Pyongyang : A Journey in North Korea - Guy Delisle

The is a travel memoir. It was originally written in French. The author shares about  his experiences in Pyongyang, where he stayed two months for his work. Everything was monitored by the state. He too was followed and allowed to visit only preselected places. The writing is straight forward and  I liked it that way. I laughed loud many times while reading

The author explains his everyday routine with its uniqueness and some mundane behaviours of the people and the police. Most of the places he visited were devoted to state and glorifying its deeds. He was assigned personal translator , who was everything to him there. The author was taken aback by things such as reverse walking , no disabled and elderly people, the propaganda mechanisms and the cult of its past and current leaders.

The pencil drawings are excellent , brings the mood and emotion , I like it. I believe author used this strategy to highlight the monotony of the live under the military regime. The author is not politically leaning, he just sketched whatever he saw. On the other hand, the author was not interested in forming friendship locals and he was all alone.   Was Delisle judgemental ? was he over the top?  Was he poking fun at the people of  North Korea? , at the end all these questions arises. I believe we cannot define certain things .

Good read.