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    Pyongyang
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    Pyongyang
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    Pyongyang
    Ebook183 pages0 minutes

    Pyongyang

    By Guy Delisle

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea is Guy Delisle's graphic novel that made his career,an international bestseller for over ten years. Delisle became one of the few Westerners to be allowed access to the fortresslike country when he was working in animation for a French company.

    While living in the nation's capital for two months on a work visa, Delisle observed everything he was allowed to see of the culture and lives of the few North Koreans he encountered, bringing a sardonic and skeptical perspective on a place rife with propaganda. As a guide to the country, Delisle is a non-believer with a keen eye for the humor and tragedy of dictatorial whims, expressed in looming architecture and tiny, omnipresent photos of the President. The absurd vagaries of everyday life become fodder for a frustrated animator’s musings as boredom and censorship sink in. Delisle himself is the ideal foil for North Korean spin, the grumpy outsider who brought a copy of George Orwell’s 1984 with him into the totalitarian nation.

    Pyongyang is an informative, personal, and accessible look at a dangerous and enigmatic country.

    Pyongyang has been translated from the French by Helge Dascher. Dascher has been translating graphic novels from French and German to English for over twenty years. A contributor to Drawn & Quarterly since the early days, her translations include acclaimed titles such as the Aya series by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie, Hostage by Guy Delisle, and Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët. With a background in art history and history, she also translates books and exhibitions for museums in North America and Europe. She lives in Montreal.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDrawn & Quarterly
    Release dateMay 4, 2021
    ISBN9781770461864
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Pyongyang

    4/5

    657 ratings29 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I would have enjoy the book but it was slow at many parts and some of the pages were missing. Not worth the read.
    • 5/5
       A horrific travel-journal from a Canadian's time in North Korea. Surreal in being both funny and scary. - Lucky
    • 4/5
      Only reason I gave this 4 instead of 5 stars is because it’s too short and I would like more of it. Guy’s adventures are fascinating as always!
    • 4/5
      Beautifully written and illustrated memoir of a time spent in an upside-down culture.
    • 3/5
      I read this book because my son was assigned it for AP World History and I thought it might be interesting. Not that interesting. I don't particularly like graphic novels. I felt like not that much information was given. And it was only mildly interesting.
    • 3/5
      I really enjoyed Delisle's graphic novels about Jerusalem and Burma, where he described how his family lived during his wife's stints with Doctors Without Borders. Both gave me a feel for the country and life as a father to a young child. Alas, Delisle's family was not with him in Pyongyang (he was there to do Animation work for only two months) because they might have put him into a better mood and put him in a less reckless state of mind.He complains. A lot. It is a shame he seems surprised that his food choices are limited in a country where people are starving, and also a shame that while he is in a rigid and repressive country he isn't surprised to have the freedom to go to a nightclub and a casino and get drunk. A lot. All in all, I'm inclined to think that being around Mr. Delisle didn't improve his guide and translator's views of Westerners. Delisle notes the fear that many have of being sent to re-education camps, but knowing of this fear doesn't stop him from handing a copy of Orwell's 1984 to one of his North Korean guides. Good grief. And the drunken shenanigans of his crowd demonstrate the tremendous privilege they take for granted--that they will not be arrested for bad behavior. Who in their right mind would flick the power switch on and off on any revolving restaurant, let alone one that is in Pyongyang? I will say that I appreciated the sadness Delisle conveyed in the depictions of that dark turtle tank.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      An engaging graphic novel, with an insight into a country which is stranger than Science Fiction. Fom the pen of an animator who lived in Pyongyang for 2 months.
    • 5/5
      A truly enjoyable book, about a country a know little about, I dont yet own a copy but in the future I would like to add it to my collection. Very good indeed.
    • 4/5
      While graphic novels are not normally my thing I enjoyed this look inside North Korea.
    • 5/5
      As someone with an avid interest in the politics of the two Koreas of the 20th century, and now the 21st as well, this graphic novel about one man's work in an animation studio in the capital of North Korea was a great and detailed read. The frustration of the author at the attitudes of those who he felt were clearly being taken for a ride is empathetic, but his observations of a very different world also provoke thought and contemplation.

