Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey (Vintage Departures)

Isabel Fonseca describes the four years she spent with Gypsies from Albania to Poland, listening to their stories, deciphering their taboos, and befriending their matriarchs, activists, and child prostitutes. 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. 50 photos. From the Trade Paperback edition.

A thrilling, touching, and densely instructive book, Shooting the Boh is also a frank self-portrait of a woman facing her most corrosive fears—and triumphing over them—with fortitude and unflagging wit. "A captivating and truly offbeat rite of passage."—Eric Hansen.

Publishers Weekly

This story of a journalist joining an expedition down the Boh River starts out as standard adventure travel fare, but the difference rapidly becomes apparent: this journalist is over 40, her luggage is lost on the flight over and cannot be recovered in time, and the expedition has been planned by a company that takes irresponsibility to a new level. Only when they are already on the river do the participants realize how difficult and dangerous their time together will be. All of them must deal with ``insect stress'' caused by bees that feast on human sweat, foot fungus, raging rapids, and perhaps an evil river spirit. On top of that, Johnston begins to have menopausal hot flashes and questions whether it is time to give up the thrill of risky journeys. Her descriptions of both natural phenomena and local customs are lyrical: she compares salespeople in an outdoor market to ``baby birds, mouths open, arms aflutter.'' In writing about the seemingly cursed journey, Johnston keeps her chin up and sticks to what she calls ``the adventure code of travel: go with the unexpected and make do with what you get.'' This engrossing and surprisingly upbeat tale accomplishes much more than that. First serial to Cosmopolitan; QPB selection. (Sept.)

part Memoir, Part Japanese American Family Chronicle, Part Luminous Work Of Natural History, Volcano Tells What Happened When Hongo Returned To His Birthplace In Hawai'i, As A Young Man, To Reclaim Its Dreamlike Landscape And His Own Elusive Past. A Magnificant Evocation Of Heritage And Place.

publishers Weekly

on Visits To And Long Stays In Hawaii, Award-winning Japanese American Poet Hongo (the River Of Heaven), Born In Hawaii But Reared In Los Angeles, Set Out To Understand His Family And His Heritage. Like Many Immigrant Families Intent On Succeeding In America, His Parents Brushed Aside Their Child's Questions About Their Past. In His Early 30s He Visited Volcano, Hawaii, With His Wife And Young Son, Renting A Cottage Near Hilo, Where His Father Had Farmed And Run A General Store. There He Felt ``as If I Were Entering A Book About My Own Life.'' Overwhelmed By The Paradisal Landscape, ``a Visual Sonata, Lavish And Detailed As Any Jungle Fantasy Painted By Henri Rousseau,'' Hongo Evokes Its Ecology, Geology And Ambience As He Looks Up Relatives And Friends Of His Parents, Witnesses An Eruption Of Kilauea, Walks On Lava Beds And Through Rain Forests And Visits Honolulu. He Interweaves All This With His Youthful Experiences And Puzzlement About L.a.'s Japanese American Community, His Struggle To Become A Poet Against The Wishes Of His Parents And His Astonishment And Anger On Discovering Racial Discrimination. This Memoir Contrasts Two Worlds And Comes To Terms With Both. (may)

After the revolutions of 1989, Isabel Fonseca lived and traveled with the Gypsies of Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the former Yugoslavia, Romainia, and Albania - listening to their stories and recording their attempts to become something more than despised outsiders. In Bury Me Standing, alongside unforgettable portraits of individuals - the poet, the politician, the child prostitute - are vivid insights into the wit, language, wisdom, and taboos of the Roma. In a compelling narrative account of this large and landless minority, Fonseca also traces their long-ago exodus out of India and their history of relentless persecution: enslaved by the princes of medieval Romania; massacred by the Nazis in what the Roma call the Devouring; forcibly assimilated by the communist regime; and, most recently, evicted from their settlements by nationalistic mobs in the new democracies of the East, and under violent attack in the Western countries to which many have fled.

Publishers Weekly

An exploration of the frequently persecuted and misunderstood Gypsy population of eastern Europe. (Oct.)

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. After the revolutions of 1989, the author lived and traveled with the Gypsies of Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the former Yugoslavia, Romainia, and Albania -- listening to their stories and recording their attempts to become something more than despised outsiders. In this book, alongside unforgettable portraits of individuals -- the poet, the politician, the child prostitute- - are vivid insights into the wit, language, wisdom, and taboos of the Roma. The author also traces their long-ago exodus out of India and their history of relentless persecution: enslaved by the princes of medieval Romania; massacred by the Nazis in what the Roma call "the Devouring"; forcibly assimilated by the communist regime; and, most recently, evicted from their settlements by nationalistic mobs in the new "democracies" of the East, and under violent attack in the Western countries to which many have fled.

The author of A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg and Pecked to Death by Ducks gives new meaning to the words "going to extremes" in this exhilarating—and frequently hilarious—collection of adventure travel writing. "Cahill . . . (writes) with the precision ofJohn McPhee and Joan Didion tempered by a Monty Pythonesque sense of the absurd."—San Diego Union-Tribune.

The author presents amusing accounts of his adventures around the world, which include poisonous sea snake harvests in the Philippines, a feast of baked turtle lung in Australia, and encounters with gorillas, porcupines, and sharks An American woman residing in Sicily for the previous twenty years portrays the Sicilian landscape and customs-- both rural and urban-- from the perspectives of both a "foreigner" and a resident An American woman residing in Sicily for the past twenty years portrays the Sicilian landscape and customs - both rural and urban - from the perspectives of both a "foreigner" and a resident. USUALLY ON MY journeys in Eastern Europe I traveled alone and made friends along the way. November is a time of beginnings in the double calendar that we follow in our family. Two fourteen-year-old rock climbers, Jim Deering and Ryan Angus, were stranded. Tracy Johnston's account of her rafting expedition down Borneo's Boh River