A Year in Burma

I have never been to Burma, have you? Of course you haven't. Guy Delisle has though. He went with his wife. She works for an NGO and presumably earns loads more money than him because he is just a comic book artist and there is no way he'd have gone all the way to fucking Burma if he had enough money to stay at home, is there? Apart from reasons of love, obviously.

Fortunately he found the time to draw/write a comic book about it. I mean, what else was he going to do? He called it Burma Chronicles.

Things I learnt about Burma by reading Guy's book:

• It isn't actually called Burma.
• The government isn't all that keen on free speech.
• The locals chew the betel nut and leave red spit all over the place.
• One day a year everybody, and I mean everybody, goes mad and shoots each other with water pistols.

I am sure I learnt lots of other stuff as well but those are the important things, I reckon.

I'll be honest, I doubt I'd have bothered to read a traditional travel book or memoir about Burma, but this comic book version (is that what I call it? it isn't a graphic novel because it is not a novel and calling something a graphic memoir doesn't sound right, nor does graphic non-fiction, someone please enlighten me) was an engaging and easy read. I now know more about Burma (or Myanmar as it is called by the chaps who run it) than I did before, as you can tell by my impressive list of facts above.

By spending a year in the country Delisle got to see bits and to know the place in way that most foreigners never will, and his account of that is fascinating although he isn't really able to delve too much into the political situation or the much reported repression which is a shame but he is a comic book artist, after all, and as far as I am aware foreign comic book artists don't get invited to snoop around in that sort of stuff by the Burmese authorities.

I liked it and am keen to read more of Delisle's work. I notice that he also has books called Jerusalem and Pyongyang which suggests that his wife is taking him on a tour of some of the world's most chilled and laid back cities, the lucky blighter.

Comments

[D.J.Kirkby]

Quirky, I like it! But, I'm blaming you when i get told off for buying another book! You may be summonsed to help with building an extension for new books shelves :)

[David Belbin]

This was the first DeLisle book I read (I was researching a novel about Burma at the time - which is, I think, the right name - Myanmar is only that the discredited regime calls it) & have since read the others. Jerusalem is good but Burma Chronicles is better. The Pyongyang one is fascinating. I love his artwork - so crisp and classic feeling, and his modest, thoughtful persona.

[William Rycroft]

I freaking love Guy Delisle's books as you'll see from my thoughts over here (http://justwilliamsluck.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/DELISLE%20Guy). Burma Chronicles is particularly funny because of the young father aspect, Jerusalem attempts to deal with the tricky politics of the area and Pyongyang is a fascinating insight into a very closed country. Keep reading him, he's great.