Asian Trips - Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea
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List Price: $14.95
www.asiantrips.info Price: $10.17
Your Save: $ 4.78 ( 32% )
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Manufacturer: Drawn and Quarterly
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 951.93043
EAN: 9781897299210
ISBN: 1897299214
Label: Drawn and Quarterly
Manufacturer: Drawn and Quarterly
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: 2007-05-01
Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
Release Date: 2007-05-01
Studio: Drawn and Quarterly
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Editorial Reviews:
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Famously referred to as an 'Axis-of-Evil' country, North Korea remains one of the most secretive and mysterious nations in the world today. A series of manmade and natural catastrophes have also left it one of the poorest. When the fortress-like country recently opened the door a crack to foreign investment, cartoonist Guy Delisle found himself in its capital Pyongyang on a work visa for a French film animation company, becoming one of the few Westerners to witness current conditions in the surreal showcase city. Armed with a smuggled radio and a copy of 1984, Delisle could only explore Pyongyang and its countryside while chaperoned by his translator and a guide. But among the statues, portraits and propaganda of leaders Kim Il-Sung and his son Kim Jong-Il - the world's only Communist dynasty - Delisle was able to observe more than was intended of the culture and lives of the few North Koreans he encountered. His astute and wry musings on life in the austere and grim regime form the basis of this remarkable graphic novel. "Pyongyang" is an informative, personal and accessible look at an enigmatic country.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Long Love Our Invincible Leader Kim Jong Il!
Comment: With the domestic animation industry fading away in his adopted country France, Guy Delisle was given the rare opportunity to work in North Korea to oversee the production of a cartoon that had been botched by the North Korean staff. Although already a bit seasoned in Asia because of his work in China and Vietnam, Delisle's experience had not prepared him for his two month long sojourn into the most hermetically sealed nation in the world.
Travelogues by individuals traveling into areas that are normally sealed off to the general population are quite prevalent in travel literature, but Delisle's comic rendition of his journey, while not quite as hard hitting as Joe Sacco's graphic diaries into Palestine and Bosnia, offers a fresh look in to the northern part of the Hermit Kingdom which most, especially Americans, will never see.
Delisle is shocked at first upon his arrival into Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, not so much by the blackouts and emptiness of the city, but because of its sterile nature and tenseness that continuously fills the air. Being a foreigner, Delisle is not allowed to travel unaccompanied, so he is always in the company of a guide, translator, or a driver. This keeps him from being able to escape his work environs, selected hotels for foreigners, where even most of the staff is foreign, Chinese, or designated tourist sites. Therefore, most of his speculations about life in North Korea are based on observances made from afar. However, the author is able to chip through slightly the shiny veneer of the North Koreans who work close to him to reveal a people who have been completely brainwashed by their government into thinking that their sealed off nation is the pinnacle of the world and that the megalomaniacal dictator Kim Jong il is the flower of perfection.
Delisle has been criticized because he supposedly does not have any new knowledge to convey in this book and that he really makes no attempt to get to know the North Koreans around him. I find this to be a bit harsh, and believe Pyongyang: a Journey to North Korea is a fine work that gives the reader a view into a country, without premeditated political overbearing, that he or she would not normally be privy to.
Delisle's artwork is quite simple, but his simple characters convey emotion well and his eye for detail is quite outstanding. Having read this work, I do indeed intend to read the other graphic travel diaries of this author.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Guy Delisle is my Dear Leader!
Comment: Having recently visited North Korea for 4 of the wackiest, most surreal and intensely thought-provoking days of my life, I can recommend this book as the next best thing to visiting that crazy country.
The country is such a closed clam that the visual memories are those that sustain you as you ask yourself, "Did I really go there? Was it some insane episode from 'The Prisoner'? (sorry Guy, borrowed that one from you!)
The book captures in the most perceptive manner the horrendous mind-control that lies at the centre of this society. However, it also manages to make it laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.
I literally laughed till tears came at some of the moments illustrated in Guy's deceptively simple drawings. I even sought out and found the turtle in the lobby of the hotel he stayed in!
The book made me rush out and buy his (very disappointing) Shenzhen follow up and I'm currently reading his 'Burma Chronicles'. Sadly neither seems to come close to the 'Pyongyang' masterpiece.
By all means read Bradley Martin's ''Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader' for a comprehensive understanding of how the DPRK got into the mess it's in at the moment. But for sheer armchair travel, and even perhaps as a spur for you to go there, read this wonderful self-deprecating shrewdly observant laugh-fest. You'll thank me for it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Excellent and Rare Glimpse into Pyongyang
Comment: After finishing Bradley Martin's excellent Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty, I was interested in finding out more about the DPRK. This book is pretty current, more so than Martin's book (excluding his Epilogue) and helps bring to life a lot of the facts that Martin left unanimated (no pun intended.)
This book is essentially an illustrated travelogue, and a well-illustrated one at that. It was always enjoyable to read and engaging. Not only that, at the end of that day it offered better understanding of a few things in the DPRK. He documents the life of a foreigner with more access to the country than a diplomat or journalist but not as much as an NGO worker. So the life of the medium/long-term expat in Pyongyang is exposed like never before. Via that, recent developments in "openness" are shown for what they really are.
Pyongyang is a strange strange place and Delisle exploits that for humor as well as a poignant commentary about the poor people who suffer from that strangeness.
Aside from describing life in North Korea, it opened my eyes to a lot of what goes on in the animation industry--the offshoring as well as the technical challenges of bringing a cartoon to life.
I lent my copy to other members of my family--some avid comic readers and others for whom this was their first comic--and they all really enjoyed it. So I recommend it, especially for the discounted amazon price.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Guy Delisle is the man
Comment: This Guy is one of the coolest guys. I have this book and his Shenzhen book and I abosolutly love them. I lend them to people all of the time. You can't go wrong with this book. This has to be the very best way to capture a memory. You go under cover with Guy in a way that video cameras and microphones cannot take you. Simply awesome.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A rare and well crafted glimpse into a secret world
Comment: I finished this graphic novel about 2 months ago and it still stays with me. Guy Delisle excels at delivering "big picture" descriptions of life in Pyongyang and North Korea as well as the more unique (or odd) details of a Westerner just trying to pass his time on a job in a nation closed off from the world.
His art compliments the mostly lighthearted take on his often puzzling encounters. It also helps the more serious matters subversively arrive.
Delisle briefly pulled back a curtain and introduced to me to a place and people I've known very little about. My curiosity about Pyongyang and for details about life in N.K. has only continued.
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