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More About the Author
Product Description
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"Guy Delisle is a wry 37-year-old French Canadian cartoonist whose work for a French animation studio requires him to oversee production at various Pacific Rim studios on the grim frontiers of free trade. His employer puts him up for months at a time in 'cold and soulless' hotel rooms where he suffers the usual maladies of the long-term boarder: cultural and linguistic alienation, boredom, and cravings for Western food and real coffee. Delisle depicts these sojourns into the heart of isolation in [the] brilliant 'graphic novel' . . . "Pyongyang."" --"Foreign Affairs"
Book Description
'Great stuff - and proof that the comics panel can be another kind of window on the world.' Guardian
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
When I, browsing at a bookstore, stumbled upon this book I could not help buying it, something I do not regret. The description of expat and foreign tourist life in North Korea is spot on. The picture on the front page with the young girls with forced, ear-to-ear permasmiles playing the accordion at the Mangyondae Children's Palace is almost exactly the same as one of the images that really stuck from the time I visited North Korea in 2002.
Guy Delisle is a 37-year old French Canadian cartoonist and animator working for a French animation studio. As one might expect, the French have been the first to set up shop in North Korea after the regime recently put the door ajar for foreign investors. Among the investors is the animation studio Mr Delisle works for. Animators in South-Korea and now also China have become too expensive.
Delisle was sent to Pyongyang to oversee one such production and in all spent two months there. With him he had a radio and Orwell's 1984. Both were of course strictly prohibited, the latest so much so that customs officer was not even aware of it. When we were the we had nothing much more subversive than a few issues of The Economist. This comic book is the result of Delisle's experiences, and it is a wry and accurate expression of the foreigner-in-North-Korea-experience.
At all times Delisle had to be accompanied by his guide and translator. He was not free to go where he wanted, even a trip to the railway stationed required several day's notice and approval from higher up. The little he got to see was the grandiose, but soulless sights built in the honour of North Korea's Great Leader: Eternal President, Marshal Kim Il-Sung. The pictures of Kim Il-Sung and his son, Dear Leader General Kim Jong-Il hang in all rooms except the lavatories. They are also found on the chests of all North-Koreans in the form of pins.
The guides with a straight face keep telling him the most outrageous pieces of propaganda. For instance Kim Jong-Il published no less than 1,200 works when at university. According to what we were told when visiting the university in Pyongyang he not only wrote those 1,200 works but also read 50,000 books, did military and civil service and was the leader of the student society the two years he was a student. The guides began to titter nervously when we started calculating exactly how fast the ultra-productive prodigy was capable of reading page. Actually he was kicked out of Moscow State University after a couple of months due to extreme laziness. Dear Leader is also quite the athlete. In his first golf game he hit 11 hole-in-ones. I guess Accenture should cancel their deal with Tiger Woods and get a new slogan: "Go on, be a Kim!".
The book also captures well the extreme boredom and isolation the author felt during his two months. For another look at expat life in Pyongyang you could try North Korea Under Communism - Report of an Envoy to Paradise by Erik Cornell, a Swedish diplomat who spent three years there. (Sweden was the first Western country to establish a permanent diplomatic presence in Pyongyang.)
What the book only fleetingly manages is portray is the life of the North-Koreans, but this is certainly not the author's fault. The North-Korean authorities invest enormous resources in ensuring that foreigners do not get close enough to be able to learn much about them.
Guy Delisle is a 37-year old French Canadian cartoonist and animator working for a French animation studio. As one might expect, the French have been the first to set up shop in North Korea after the regime recently put the door ajar for foreign investors. Among the investors is the animation studio Mr Delisle works for. Animators in South-Korea and now also China have become too expensive.
Delisle was sent to Pyongyang to oversee one such production and in all spent two months there. With him he had a radio and Orwell's 1984. Both were of course strictly prohibited, the latest so much so that customs officer was not even aware of it. When we were the we had nothing much more subversive than a few issues of The Economist. This comic book is the result of Delisle's experiences, and it is a wry and accurate expression of the foreigner-in-North-Korea-experience.
At all times Delisle had to be accompanied by his guide and translator. He was not free to go where he wanted, even a trip to the railway stationed required several day's notice and approval from higher up. The little he got to see was the grandiose, but soulless sights built in the honour of North Korea's Great Leader: Eternal President, Marshal Kim Il-Sung. The pictures of Kim Il-Sung and his son, Dear Leader General Kim Jong-Il hang in all rooms except the lavatories. They are also found on the chests of all North-Koreans in the form of pins.
