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Isabel Fonseca
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Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey (Vintage Departures) Kindle Edition

by Isabel Fonseca (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 456 ratings
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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.
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Vintage
  5. Publication date
    September 14, 2011
  6. File size
    10671 KB
  7. Page Flip
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  8. Word Wise
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  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

They travel endlessly and seem to appear almost everywhere, yet they are the world's most mysterious people: Gypsies. Isabel Fonseca has done the impossible, entering into their world, living and traveling with Gypsies during several long trips to Eastern Europe, and she has brought back an insightful, highly personal, and very readable account of who the Gypsies are and how they live. The Gypsies have a legendary aversion to "gadje," or outsiders, but Fonseca has lifted the curtain and written gracefully about their lives on the edge of society.

From Publishers Weekly

In numerous visits to east central Europe, London-based journalist Fonseca has produced an intriguing and affecting portrait of the continent's largest minority. Her first-person narrative meanders, but not inappropriately: the Gypsies are homeless, and they lie zestfully, challenging the author, who remains skeptical despite her sympathy for her subjects. After recounting a summer in the Gypsy quarter of Tirana, Albania, she explores Gypsy history, then profiles women in the deracinated Bulgarian Gypsy culture. The book acquires urgency when Fonseca shows how antipathy toward, and violence against, Gypsies has escalated since the revolutions of 1989; the raw hatred she records is chilling. Meanwhile, western European countries implement harsh policies regarding refugees and "settling" the nomadic Gypsies. Unlike Jews, the Gypsies "have made an art of forgetting" their persecution (in the Holocaust, etc.); Fonseca sees a glimmer of hope in the fact that Gypsies are beginning to acquire a new collective identity as "Roma." This book gives a vital voice to a group long persecuted and misunderstood. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004CFAVJO
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (September 14, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 14, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 10671 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 456 ratings

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Isabel Fonseca

Isabel Fonseca

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
456 global ratings
Fascinating, but put your seat belt on before you open it; this one is going to hurt.
5 Stars
Fascinating, but put your seat belt on before you open it; this one is going to hurt.
Sitting in the wind down on Lago Strobel this morning in southern Argentina I've just finished a book that made far more of an impression on me than I expected it to: Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and Their Journey, by Isabel Fonseca. I bought this book because of an interest I have had in the somewhat unapproachable history of Gypsy culture for some time now, and ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for. Fonseca's research navigating the tenuous and unwelcoming government offices of post Soviet block countries, the volatile newly emerging order of a wholly nomadic "cultural government" that borders on being a tribal mafia, and on the ground in Gypsy communities (many of those dangerous eastern European slums) is impressive, to say the least. Not only did she get in and have a look around, she stayed long enough to make an educated guess and draw some conclusions about what the hell is really, and has really been, going on. Many aspects of the book's historical research shocked me completely. From the centuries of actual slavery under feudal lords and monarchies, to the accounts of Josef Mengele's beyond twisted fascination with and generally lethal experiments on Gypsy twins (most of them children) are enough to make anyone's blood run cold. Its true I wouldn't call the book impartial journalism; Fonseca clearly has a love for the Gypsies and a sympathetic interest in their future; but she is realistic in her portrayal of their culture, I believe, and also able to shed some light on why it has been such a difficult culture for the outside world to understand for so long, and so easy a culture for that same world to fear, despise, and oppress. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered about the subject. But put your seat belt on before you open it; this one is going to hurt.
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Top reviews from the United States

S
5.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious, intelligent and culturally-significant
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2009
Verified Purchase
Ostensiblty the book is a series of personal anecdotes regarding the author's relative immersion in Rom culture throughout her travels in eastern Europe. These stories are punctuated with valuable historical and cultural contexts that give the reader an enlightening perspective on an an almost deliberately unknowable culture.

With the tremendous variation amongst the Romani peoples throughout Europe, it's impossible to write a book that generalizes the culture from personal experiences. This book, if looked at as a comprehensive discussion of the customs and beliefs of all Roma, would naturally be a failure. However Fonseca clearly never intended to create an anthopological text or catalog of Romani beliefs but rather provide an individual account of a few small groups from a proximity rarely breached by outsiders. In this sense, Bury Me Standing is a complete success.

