Alice Ferney

This book is about Angelina, a gypsy matriarch of a clan living in France, her children and grandchildren, and Esther, the outsider who brings books and reads to Angelina's grandchildren. I found this a difficult book to read. It is always difficult to be faced with the realities of racism and poverty and the structural factors that maintain them. The character of Esther challenged me to accept the gypsies in their lives -- in their poverty and their struggles, even as the social worker in me railed against the conditions that kept them that way. But in the end, I found it a brilliant portrayal, although an uneasy one. Yes, they lived in dehumanizing conditions. But in all that, we got to see how they carried on, how they endured, how they loved, and how they found meaning -- or not -- in those lives.… (more)