A review by flyingbulgarian
Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe, by Kapka Kassabova
1.0
Whenever you read a book about something you're familiar with - whether it's about a city you lived in, an event you experienced, a place you vacation in regularly - you are bound to disagree with the author about something.
In this case, I found myself frantically highlighting and underlining bits of the book that struck me as inaccurate. My husband can attest to the many exasperated sighs and groans that came out of me during my excruciating read of this book. A bit of context - this book is about the author, a Bulgarian woman who grew up in New Zealand, crossing the Border between Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece and writing about her experiences in this 'mythical' part of the Balkans. As someone who has crossed the Border between Bulgaria and Turkey and that between Turkey and Greece an average of 10 times a year over a period of 15 years, if not longer, I found most of the things she wrote about to be either painfully wrong or annoying at best.
As a Bulgarian who also grew up outside of Bulgaria, the theme of not really belonging in Bulgaria was probably the only part of the book I could identify with.
Some highlights of the things that bugged me include
- not knowing the difference between a 'zmei' and 'lamya' - two different mythical creatures in Bulgarian folklore tales
- changing the names of the villages and places she visited - even though it's meant to be a documentation of her experiences, by removing the names of the places she visits, there is no way for me to connect or imagine where she's been and removes the authenticity of her travels (in my opinion)
- there is a lot of anger towards Communist Bulgaria from her, and she projects that onto her experiences - that's not really what this book is meant to be about
- she projects her distrust of people into the book - I mean... she goes to a village (can't remember where), sleeps there, and then gets in a car with someone, but then thinks they will murder her... and leaves. I just... no. Just no.
- the Turkish, Bulgarian and Greek dialects represented in the book made me cringe - I don't know of anyone who speaks or is meant to sound like that. (Yes, I also don't know everyone and I am willing to acknowledge that there might be people who do sound like that). I noted that down as a translation error, but realised it's not a translated book.
Now, as a Bulgarian, I am extremely pleased to see a Bulgarian writer write a book about some of my experiences - as a Bulgarian growing up abroad, someone crossing a border so many times, of a region I call home... but aghr. It just wasn't right. It felt at many times that she had no authority or no experience of those places to be able to write about it with umph. Either way, I would read her next book, and I'd be curious to see where her writing career goes. But this book was a NO from me.
UPDATE: I realised another problem too - she is from Sofiya, and that's where she grew up before moving to the West - and then goes to the Border region - which is MILES away from Sofiya - had she written about the border between Macedonia/Serbia/Bulgaria, which is practically next door to Sofiya, I don't think it would have irked me so much!
In this case, I found myself frantically highlighting and underlining bits of the book that struck me as inaccurate. My husband can attest to the many exasperated sighs and groans that came out of me during my excruciating read of this book. A bit of context - this book is about the author, a Bulgarian woman who grew up in New Zealand, crossing the Border between Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece and writing about her experiences in this 'mythical' part of the Balkans. As someone who has crossed the Border between Bulgaria and Turkey and that between Turkey and Greece an average of 10 times a year over a period of 15 years, if not longer, I found most of the things she wrote about to be either painfully wrong or annoying at best.
As a Bulgarian who also grew up outside of Bulgaria, the theme of not really belonging in Bulgaria was probably the only part of the book I could identify with.
Some highlights of the things that bugged me include
- not knowing the difference between a 'zmei' and 'lamya' - two different mythical creatures in Bulgarian folklore tales
- changing the names of the villages and places she visited - even though it's meant to be a documentation of her experiences, by removing the names of the places she visits, there is no way for me to connect or imagine where she's been and removes the authenticity of her travels (in my opinion)
- there is a lot of anger towards Communist Bulgaria from her, and she projects that onto her experiences - that's not really what this book is meant to be about
- she projects her distrust of people into the book - I mean... she goes to a village (can't remember where), sleeps there, and then gets in a car with someone, but then thinks they will murder her... and leaves. I just... no. Just no.
- the Turkish, Bulgarian and Greek dialects represented in the book made me cringe - I don't know of anyone who speaks or is meant to sound like that. (Yes, I also don't know everyone and I am willing to acknowledge that there might be people who do sound like that). I noted that down as a translation error, but realised it's not a translated book.
Now, as a Bulgarian, I am extremely pleased to see a Bulgarian writer write a book about some of my experiences - as a Bulgarian growing up abroad, someone crossing a border so many times, of a region I call home... but aghr. It just wasn't right. It felt at many times that she had no authority or no experience of those places to be able to write about it with umph. Either way, I would read her next book, and I'd be curious to see where her writing career goes. But this book was a NO from me.
UPDATE: I realised another problem too - she is from Sofiya, and that's where she grew up before moving to the West - and then goes to the Border region - which is MILES away from Sofiya - had she written about the border between Macedonia/Serbia/Bulgaria, which is practically next door to Sofiya, I don't think it would have irked me so much!