Chroniques Birmanes

For the most part, I really enjoyed Guy Delisle’s new graphic novel, Chroniques Birmanes (not yet available in English as far as I know, but I imagine it will be shortly, like his other works via Drawn & Quarterly). This was actually the first of his graphic novels I’ve read, so I can’t say if they all follow the same formula, but if they do, and I’d read the others, maybe this one wouldn’t have felt so fresh? In any case, the book basically covers a little over a year he spent living in Burma (or the Union of Myanmar) with his wife, who works for Medicines sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders), and their very young son (3 or 4 years old, I’d guess). Instead of trying to tell some grand, big story, he spends most of the book showing little episodes from their lives. Although the book runs for 263 pages, most of the stories are told in 1 to 3 pages, with a few stretching out a little longer. This is an approach I really like. The snapshot. The little stories all do add up to tell a big story, but you’re never lost in it, and never bored. It’s an easy book to pick up when you have a little time, read a few stories, then put down for however long, until you feel ready for another little bite. And since each story is pretty much its own thing, it’s a good book to digest a little at a time. I felt it actually read a lot longer than 263 pages would imply - I really got immersed into the world he was showing - it actually reads like a longer book than it is. Not to say its dense - for the most part if feels really balanced between, lightly humorous pieces and more serious things - like the reality of living in a country with a dictator at the top. There are also a few especially enjoyable strips that went mostly wordless - the quieter the comics got, the more I liked them, really. Just occasionally, Delisle did seem to get a little didactic, and those few passages, where he couldn’t help himself from over describing his surroundings maybe, were a minor off note.

As for the artwork, I was impressed by how much he was able to do with such a simplified, newspaper-strip like style - where everything is cut down to a minimum. There’s a lot of humor brought into the stories just because of the nice way he drew his characters and their surroundings. The artwork definitely drew me into the world, even as it left a enough space for me to fill in the details on my own (sort of like the anti-Joe Sacco). I especially liked the way he drew people when they were slouching.

The book is basically the story of what happens when a kind, thoughtful, smart, family goes to a new country to live for a year. One an aid worker, one a cartoonist, and one a little baby. Is the book maybe too nice, too light for its own good? Maybe a little, but I enjoyed it, found it mostly interesting and felt it was very well drawn. And I really felt the goodbye feeling as the book drew to a close.