Fonseca's attention to detail, personal approach and vivid descriptions of this hidden world make this a rare snapshot of a vanishing world.
5 people found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars Worth it
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2024
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Good condition, beautiful book!
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D. M. Mckay
4.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Roma
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2013
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Well written account of the Roma history and a seemingly unbiased account of Roma life up through 1995. The author lived with Roma in several countries and wrote about what she saw. It was eye opening to me, given that I knew virtually nothing about their way of life except for news accounts and two personal experiences with Roma boys in Paris and in Rome who were interested in relieving me of my purse (they did not succeed). I read the book after reading about the blond child found with a Roma couple in Greece and the fact that not all Roma are dark complected based on a NYT article. I thought there must be more to this group of peoples than what little I knew...and I was right. Read the book and come to your own conclusion but I found the Roma to be a most unique group in good and bad ways. In most respects, Roma have been incredibly discriminated against, ill treated, and forced into a position to live the way they do. On the other hand, the Roma philosophy has worked against them. Glad I read the book.
2 people found this helpful
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Justin C Witt
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, but put your seat belt on before you open it; this one is going to hurt.
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2022
Verified Purchase
Sitting in the wind down on Lago Strobel this morning in southern Argentina I've just finished a book that made far more of an impression on me than I expected it to: Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and Their Journey, by Isabel Fonseca. I bought this book because of an interest I have had in the somewhat unapproachable history of Gypsy culture for some time now, and ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for. Fonseca's research navigating the tenuous and unwelcoming government offices of post Soviet block countries, the volatile newly emerging order of a wholly nomadic "cultural government" that borders on being a tribal mafia, and on the ground in Gypsy communities (many of those dangerous eastern European slums) is impressive, to say the least. Not only did she get in and have a look around, she stayed long enough to make an educated guess and draw some conclusions about what the hell is really, and has really been, going on. Many aspects of the book's historical research shocked me completely. From the centuries of actual slavery under feudal lords and monarchies, to the accounts of Josef Mengele's beyond twisted fascination with and generally lethal experiments on Gypsy twins (most of them children) are enough to make anyone's blood run cold. Its true I wouldn't call the book impartial journalism; Fonseca clearly has a love for the Gypsies and a sympathetic interest in their future; but she is realistic in her portrayal of their culture, I believe, and also able to shed some light on why it has been such a difficult culture for the outside world to understand for so long, and so easy a culture for that same world to fear, despise, and oppress. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered about the subject. But put your seat belt on before you open it; this one is going to hurt.
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Justin C Witt
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, but put your seat belt on before you open it; this one is going to hurt.
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2022
Sitting in the wind down on Lago Strobel this morning in southern Argentina I've just finished a book that made far more of an impression on me than I expected it to: Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and Their Journey, by Isabel Fonseca. I bought this book because of an interest I have had in the somewhat unapproachable history of Gypsy culture for some time now, and ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for. Fonseca's research navigating the tenuous and unwelcoming government offices of post Soviet block countries, the volatile newly emerging order of a wholly nomadic "cultural government" that borders on being a tribal mafia, and on the ground in Gypsy communities (many of those dangerous eastern European slums) is impressive, to say the least. Not only did she get in and have a look around, she stayed long enough to make an educated guess and draw some conclusions about what the hell is really, and has really been, going on. Many aspects of the book's historical research shocked me completely. From the centuries of actual slavery under feudal lords and monarchies, to the accounts of Josef Mengele's beyond twisted fascination with and generally lethal experiments on Gypsy twins (most of them children) are enough to make anyone's blood run cold. Its true I wouldn't call the book impartial journalism; Fonseca clearly has a love for the Gypsies and a sympathetic interest in their future; but she is realistic in her portrayal of their culture, I believe, and also able to shed some light on why it has been such a difficult culture for the outside world to understand for so long, and so easy a culture for that same world to fear, despise, and oppress. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered about the subject. But put your seat belt on before you open it; this one is going to hurt.
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12 people found this helpful
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AkulJay
3.0 out of 5 stars Overly stylistic, uneven, un-focused, 'literary' book
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2014
Verified Purchase
The author is erudite, researched a lot of resources, and spent considerable time with gypsies (why only in Eastern Europe is not made clear). Many passages in the book are first rate.

She can write with literary flair. And that is where the problem is. She is always straining to show her literary chops, all too often trying to come up with clever phrases, like "eating... professionally" (p. 208) (How do two gypsies, or anyone else, eat professionally?)

The subject matter requires journalistic, straight-forward, objective narration, which she can provide only now and then. Her descriptions are frequently overwrought with irrelevant information... describing uniform of a German guide with a confusing phrase 'intifada' in a long sentence (Ch. 5), and then another long sentence about that dress after a few pages -- all to no purpose.
She often forgets to give proper context, describing a person in detail, and revealing only in a later paragraph that he/she is not a gypsy but some stranger she happened to come across in her travels.

Lack of focus reaches its nadir when she writes about the origin of gypsies. She (correctly) states that their ancestors most likely left India around 10th century but then she does not look for some events in India around that time. Instead, she searches for clues in Persia, and there too in literature about some event in 5th century. No wonder, she reaches a totally worthless conclusion. The book by National Geographic, written more than 20 year before, did a much better job in this matter.

Reading -- or plodding through -- this book took too much of my time and what I got was proportionately small.
10 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

John B
5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2023
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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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E N Cuentro
5.0 out of 5 stars Travelogue, history, ethnography...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 11, 2007
Verified Purchase
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.
19 people found this helpful
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Cynthia Bookish
4.0 out of 5 stars A Compassionate Look at the Romani of Eastern Europe
Reviewed in Canada on April 13, 2022
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Wonderfully-written book. I marvel at many things about it:

The author, Isabel Fonseca, was a brave, confident, gifted young woman who set out to learn and write about the Romani peoples of Eastern Europe. Some of the Gypsies took her in, shared their lives, jokes frustrations, traditions, language, dreams with her Others treated her with a little more like arm's-length respect but were friendly and quite willing to share about their experiences and points of view.

Fonseca is a compassionate writer, but not smarmy or polly-anna-ish. She reports the less attractive aspects of the culture, and attributes some of their bad character and exasperating actions to poverty and generations of political oppression and persecution. But she doesn't offer excuses for the arrogance of the "Gypsy Kings" who manipulate the press 's appetite for celebrity and (false) aristocracy. She pointed out rather annoying character aspects and highlighted some shining attributes in contrast that stand up against the prevailing ignorant and hide bound stereotypes held by most non-Gypsies she met. Fonseca providesan "eloquent witness" (as described on the paperback's back cover.)
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Thespionic
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent History of the Gypsy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 15, 2014
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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 out of 5 stars A very authorative book on the Gypsy race.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2013
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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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