Burma Chronicles

Delisle presents himself as a tag-along, as his wife is doing work in Myanmar with MSF. They also bring their young child. The year long stay is presented through short stories, usually between one and four pages, showing either a specific event that happens, or his impression of an element of the local culture.

This is a very charming book, where Delisle manages to both lovingly describe a society that is alien to him (often making himself the butt of the jokes), while also showing several of the darker sides of the country and the situation it was in. Delisle is obviously curious about the society, and explores both politics, culture, daily life and religion. He manages to tell about his "adventuers" in a way that is both funny and thought provoking. And unlike many "travelogues", there's little attempt of him to put himself in any adventorous light.

While it took a while for me to get used to the drawings, they eventually grew on me, and by the end I was completely sold by them. The "newspaper funnies"-style (both visually and structurally at times) feels at odds with the matter at hand, but it does end up working really well.