as when Delisle notes that in the local newspaper �some articles contain nothing but a list of officials present at a given event,� or discovers a lit light bulb placed in a drawer to keep paper dry during monsoon season. Delisle takes a whimsical approach but also logs political realities�the increasing difficulty of getting travel permits for humanitarian work, the abrupt banishment of foreign videos from stores.
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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly; Reprint edition (December 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 177046025X
• ISBN-13: 978-1770460256
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Publishers > Drawn and Quarterly

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book; wonderful drawings November 5, 2009

By B. T. Denyer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Once I started this book, I couldn't stop sneaking off to read it. It actually sucked me in and my whole world for 3 days was Burma, in black and white,

Not much else to say except that it is really like a blog with drawings and humor peppered here and there. Very easy to digest, and would be a great addition to any PoliSci course or literature course looking to go multi-modal or just change it up a bit.

I loved the fact that the hardcover does NOT have a (useless and gratuitous) dustjacket. The image that would be on the dustjacket is actually the hard cover.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Exile In Guyville February 17, 2009

By Loyd A. Boldman

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is Delise's richest book yet, and probably his most detailed. It's another travel journal, similar to Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea and Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China, this time with a Doctors Without Borders-style group in Burma. Even though his drawings are deliciously simple and compact, with his pen, Delise evokes a real sense of place and the culture, character, and quirks of the people. I love his work.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Culture shock in a totalitarian state January 30, 2011

By Mayra P.

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Burma Chronicles is the travel diary of Québécois cartoonist Guy Delisle*. He is married to Nadége, a doctor with Médecins Sans Frontières, and she's assigned to Burma (Myanmar). Guy and Baby Louis follow. Hilarity ensues.

This is definitely one of the best graphic novels I've read. The artwork is black and white, but it's so detailed and inventive, I never really missed the colors. Delisle's outlook on Burmese life is funny and light, which is refreshing considering the heavy subject matter that living in a totalitarian state entails.

For those of us who read and enjoyed the book, there are some really interesting goodies in Delisle's website, including photos of the real-life places featured in the book: [...]

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Merry Deslile Christmas December 28, 2009

By Al Ortega

Format:Hardcover

I received this for Christmas from a person with great taste so I suppressed my initial anxiousness about receiving a graphic novel for the holidays. I was thoroughly charmed by this book. The stories were a nice blend of personal expression and social commentary. Neither was heavy handed. I felt informed about the idiosyncrasies of Burma/Myanmar but also fascinated by the exploration of a different culture with an open mind and critical eye.

I have traveled a lot in the last 5 years so this may have made the book even more interesting for me, but I believe anyone with a sense of humor, curiosity, and a fondness for their fellow man would love this graphic novel.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An expansive and inquiring travelogue of an increasingly troubled nation October 21, 2010

By David Liao

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

That the book is not titled "Myanmar Chronicles" should be your first clue that there will be more than one look at the growing tyranny of the military regime. In a style like that of Pyongyang, he pecks away at the truth underneath the surface of cordial greetings and polite pretending that Burma is not in crisis.

However, in an environment not quite as accustomed to totalitarianism, the underbelly is not quite as easy to find as in North Korea and you will get a feeling that the author is not digging deep enough. After all, he is the tourist and the wife who is seeing all the strife, sickness, and poverty.

With that said, you will receive both a sense of how it feels to live there and what sets the people apart from others making them unique. There's also more information about the author himself and his motivations when traveling than in previous works, especially in understanding his style of art.

Altogether, this is definitely an engrossing work with more experimenting in the author's art and writing style that has some nice payoffs even if it is not as dark or dramatic as Pyongyang.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Burma...a cautionary tale April 14, 2010

By D. Hatcher

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

An absolute delight! If only other books were treated this way. A very interesting story of trials and tribulation but mixed with a lot of light moments too.
A warmth in the telling and in the drawings which is a great combination. Keep it up Mr Delisle!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to Myanmar... August 25, 2009

By Michael Valdivielso

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Burma Chronicles is the third book I have by Guy Delisle. I also read Pyongyang and Shenzhen, which were both interesting in their own way. Burma Chronicles is, I think, the overall best. He has learned how to deliver the humor, the sadness, the landscape of another place, another country, giving us the feel in both images and words. From him I learned about the Noble Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, about how the nation is run, about the water festival and many other things like malaria.
In fact the last few weeks Burma...excuse me, Myanmar, was in the news BECAUSE of that American who ended up staying with Aung San Suu Kyi. So I have gained knowledge that helped me understand the morning news. Amazing! A comic book helping me to learn. I hope he writes and draws more about the places he has been.

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as Pyongyang Yang June 10, 2013

By lazy shopper

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Burma Chronicles was good for several evenings of entertainment, along with insight of what it's like to live in another country on a temporary basis. This book was not as fascinating as Pyongyang Yang, but Myanmar is probably not quite as bizarre as North Korea. The book didn't really read as a complete story, it was more like a bunch of separate anecdotes.