A real and interesting look at what life is like for those after communism and how they adjust to the modern world. Very eye opening.

This was such an interesting story about a slice of recent history I feel few know about. Szablowski tells stories related to the dancing bears in the first part and former citizen’s opinions of the fall of the USSR in the second.

Dancing bears were a part of Bulgarian gypsy customs for a while, when the Soviet Union collapsed this cultural performance was no longer acceptable.

Their handlers would de-teeth these bears, get them addicted to alcohol, and many times abuse them. Sadly, this wasn’t even illegal. One man (or really a few) had bears as pets and attempted (and believed) they could domesticate them. Later, all of the bears get rounded up and sent to nature reserve to reacclimate them to the wild.

The second part of this novel takes a look st people who were previously under Soviet Russia rule. Some felt (and did) fair better under the USSR than in their new capitalist or democratic environments. Others were proud and glad for their new independent nations. It was interesting to hear both sides.

While I absolutely loved part one, part two wasn’t as engrossing to me, although it was still interesting to read about.

Holy dancing bears... This book was excellent. The first part of the book gives the reader a concise history of the dancing bears of Europe and it ends with the conservation effort of these bears. The second part discusses how citizens of post communist countries are finding difficulties adjusting to freedom/capitalism. It shows the parallels between the bears and the people and helps explain why freedom is so difficult. This was an eye opener for me and written in a language anyone can understand. (netgally)