Bury me standing : the Gypsies and their journey / Isabel Fonseca ; [with a new afterword by the author].

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A masterful work of personal reportage, this volume is also a vibrant portrait of a mysterious people and an essential document of a disappearing culture.

Fabled, feared, romanticized, and reviled, the Gypsies--or Roma--are among the least understood people on earth. Their culture remains largely obscure, but in Isabel Fonseca they have found an eloquent witness.

In Bury Me Standing , alongside unforgettable portraits of individuals--the poet, the politician, the child prostitute--Fonseca offers sharp insights into the humor, language, wisdom, and taboos of the Roma. She traces their exodus out of India 1,000 years ago and their astonishing history of persecution: enslaved by the princes of medieval Romania; massacred by the Nazis; forcibly assimilated by the communist regimes; evicted from their settlements in Eastern Europe, and most recently, in Western Europe as well. Whether as handy scapegoats or figments of the romantic imagination, the Gypsies have always been with us--but never before have they been brought so vividly to life.

Includes fifty black and white photos.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Traveling as a journalist, Fonseca stayed with a number of Gypsy families in Eastern Europe between 1991 and 1995. Through her experiences with them, study of the scholarship about them, and interviews with leading figures, she has produced a contemporary account of their status, incorporating details of their society, culture, and history. Her work portrays their commitment to tribal traditions and adherence to ritual and offers good insights, particularly into women's lives. The author regards Gypsies as "an ancient scapegoat" who survive through their traditions and a collective denial of their mistreatment by outsiders, including the Germans during World War II. The author details the discrimination that has kept the Gypsies, now often called Roma, from development of an identity and acceptance by the international community. Fonseca's work will appeal to both interested lay readers and scholars in the field. It belongs in subject collections.-Rena Fowler, Humboldt State Univ., Arcata, Cal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

An exploration of the frequently persecuted and misunderstood Gypsy population of eastern Europe. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Fonseca's book is a popular survey of Gypsy persecution in contemporary Germany and the emerging "democracies" of Eastern Europe. Although this serves to put a human face on the sketchy newspaper reports of recent years, there is little here of value to the scholar or specialist. Unfortunately, the author lacks the linguistic, ethnographic, or analytic skills to do justice to this very important topic. Rather, the book consists of a first person, highly reflexive account of the author's travels and brief visits among Gypsies in the region. Fonseca also borrows heavily from previously published works, but although she includes an extensive bibliography, she does not reference these so that the interested reader might further pursue a particular topic. Moreover, it is not always possible to tell what material is the result of her own observations and what is derived from secondary sources. This deficiency is particularly important, given that the literature on Gypsies is notoriously irregular in its reliability. Most original and interesting is Fonseca's final chapter recording her observations of Gypsy leaders and intelligentsia as they struggle among themselves and with those among whom they live to achieve human rights. General readers. W. G. Lockwood University of Michigan

Kirkus Book Review

A journalist's vivid study of Eastern Europe's Gypsies (the Roma) that explores the myths, customs, and actuality of Gypsy life while addressing the central question of Gypsy identity in the post-Holocaust 20th century. Partly because they do not have a written tradition of their own, Gypsies have not figured prominently in mainstream scholarly and journalistic writing. Here Fonseca aims to give them the attention they deserve. Bury Me Standing is actually several works in one: socio-anthropological fieldwork, journalism, oral history, and colorful narrative. Although the ordering of its parts is at times chaotic, the study's diversity is an asset; it provides captivating, intimate accounts of Gypsy customs and gender and social relations, as well as serious consideration of scholarly debates and issues concerning the ill treatment of Gypsies in European history (slavery, persecution, the Holocaust, contemporary injustices). Fonseca has a knack for linking insight to wit and observation, as in this comment on Gypsy dogs: ``All seem to be lame or one-eyed or stub-tailed, as if their main job wasn't to protect or to appear faithful but to make people feel better about their own shortcomings.'' But at the core of Fonseca's investigation lies her interest in the Gypsies' ``continual self- reinvention'' and their ``search for a positive identity'' to offset the reputation that burdens them in society. Some Gypsies have returned to their supposed Hindu roots. On the other hand, they have a strange reluctance to respond to the Holocaust (500,000 dead). If suppression of past Gypsy suffering continues, contends the author, their fate in the faltering democracies of Eastern Europe may be bleak. In the postCold War atmosphere of renewed nationalism and economic uncertainty, scapegoating is rampant. Fonseca's book comes at a crucial moment and could open an important discussion. (30 photos, not seen; 3 maps)