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A review by kadi
Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny by Witold Szabłowski
2.0
I liked the idea of this book, but found the execution to be quite poor. I wish a more adept journalist had taken on this topic because it could have been fascinating.
To start with, this book originally seemed to be about Romani bear handlers who were forced to give up their practice of training and showing dancing bears as Bulgaria entered the EU. And for half of the book that was correct. However halfway through it completely changes pace and moves on to interviews with people from other former communist countries now marching toward capitalism. Focusing specifically on people who preferred the old way of life to the new or forthcoming capitalism. And to me these felt like completely different books smashed together. I can’t imagine the original intent of this book was so mismatched, and have a feeling that either the author found he didn’t have enough material to complete a book on the dancing bears and decided to add in tenuously related interviews or he didn’t have enough interview material and decided to beef up the most interesting section. Either way it seems like two different books with two completely different purposes.
Additionally I just didn’t find Szabłowski to be a skilled journalist. He often leads his subjects and inserts clearly personal opinions. He finds it necessary to mention the race of peripheral individuals (The black security woman comes over. During the day black men line the streets. etc.) as though it somehow matters. And is quite judgmental (half of the patrons have distinct Estonian features, half of the patrons have puffy Slavic faces) when the story in no way calls for his observation.
And while I don’t know if this is the fault of the author or the translator (Antonia Lloyd-Jones) the Roma people in this book are exclusively referred to as Gypsies. Not just when quoting interviewees using that term, but as the general descriptor used by the author. Perhaps that isn’t considered offensive to the Roma in that region, but I can’t help but think the English translation could at least have a note on the usage of that term since Roma in the English speaking world consider it a slur.
Overall it was slightly entertaining but poorly done. I don’t think I would pick up anything else by this author in the future.
*All quotes are paraphrased from memory as I couldn’t be bothered wasting my time to look them up.
To start with, this book originally seemed to be about Romani bear handlers who were forced to give up their practice of training and showing dancing bears as Bulgaria entered the EU. And for half of the book that was correct. However halfway through it completely changes pace and moves on to interviews with people from other former communist countries now marching toward capitalism. Focusing specifically on people who preferred the old way of life to the new or forthcoming capitalism. And to me these felt like completely different books smashed together. I can’t imagine the original intent of this book was so mismatched, and have a feeling that either the author found he didn’t have enough material to complete a book on the dancing bears and decided to add in tenuously related interviews or he didn’t have enough interview material and decided to beef up the most interesting section. Either way it seems like two different books with two completely different purposes.
Additionally I just didn’t find Szabłowski to be a skilled journalist. He often leads his subjects and inserts clearly personal opinions. He finds it necessary to mention the race of peripheral individuals (The black security woman comes over. During the day black men line the streets. etc.) as though it somehow matters. And is quite judgmental (half of the patrons have distinct Estonian features, half of the patrons have puffy Slavic faces) when the story in no way calls for his observation.
And while I don’t know if this is the fault of the author or the translator (Antonia Lloyd-Jones) the Roma people in this book are exclusively referred to as Gypsies. Not just when quoting interviewees using that term, but as the general descriptor used by the author. Perhaps that isn’t considered offensive to the Roma in that region, but I can’t help but think the English translation could at least have a note on the usage of that term since Roma in the English speaking world consider it a slur.
Overall it was slightly entertaining but poorly done. I don’t think I would pick up anything else by this author in the future.
*All quotes are paraphrased from memory as I couldn’t be bothered wasting my time to look them up.