 "Photo: Graphic courtesy of Drawn and Quarterly")
While working as a supervisor for European and North American animation studios outsourced to Asia, Guy Delisle documented his experiences in two previous graphic novels, "Shenzhen" (2000) based in China, and "Pyongyang" (2003) in North Korea. Both are excellent and worth reading, however, his most recent travelogue, "Burma Chronicles" has been even more rewarding.
As an avid fan and follower of graphic novels, although by no means an expert, I am aware of the vast amount of narrative styles, illustrations, and talents to be found within this medium.
The graphic novel embraces and blends many specific literary genres such as fantasy, autobiography, mythology, and science fiction, all depicting their stories through pictures, with dialogue, and sometimes without.
Guy Delisle fulfills an important role in the breadth of genres that graphic novels offer, namely, the travelogue.
In "Burma Chronicles", Delisle finds himself suddenly, but eagerly shipped off to Burma along with his infant son, Louis, and his wife Nadege, a supervisor for Doctors Without Borders.
Burma, still so-called by France, Australia, and the U.S., was taken over by a military junta and they renamed the country Myanmar in 1989.
The legitimacy of the government in Myanmar, while officially recognized by the UN, has the reputation of one of the world's most oppressive dictatorships.
It is within this environment that Delisle finds himself uncharacteristically taking the back seat, and floating through the beautiful, mundane, and surprising encounters of life in Burma.
He cares for Louis, with the help of the local Burmese community, while his wife is often off supervising rural and inaccessible medical clinics.
Through these encounters, he comes to experience a more domestic ex-patriot life that is surrounded by other non governmental organization families and locals, as they perpetually attempt to decipher the political reality within Burma, which is mostly speculation and gossip, form the hard, party-line dogmatism given as fact from its authoritarian rulers.
Very little information gets in or out of Myanmar.
Spanning a year, Delisle wonderfully documents his daily encounters and adventures within the country, and the profundity of "Burma Chronicles" is drawn from its simplicity of narration and illustration.
It requires no adornment. His reality of personal experience speaks for itself.
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