Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey

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  John B

  5.0 de 5 estrellasCompra verificada

  Very interesting read

  Calificado en Reino Unido el 3 de octubre de 2023

  Bought as a present for a family member who loved the book and rated it highly. I read only a few chapters but it's very well written and essentially a love letter to a suppressed and almost invisible European ethnic minority. My relative tells me it's one of the...Ver más

  Bought as a present for a family member who loved the book and rated it highly. I read only a few chapters but it's very well written and essentially a love letter to a suppressed and almost invisible European ethnic minority. My relative tells me it's one of the best he's read on European gypsies, their culture and their misunderstood history.

  Bought as a present for a family member who loved the book and rated it highly. I read only a few chapters but it's very well written and essentially a love letter to a suppressed and almost invisible European ethnic minority. My relative tells me it's one of the best he's read on European gypsies, their culture and their misunderstood history.
  

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  Inapropiada

  Irrespetuosa, con odio, obscena

  Falsa

  Pagada, no es auténtica

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• 

  E N Cuentro

  5.0 de 5 estrellasCompra verificada

  Travelogue, history, ethnography...

  Calificado en Reino Unido el 11 de marzo de 2007

  What is this book? A history? A sociology? A primary source, an ethnography? A travel book? It is all of these things in turn. Fonseca lives with Roma families from Albania to the Czech republic, supplementing her acute observation with reference to scholarship and myth....Ver más

  What is this book? A history? A sociology? A primary source, an ethnography? A travel book? It is all of these things in turn. Fonseca lives with Roma families from Albania to the Czech republic, supplementing her acute observation with reference to scholarship and myth. Almost certainly, this is a story you have not heard. The history of the Romani people is not taught in schools, and is rarely acknowledged in public discourse. The Gypsies are Europe's shame, now; and we should have some understanding of how that has happened, what that means. This is a rare, humanising book - as one reviewer put it, 'a passionate and dramatic defence of the defenceless'. Bury Me Standing was published more than a decade ago. Fonseca hasn't published since (though is reported to be working on a novel), having married Martin Amis and started a family in the intervening years. I suspect like many readers, I was dissapointed that there wasn't another volume of hers I could turn to, to revisit the lyricism, sensitivity and cool outrage found in the pages of this book. It's also a shame that it hasn't been updated, or that there's no companion volume which brings the Gypsies' journey up until the present. Though their immiseration persists, the enlarging EU has placed some pressure on Eastern European governments to ameliorate conditions somewhat. I've seen this on many shelves. The evocative defiance of the title is a good guide to the quality of the prose, and the commitment of the author. As an introduction to the Roma, this is as readable and careful as you'll find.

  What is this book? A history? A sociology? A primary source, an ethnography? A travel book? It is all of these things in turn. Fonseca lives with Roma families from Albania to the Czech republic, supplementing her acute observation with reference to scholarship and myth.
  
  Almost certainly, this is a story you have not heard. The history of the Romani people is not taught in schools, and is rarely acknowledged in public discourse. The Gypsies are Europe's shame, now; and we should have some understanding of how that has happened, what that means. This is a rare, humanising book - as one reviewer put it, 'a passionate and dramatic defence of the defenceless'.
  
  Bury Me Standing was published more than a decade ago. Fonseca hasn't published since (though is reported to be working on a novel), having married Martin Amis and started a family in the intervening years. I suspect like many readers, I was dissapointed that there wasn't another volume of hers I could turn to, to revisit the lyricism, sensitivity and cool outrage found in the pages of this book. It's also a shame that it hasn't been updated, or that there's no companion volume which brings the Gypsies' journey up until the present. Though their immiseration persists, the enlarging EU has placed some pressure on Eastern European governments to ameliorate conditions somewhat.
  
  I've seen this on many shelves. The evocative defiance of the title is a good guide to the quality of the prose, and the commitment of the author. As an introduction to the Roma, this is as readable and careful as you'll find.
  

