A consideration of North Korea must be, one supposes, a howl of rage, a moan of despair, or some combination, and this anger and despair must certainly be molded into one of the standard forms available for expression. It could be a polemic, a memoir, an expose, or a harsh and realistic novel. It would not, one feels certain, be a wry and witty comic book, but Guy Delisle's "Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea" shatters that certainty.
This account of the two months he spent in and around the North Korean capital and his chosen form -- call it a "graphic novel" if you must -- proves to be the perfect vehicle to convey not just the absurdity and awfulness of Kim Jong Il's fiefdom, but also what it feels like to be a visitor from the West dropped into its gray and regimented midst.
Delisle, an animator and cartoonist, had the dubious privilege of parachuting into North Korea thanks to the globalization of the workplace. When animation studios in France found they could no longer pay their draftsmen First World wages they looked to illustrators in the Third World who would work for less. Even China came to seem too pricey, so the bean-counters next turned to North Korea, and thus Delisle was sent to supervise production of an animated feature at the Scientific and Educational Film Studio of Korea.