Burma Chronicles [Hardcover]

Guy Delisle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2008

A timely and incisive portrait of a country on the tipping point

 

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 The Burma Chronicles. In this country notorious for its use of concealment and isolation as social control—where scissors-wielding censors monitor the papers, the de facto leader of the opposition has been under decade-long 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 ironhanded 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. The Burma Chronicles is drawn with a minimal line, and interspersed with wordless vignettes and moments of Delisle’s 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.)
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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

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly; First Printing edition (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1897299508
• ISBN-13: 978-1897299500
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #476,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > Travel > Asia > Myanmar
  • #68 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Publishers > Drawn and Quarterly

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Loyd A. Boldman "Forensic Mediaholic" (Oviedo, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Burma Chronicles (Hardcover)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

B. T. Denyer "Web designer" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Burma Chronicles (Hardcover)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Mayra P. "Mayra" (San Juan, Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Burma Chronicles (Paperback)

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: [...]