Romanian Gypsies: Nine True Stories About What it's Like To Be a Gypsy in Romania

This book is extremely short. I read it in less than a couple hours. It had many short interviews with some Roma listening to how they viewed their life. It also had a very concise history of the Roma in the back but with no sources to the information. It is a decent read for someone who just wants a very broad stroke understand of the life of gypsies in Romania. Not recommend for anyone who is doing in-depth research on the Roma.

Fast short read. Informative with interesting information. I would have liked this book to be longer, that said, very good for the price .

Well written, but much too short. The stories are very brief and woefully lacking in detail and development. It left me wanting to know much more. As it is, it is little more than a pamphlet. Still, I found myself caring very deeply for these abused people.

This book was very interesting. It was nice to read a first hand account of how Gypsies live and are treated. I didn't find it depressing as it made it's point without dragging it out. The book was short but made up for it by including a brief and interesting section of history of Gypsies going back many generations.

This brief tome is more in the nature of a pamphlet....the most informative part is at the end, describing how gypsy clans specialized in occupations, from the medieval period, i.e. tin working or fiddlers, and how this evolved (2 pages). This is very centered on Romania, and of questionable value for anyone interested in general information concerning Gypsies. It is mainly brief (2-3 page per each) conversation with inhabitants of a slum area populated by Gypsies. I gathered that many Gypsies in Romania had assimilated, and that 3 had served as Prime Minister, since Cosecu had been overthrown, so to an American, this is not very informative. Perhaps the intended reader is European. At any rate, as there is little background information provided, it is of little value to anyone not already informed.

The stories were good, but too brief. The lives of the Gypsies in Romania is like an iceberg. Only the tip was touched here.

Short stories that go by really smoothly. Very interesting and deep, illustrates well the daily life of the gypsies and show the less known side of the story, their version and their suffering.

An interesting

I brilliant and sensitive insight into a Culturally rich group of people who are subjected to an appaullingly accepted descrimination and persecution across the Globe. Stories of hardship and resiliance. Gruia has manintained a real dignity for his subject, An honest and eyeopening account of what I am sure is fairly typical account Of Romanian Gypsies. Thank you Catalin Gruia.

This is a quick read, and always holds the interest. It certainly told me about Romanian life, something I know very little about; I know it was supposed to be about the Roma, but you can infer a great deal about their Romanian hosts from the pieces My only gripe was a certain disjointedness in the writing, I mean that the stories did not seem to follow smoothly one into the other, but this may well just a different perception of style between our two cultures, given that the author is native Romanian.

There is proper representation of facts on the most discriminated Roma people. Sad, but true.

Brilliant & insightful book, I recommend that everyone who works with Romanian gypsies reads this book to gain some insight into this group of people..

This book touched my heart. I have not visited Romania but have been to Bulgaria where there is a similar problem with this ethnic minority.