      A really fine memoir/graphic novel/documentation of a strange job in a strange place.
    • 4/5
      A French animator spends 2 months in Pyongyang and draws a memoir of his stay there, providing an interesting view of this totalitarian nation.
    • 4/5
      I've spent a lot of time in Seoul but none in North Korea--naturally, I am curious. The idea of presenting a perspective on North Korea in the form of a graphic novel struck me as an insightful choice. This story of a Westerner's encounter with the most closed society in today's world is great!
    • 3/5
      Good, but slight. I read it as a companion to Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. They cover some of the same ground in describing life in North Korea, but Delisle never manages to get out of Pyongyang and Ordinary Lives goes into more detail. And it's more compelling to read anyway. Pyongyang is fine, but no more.
    • 3/5
      This is an odd book. It brings together the graphic novel and North Korean austerity. Canadian animator Guy Delisle spent time in North Korea, which has apparently become the new favored source for cheap animation labor. In this book Delisle captures the absurdities of life in Pyongyang, more through pictures than through words. Only one floor of Delisle's massive hotel has electricity, there's bizarre and uninspired food, and minimal recreation activities. Delisle brings a copy of 1984 with him, and North Korea is certainly an Orwellian society. I think I would have found this book more effective if I didn't really know anything about North Korea. There's nothing really surprising here. I enjoyed Delisle's drawings, but I felt like there was too much drawing and not enough narrative. I think I'd have preferred an art exhibit to a book. Ultimately the book lacks depth, and the illustrations don't make up for what the writing lacks.
    • 4/5
      This engaging graphic novel, Pyongyang by Guy Delisle, takes a gently humorous look at North Korea. How unlikely does that sound? This is a graphic memoir of time spent there by French-Canadian Guy. He has a clean, lively graphic style. He is allowed into the country to help an animation studio complete what seems to be a poor quality kiddie cartoon. He's prohibited from going anywhere without a guide. The city has large hotels and theaters from more prosperous times that are now largely empty and becoming rundown. His hotel has no electricity except for a few floors for foreigners, and the few restaurants are also unpopulated, except for a smattering of foreigners. Photos of Kim Jong-Il and his son are everywhere, and he gets to visit a ridiculous museum dedicated to Kim, accompanied by an enthusiastic guide.North Korea may be the world's most isolated country now. There's no Internet (compare South Korea!) There is not much going on in Pyongyang. And yet this book is fascinating. It's an insider's view of a place rarely photographed, visited or reported on. It's a communist dictatorship, with military everywhere. It still has "re-education" camps. However, maybe unsurprisingly, every Korean he meets praises its "Great Leader" Kim and exclaims about the accomplishments of their country compared to the rest of the world. The U.S. and Japan are vilified, capitalism has caused all the world's ills. All in North Korea is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. When, for example, Guy asks why he has seen no handicapped people, he is told: "All North Koreans are born strong, intelligent and healthy."By all reports there have been some excellent books written about North Korea recently, like Nothing to Envy. I'm now much more interested in reading them. If you're curious about North Korea, this is an improbably fun way to learn more about it, while being amused by Guy's everyman reactions to what he encounters.
    • 3/5
      In 2001 Delisle went to North Korea to work as a supervisor of animation of a children's cartoon, whilst he was there he documented his stay with drawings. The result is quite interesting, a view into North Korea that you wouldn't necessarily get as he copes with strict rules, the work fixated culture and the NCO parties. There is gentle humour interlaced with shocking facts and everyday existence. The art is nice; black & white but more homely than harsh. My only problem is it was too humdrum in a way, not surprising given all the rules he has to follow, but it left me wanting to know a bit more. Oh well I have always wanted to go to North Korea.. although maybe now isn't the best time.
    • 2/5
