Book Summary
This graphic novel tells about the time in Guy Delisle's life that he worked as an animator in the hermit country of North Korea. While the reader gets insight into Delisle's thoughts, feelings, and the work he did while he was there, the black and white illustrations give a feeling of the loneliness and oddness of North Korea. The reader also learns a lot of information about North Korea in another format.
APA Reference of the Book
Delisle, Guy. (2007). Pyongyang: A journey in North Korea. Montreal, Quebec: L'Association.
Impression
I was very excited to read this graphic novel because North Korea is big area of interest. I lived for three years in South Korea and have read extensively on North Korea and the issues the divided countries face. I think this was a great format to write this memoir, because the visual elements of it were better communicated than if it was just described. Many of the visuals in this were very powerful. Because I've read a lot on North Korea, there were not many new things that I learned about the country. But I think for someone unfamiliar on the nation, this would be an interesting read. I did not especially like Delisle's style of writing. There were a few underlying jabs towards Asians in general, especially about the Chinese. I'm not sure if this was his intention, but I did not care for this attitude. A huge issue that I took with this book was when he would write in Korea. While, I don't speak or have an extensive Korean vocabulary, his Korean was nonsensical. Some of the characters were not even real characters and many of the "words" he would write wouldn't even include a vowel, so they were not real words. While I don't expect everything to be in perfect Korean, a bit of research and translation would have gone a long way.
Professional Review
Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea
by Guy Delisle
Jonathan Cape £12.99, pp184
Comic-book memoirs of life in dangerous locations have become a minor genre. Joe Sacco's Palestine was followed by Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis books, documenting life in revolutionary Iran. Now French-Canadian cartoonist Guy Delisle's Pyongyang chronicles his two-month stay in North Korea, supervising animation work, prior to 9/11.
As a foreigner, severely restricted in where he may travel, much of Delisle's account centres on official landmarks devoted to the state and its glorious leadership. Even a trip to the railway station requires several days' prior notice, and the pocket guide counsels sternly: 'Do not try anything on your own.' Delisle's evocative pencil drawings are suited to depicting a colourless, twilight world in which the state is all, with his rudimentary characters inhabiting vast and much more detailed architectural environments. Less well drawn are the inner lives of Pyongyang's citizens.
Even Delisle's ubiquitous 'guide' and translator remain little more than surfaces, etched only with party propaganda and moments of discomfort. Perhaps this is exactly how people behaved in the author's presence; perhaps they were genuinely inscrutable. Pyongyang effectively conveys a foreigner's experience of this Hermit Kingdom, though one can't help but wonder what lies behind those surfaces, especially now that North Korea has joined the nuclear club.
Thompson, D. (2006). [Review of the book: Pyongyang: A journey in North Korea, by G. Delise]. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/oct/15/travel.features
North Korea is a huge area of interest because of the prominence of the country in the news and the mystery that surrounds the hermit country. Pairing this book with The Aquariums of Pyongyang would be an interesting comparison of the memoirs. It would lead to great discussion for a high school reading club.
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