Isabel FonsecaBury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey

Very well researched and insightful book. There are moments that will make you cringe and want to scream at the world, "why is this allowed to happen?" She is using a neutral journalist's voice to describe such things that can make your hair stand up. The part about the Devouring (Holocaust of the Roma) is graphically and clearly described, including details about human experimentation. It's not likely anyone can read this and be like "meh" because whatever you feel, it will be felt intensely.As a European I wasn't told these things. My family also practices defensive forgetting. It really helped me to understand why. I'm grateful for the book and I won't stop reading about it. Nobody should stop with one book on this subject. There are quite a few now and I pray for the day when the Roma have the same rights as any other citizen of their country.My advice to those who are annoyed by Roma antics: learn to laugh, buy them a beer and exchange some stories with them. Treat them like the human beings they are.That moment she describes early on, where the elderly lady shows her a piece of paper with her son's phone number on it. The paper is blank. She couldn't have read it anyway, and there's no phone. If your heart doesn't break, you have no heart. I can't believe the author was strong enough to keep documenting after such things. I wouldn't have been strong enough.Heartbreaking and in the end, hopeful.

This book was published in the early 1990s, shortly after the fall of Socialism. As such, much has changed in the countries the author visited. While Roma people are still facing persecution, much has changed for them as well.I've lived in the Czech Republic for a decade and a half and am witness to a younger generation of Czechs in the process of taking the reins of the country from an older one and the changes that has brought socially. I don't doubt Roma society has seen the same as their younger members make their influence felt.In the book, much is made of extremely strict hierarchies, both maternal and paternal, in Roma society and the lack of flexibility they granted to younger Roma to explore society outside their own. It would be interesting to know just how much a factor this still is for Roma when it comes to how much they do or do not integrate into surrounding society.What becomes clear fairly early on in this book is that the author really didn't have a concrete plan for how she was going to approach the subject matter or what genre she wanted the finished book to fit into. The end result is a rather ambiguous book in its purpose and motivation.This ambiguity, together with an unclear organizational style, makes the book a difficult one to get into and stay engaged with.There is also an ignorance and naivety to the notion that a book about a culture so varied and dispersed as the Roma could possibly be effectively created by one author. The mobile nature of Roma culture saw the people travel far and wide through many cultures and be influenced by those various cultures. Any non-fiction book on the width and bredth of Roma culture would need to be written by several authors as a collected work.Ultimately, a new book is needed on this subject. Ideally that book will be a collective effort of several authors. Hopefully some of those authors will be Roma themselves.I can't really recommend this book if you want to know about Roma society in the here and now

Was surprised to learn that Gypsies have always been outcasts in virtually every country and seem to function on the fringes of society. Originally, they came from India. This particular story of immersion by a lady who wanted to know more was disturbing to me, but all true, I'm sure. She met and stayed with Gypsies in many different countries. Interesting, but sad.

I bought this book to research the Romani, and was surprised by how rich the history is, and how personal the detail the author offers. It's a masterwork of anthropology, and the writer/researcher places the gypsies--the Romani or the Travelers--against an accurate and tragic historical backdrop. Highly recommended.

This book is very interesting, well researched, and informative. I didn't know much about European Gypsies other than they were included in Hitler's program of mass destruction along with the Jews. Learning about them in a social, cultural, and psychological view, as well as the historical, made for a comprehensive overview as well as first-hand observations.The only reason I gave this book a 4 star is that I felt there could have been better editing as some topics seemed to repeat and perhaps the Roma vocabulary that was used in the book could have been part of an appendix with English translation. But, the book is very accessible as far as reading and I did learn a lot!

I was very pleased in ordering this used book from the seller. Arrived promptly and in very good condition and an excellent price. I will be using this for a LifeLong Learners class I am attending.

Bury Me Standing is more a cultural anthropology thesis than a book, so it is somewhat dense and hard to read. The facts and people and places are wonderfully interesting, but could have used editing. Stories of the Gypsies are rare, our understanding of these people is filled with prejudice and misinformation. The subject is fascinating and important.

Great read for anyone truly interested in Roma studies or serious enough to get beyond the bias stereotypes of "Gypsy fortunetellers, beggers, tramps and thieves". This book goes way beyond scratching the surface of the socio-political and economic issues facing the Roma in Europe in the past and on a daily basis.Isabella Fonseca relates her close and personal experiences among the Roma in various countries such as Poland, Romania, Hungary, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and some of the poorest countries of Europe. She also interviews many of the people she befriends and relates their experiences and treatment in the horrendous and unforgivable death camps of the Nazi's.No glamory here, the STARK truth. It will educate, shock and disturb you!

If you are interested in Gypsies and they're life this a great book to read. She's spent enough time living with them to be able to look from the inside out as well as the other way round.I can't say it is a book I could not put down, but on the other hand I shall keep it to read again sometime.

This is a really good read - beautifully written and very interesting. There are a great many mistaken prejudices about gypsies and it is always good to read a properly unbiased view. Recommended.

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.

Perfect, purchase arrived really early and in lovely condition thank you, super seller will use again

Wonderful book