      Interesting account of the author's two month stay in North Korea as an expat for an animation company. As the country is so closed to outsiders any account of the inside gives new views. However, in North Korea, even as an outsider travels in, he can only touch the outside of the inside. Because contact with the general population is not allowed, except for the usual official guides, drivers and translators, designated to the foreigner by the regime. So logically, the foreigner will not get in touch with anyone thinking differently, and even if he does, he will never know, because these persons will not speak freely. The author clearly got frustrated, and describes his stay with sarcasm. Sometimes that works out funny, at other times I honestly thought that the author was a very obnoxious overconfident typical westerner, just kicking against what is different with complete lack of empathy. In the end, this very much remains the story of a (rather typical) expat in North Korea. I must admit that I was a little disappointed about that.
    • 4/5
      Once again, without Stanford, I probably would never have picked up this book. As it was, I had to resort (with thanks and gratitude for the existence of the program) to inter-library loan to get a copy. This graphic novel is an account of the author's time in North Korea, working on an animation project there.The very nature of a graphic novel means that some things will be abbreviated more than might be in a more traditional format. To my mind, the graphic format fit very well for portraying the curtailed interaction Delisle was allowed to have in Pyongyang. His observations allowed the reader to both glimpse what life was like outside his circumscribed world, and at the same time, allowed insight into how foreigners are kept separate from the majority of North Korea. His experiences were portrayed with humor and clarity. I still know woefully little about North Korea (besides what can be gleaned from our news media), but this gave me a different perspective of that society (and very timely after recent regieme changes). Loved that he brought 1984 with him to read.One thing that was curious, and showed my American mindset, is that because the novel was written in English, though the author is French, every time there were reference to the evil America, I had to stop and remind myself that the author's reference point was not American. I've not had that problem with other translated novels, or novels written in English by non-Americans, so I wonder what about the author's style, or the graphic format made my mind work that way.
    • 2/5
      This guy clearly sees himself as a world traveller/raconteur rather than a smug dick, and is oddly confident we'll feel likewise. On the other hand, the fact that there's not much in this book besides "and then a North Korean said something stupid, and then I laughed" does kind of get across the emptiness of Choson life, doesn't it, whether it's the empty tedium of the expat or the empty belly and empty heart of the locals. (Great Successor Kim Jong Un, may your reign last a thousand years if against all our assumptions you turn out to be the guy to change that!)
    • 4/5
      It was whimsy that had me pick up and read Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea ahead of all the other books on my reading list, including those I'm currently working through. I can't say exactly why I decided to read it, and now that I've read it (and in a single session, too!), I can't really pinpoint why I enjoyed it or what made it so appealing.The topic of the book is really quite grim: Delisle describes the North Korea he experienced while in Pyongyang for two months on assignment for his work as an animator. The style of the art and the little asides he inserts into the narrative lighten the mood a bit - there is plenty of humor, both situational and tongue-in-cheek about the Great Leader and his propaganda. Even so, the whole place is grim and dreary and a bit absurd, which Delisle doesn't shy from pointing out when describing the great monuments of the regime.At first, I found it a bit difficult to read because of sudden shifts in scene without very clear changes, or topics without clear markers of what they are or how they came about. As I progressed through the book, though, I got used to Delisle's storytelling and didn't find it so bothersome. I noticed that the pages have a similar cadence to someone telling a story orally, rather than written.To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what Pyongyang tells about North Korea that other reports don't tell, though it does so through the lens of an animator rather than a journalist or humanitarian or diplomat. But I feel that I know dreadfully little about North Korea, and I appreciated being able to bolster what I know with the illustrations. Pyongyang probably can't compare to the popular Nothing to Envy, but it has its place and is worth a look.
    • 4/5
      Guy is a Canadian animator who often travels to Asia to work for various companies. This is one of the graphic novels he decided to write, chronicling the cultural and social aspects of living as a working visitor for weeks or months at a time in distinctly foreign country. Pyongyang was particularly interesting since it gives you glimpses of the elusive and secretive North Korea. I'm still not sold 100% on Guy's voice as a storyteller (or maybe it's him as a character in his own story?) but the content is by nature totally compelling.
