Burma Chronicles
Guy Delisle


Is it Burma or Myanmar? Delisle addresses the different names for the country right off the bat and the choice of his title indicates he does not consider the ruling government to be a legitimate one.
Despite the overtly political start, Burma Chronicles is more a personal memoir of life in a repressed and isolated regime. When his wife Nadege, who works with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), receives her new assignment, Delisle and their toddler son Louis go along for the ride.
The cartoonist finds humour in learning about, and adapting to, a different country and culture. His black-and- white sketches offer charming, and sometimes instructive, anecdotes about such events as taking part in the water festival, surviving the rainy season or simply trying to find the right kind of ink.
While Louis is a universal ice-breaker with regard to meeting the locals, Delisle’s own profession opens some doors – he meets fellow illustrators and conducts private animation classes.
But inadvertently, politics intrude every aspect of life. For one thing, Nobel laureate and pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi is kept under house arrest near where they live.
Delisle also touches on the Orwellian regime’s control over the media, the exploitative gem trade, the easy availability of heroin in some places and the wildly different worlds of the privileged few vis-a-vis most ordinary Burmese.
His generally simple and direct style serves the stories well. And his depiction of sightseeing tours to Bagan and Lake Inlay displays wit and elegance. Instead of the usual six panels a page, he works in 15 wordless panels, conveying the harried, manic quality of such outings.
If you want a humane and humorous peek into the country, this is a good place to start.


If you like this, read: Pyongyang: A Journey In North Korea by Guy Delisle (2007, US$10.17 (S$15.50), www.amazon.com). Here is a glimpse into another repressive regime from Delisle, who seems to have an affinity for them.
(ST)