The perennial graphic novel about a "hermit country," with a new cover
and an introduction by Gore Verbinski
Guy Delisle's Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea is the graphic novel
that made his career, an international bestseller for more than ten
years. Delisle became one of the few Westerners to be allowed access to
the fortress-like 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.