The guides with a straight face keep telling him the most outrageous pieces of propaganda. For instance Kim Jong-Il published no less than 1,200 works when at university. According to what we were told when visiting the university in Pyongyang he not only wrote those 1,200 works but also read 50,000 books, did military and civil service and was the leader of the student society the two years he was a student. The guides began to titter nervously when we started calculating exactly how fast the ultra-productive prodigy was capable of reading page. Actually he was kicked out of Moscow State University after a couple of months due to extreme laziness. Dear Leader is also quite the athlete. In his first golf game he hit 11 hole-in-ones. I guess Accenture should cancel their deal with Tiger Woods and get a new slogan: "Go on, be a Kim!".
The book also captures well the extreme boredom and isolation the author felt during his two months. For another look at expat life in Pyongyang you could try North Korea Under Communism - Report of an Envoy to Paradise by Erik Cornell, a Swedish diplomat who spent three years there. (Sweden was the first Western country to establish a permanent diplomatic presence in Pyongyang.)
What the book only fleetingly manages is portray is the life of the North-Koreans, but this is certainly not the author's fault. The North-Korean authorities invest enormous resources in ensuring that foreigners do not get close enough to be able to learn much about them.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I oredered this book out of curiosity about North Korea; out the same reason I also bought AQUARIUMS OF PYONGYANG. Guy Delisle's book is just great - I enjoyed the time reading it - it gets you from the first pages. One does not get to know many details about functioning of North Korean society, as most of it was apparently banned to the author, it is rather an account (sometimes very funny, sometimes ironic) how a Westerner perceives the country confronting his values and way of life with a different approach and reality. The form of a graphic novel was also excellent choice - pictures are superb. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I can't remember how I came across this book, but like the previous reviewers I'm very glad I did. The sparce cartoon style suits the subject matter perfectly. The author is able to convey the sense of an eerie, oppressive atmosphere brilliantly in just a few frames, where I'm sure a whole page of text would not be nearly as effective. Delisle apparently tried to record each day's events in cartoon form (no doubt as a way to kill the boredom), and it's details of the dull minutiae and insane bureaucracy of everyday life as a foreigner in North Korea, unable to travel freely, or do anything really, that makes this book so engaging. I started off dipping into it at random, and then read it cover to cover in one sitting, and it worked perfectly both ways. I would recommend this book to anyone, whether or not you like "graphic novels" or have any interest in North Korea. Brilliant.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant
Another brilliant slideshow from Guy Delisle. Guy's soft humour and relaxed writing style marries perfectly with his stylised imagery! Good job
Published 14 days ago by Aftiti
Good, but not great
I bought this book because I saw it in a shop and the artwork on the cover instantly drew me to it. His style and the characterisation of the characters on the front page is a... Read more
Published 7 months ago by masterbenru
A Sharply Observed Portrait of a Political Freakshow
Guy Delisle is a French-Canadian cartoonist and animator who is 2003 is sent to oversee a team of North Korean animators making cartoons for a French animation studio - the grim... Read more
Published 7 months ago by F Henwood
Genius! Pure enjoyment
My advice is to take time reading these books and enjoy each page, if you're not careful you'll have finished the book within 2 hours! Read more
Published 15 months ago by J. Gore
An interesting story, an okay comic
The story of Guy DeLisle's trip to Pyongyang is really interesting considering he spends most of his time in the office or a hotel; he manages to communicate the atmosphere of the... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Peter J. Gasston
Anyone can go...
Let's get this out of the way first; Anyone can go to the DPRK (North Korea) if they want to, including Japanese and US citizens. Read more
Published 23 months ago by oocares
Terrific
I stumbled across this book when looking for Joe Sacco's work and am so pleased I found it. The animation is beautifully simple and the story terribly sad. Read more
Published on 27 Dec 2009 by Mr. N. Bell
Don't judge a book by its cover
I got this book in addition to a coffee table book that I bought on North Korea. I opened it and thought, "Ugh, it's a comic book." I started reading and couldn't put it down. Read more
Published on 15 Dec 2009 by C. Boudreau-Kiviaho
Compelling
This is a nicely illustrated graphic novel.
The story is facinating and makes this a compelling read!
The story is facinating and makes this a compelling read!
Published on 3 Dec 2009 by Lisa Marie Hostick
A journey into an unknown territory
I recently read Pyongyang - a journey in North Korea, by Guy Delisle. I found it really interesting. Read more
Published on 6 July 2009 by Rita M. Ferreira
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