    • 5/5
      Humor accompanies the tragic modern day observations of North Korea in this memoir. Western readers will get a rare first hand account of the day to day operations of the citizenry as experienced by a cartoonist on a work visa. The author uses the novel 1984 as an appropriate backdrop to his adventure abroad, and presents his memoir in the fashion he is most comfortable with: a graphic novel. The visual language of the drawings create a mood of loneliness and rigidity that tell a heavier story than the words that populate the panels. The subjective nature of the personal insights highlight the need for further factual readings about North Korean society, and high school librarians should plan accordingly.
    • 4/5
      This humorous travelogue is about cartoonist Guy Delisle's experiences in the enigmatic country of North Korea, where the French animation company he works for has offices. Just what kind of country the author is entering becomes apparent on the first page, which shows his bag being checked by a security guard who has to ask him about its contents, such as what kind of book he has in his bag and what kind of music is in his CD player, as he nervously gives his explanation. The author not only describes the strict security measures in place, like the need for his translator and guide to accompany him everywhere, but also the various oddities of the country, many of which indicate that much of what the author sees in Pyongang is a facade. So much politically can be said about North Korea and Delisle has some opportunity to do just that, but most of the book is just about day-to-day occurrences that show how an average guy would experience a bizarre country like North Korea. As travelogues in graphic novel formats go, this book is a must-read.
    • 5/5
      This was an excellent book. Humor may be the only way to deal with living in North Korea either as a foreigner or a native. Mr. Delisle's response to the bizarro world he found himself in as an animator was to illustrate the perplixities inherent in life there. Forbidden to travel without a guide, he nonetheless found ways to circumvent this rule on occasion. But even with his guide in tow, or maybe even especially so, he had plenty of other-worldly experiences of the kind only available in a county which seems to exist only to venerate their leaders. His well-drawn, cartoon style illustrations offer a perfect anti-dote the singularly repressive existance of the North Koreans.
    • 5/5
      As much a news report as a graphic novel. Probably the only way to get a visual understanding of the North Korean world. This concept should be used with other "closed" countries and/or areas.
    • 3/5
      Well, a new experience. I read this book as it was recommended as a staff pick at work by a respected colleague. My first experience with a graphic novel. Really, quite interesting. I rather liked the animation and the story was very interesting, a quite depressing story of life in North Korea. But I wouldn't have gotten this story anywhere else, certainly.
    • 5/5
      Guy Delisle does a good job of being funny without lessening the grim absurdity of Pyongyang. He also does an admirable job of providing a gentle and sympathetic portrait of the poor saps who live and suffer in Pyongyang.
    • 5/5
      Guy Delisle's Pyongyang wonderfully captures the experience of a short-term visitor to the capital of the "hermit kingdom". Delisle presents the People's Republic of Korea as a sort of inverted Disneyland, lacking the cute anthropomorphic characters and functional infrastructure that make The Mouse a more hospitable host.Delisle's simple, cartoony drawing style is entirely appropriate for depicting the strange, crumbling wonders that surround him in Pyongyang. The city itself ultimately gives off the feeling of a film set, with expansive modern facades disguising the emptiness within. Delisle faces the usual problems of an expatriate worker who is culturally and linguistically isolated in his daily environment, and yet he allows his curiosity and his sense of humor to make the journey more interesting, if not entirely pleasant.Pyongyang strikes me as a sister volume to Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, with the major difference being that Satrapi is intimately involved with the culture that she depicts, while Delisle is the consummate outsider. Nonetheless, Delisle's may yet be the better work, since he is a highly effective mirror of all the strangeness that surrounds him in Pyongyang, and thus his story is all the more odd and compelling at the same time.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating and easily read in one day. Graphic novels are a fabulous way to synthesize facts, stories, and humor.