Burma chronicles

Delisle follows accounts of sojourns in North Korea (Pyongyang, 2005) and China (Shenzhen, 2006) by chronicling a stint in yet another authoritarian society, Burma, to which he accompanied his wife, a Doctors without Borders administrator, to care for their infant son. He again uses wryly simple cartooning to amusingly recount his culture shock, much of which again stemmed from the host society's repressiveness, replete with censorship, Internet surveillance, and travel restrictions. He finds humor in the juxtaposition of the exotic and the mundane, as in an encounter with a monk in a grocery's cookie aisle. Unlike in China and North Korea, in Burma he found a large expat community that, like his childcare duties, diverted him. He went with his wife on field visits to the countryside and alone on a meditation retreat at a Buddhist temple experiences that allowed him to probe deeper into Burma than he could into China and North Korea. Such differences from his previous host countries keep Delisle's distinctive combination of travel journal, reportage, and autobiography fresh.--Flagg, Gordon Copyright 2008 Booklist

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 FrontiEres (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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Insightful, illuminating memoir of a year under a totalitarian regime. In 2005-06, Delisle (Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China, 2006, etc.) accompanied his wife, who works as an administrator for Doctors Without Borders, to the country recognized by the United Nations as Myanmar. The United States and other democratic countries, however, still call it Burma, refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the military junta that seized power in 1989. As in the illustrator's previous adventures in China and North Korea (Pyongyang, 2005), the focus is less on politics and more on the lives of the people he encounters--though such lives are profoundly shaped by politics. He comes to accept checkpoints and censorship as routine, and he does his best to find a suitable home, survive with intermittent electricity and Internet access and take care of his toddler son Louis, whose charm transcends cultural borders. The author also fears malaria, bird flu and poisonous snakes, though the DWB medical community provides more comfort than much of the Burmese citizenry enjoys. Delisle writes and illustrates a children's booklet on HIV, an important contribution to a country in which heroin and prostitution are rampant. As in previous volumes, his eye for everyday detail combined with droll, matter-of-fact narration humanizes his 14-month experience in a country that might seem traumatic, even intolerable, in other hands. "There were no demands and no uprisings either," he writes. "Things are always very calm here, thanks to a regime that creates paralysis by fomenting fear on a daily basis." The undercurrents of Buddhism throughout the book culminate in his visit to a temple, where his meditation proves transformative. Though classified as a graphic novelist, Delisle has claimed territory all his own as a graphic-travel memoirist. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.