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  Irrespetuosa, con odio, obscena

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  Pagada, no es auténtica

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• 

  Thespionic

  4.0 de 5 estrellasCompra verificada

  Excellent History of the Gypsy

  Calificado en Reino Unido el 15 de febrero de 2014

  I agree with the majority on here that this is an excellent read. Having had a very limited knowledge of the history of gypsies to date, I wanted to know more. I had no idea of how they had been so awfully persecuted and hounded throughout their history. This book is more...Ver más

  I agree with the majority on here that this is an excellent read. Having had a very limited knowledge of the history of gypsies to date, I wanted to know more. I had no idea of how they had been so awfully persecuted and hounded throughout their history. This book is more about traditional gypsy lifestyles in Europe than the more modern caravan travelling / site gypsies of the twenty first century as we know it in the UK. The book does it's best to give you a full picture, it covers: their beginnings, their spread through Europe etc., their cultures, the language, the perception of gypsies and their endless targeting as a social problem. Minor atrocities against gypsies have been common over hundreds of years, some 500,000 were gassed by the Nazis; some 250,000 held as slaves. Are gypsies natural travellers or is it that they are continually forced to move on? The gypsy is a conundrum? They are fiercely independent, keep themselves to themselves, and do not like outside interference. Even this author found it difficult to get information from them and about them at times? The book throws up the charge of thieving against the gypsies on numerous occasions but the book neither defends them or condones them? Surely as people they wish to become better educated and at least try to improve their illiteracy rates? Again, there seems some apathy here? It is typical that best estimates of gypsy populations are between four and fourteen million worldwide! How typical is that, showing again how difficult it is in tracking them down! They don't do census! The gypsies are themselves have no idea how many were slaughtered by Hitler, history is not one of their strongpoints, nor is their desire to find out. These are very insular people and in many ways, uncomplicated, straightforward and elementary. I do find a lot of their culture quite fascinating. I knew of their love of music and dancing of course, but hadn't considered that they were atheists and yet believed in such dubious old wives tales and taboos, then there's their love of babies and horses but also their dislike of cats! A fascinating read and recommended to anyone who wants a very good history lesson on Gypsies provided in a very entertaining way.

  I agree with the majority on here that this is an excellent read. Having had a very limited knowledge of the history of gypsies to date, I wanted to know more. I had no idea of how they had been so awfully persecuted and hounded throughout their history.
  This book is more about traditional gypsy lifestyles in Europe than the more modern caravan travelling / site gypsies of the twenty first century as we know it in the UK.
  The book does it's best to give you a full picture, it covers: their beginnings, their spread through Europe etc., their cultures, the language, the perception of gypsies and their endless targeting as a social problem. Minor atrocities against gypsies have been common over hundreds of years, some 500,000 were gassed by the Nazis; some 250,000 held as slaves. Are gypsies natural travellers or is it that they are continually forced to move on?
  The gypsy is a conundrum? They are fiercely independent, keep themselves to themselves, and do not like outside interference. Even this author found it difficult to get information from them and about them at times? The book throws up the charge of thieving against the gypsies on numerous occasions but the book neither defends them or condones them? Surely as people they wish to become better educated and at least try to improve their illiteracy rates? Again, there seems some apathy here? It is typical that best estimates of gypsy populations are between four and fourteen million worldwide! How typical is that, showing again how difficult it is in tracking them down! They don't do census! The gypsies are themselves have no idea how many were slaughtered by Hitler, history is not one of their strongpoints, nor is their desire to find out. These are very insular people and in many ways, uncomplicated, straightforward and elementary.
  I do find a lot of their culture quite fascinating. I knew of their love of music and dancing of course, but hadn't considered that they were atheists and yet believed in such dubious old wives tales and taboos, then there's their love of babies and horses but also their dislike of cats!
  A fascinating read and recommended to anyone who wants a very good history lesson on Gypsies provided in a very entertaining way.
  

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• 

  Rodney Garlant

  5.0 de 5 estrellasCompra verificada

  A very authorative book on the Gypsy race.

  Calificado en Reino Unido el 6 de marzo de 2013

  A substancial book on the life of the Gypsy, written with great knowledge and insight. I would recommend this book to anyone wishing to understand their daily struggle in a harsh world where everyday is a battle for suvival.

  A substancial book on the life of the Gypsy, written with great knowledge and insight. I would recommend this book to anyone wishing to understand their daily struggle in a harsh world where everyday is a battle for suvival.
  

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  agnes

  3.0 de 5 estrellasCompra verificada

  Three Stars

  Calificado en Reino Unido el 1 de enero de 2015

  not what i thought

  not what i thought
  

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