I just finished The Red Riviera (Kristen Ghodsee). I liked it. A very human book, not too many tables. She lived in Bulgaria for a while, had a Bulgarian husband, child, and studied the tourism and hospitality sector which employed mostly women. She had been living in Maine and teaching at university. She compared USSR era with post USSR era. She has a creative writing style where she fills in lots details.
Under communism, women were trained to work in tourism. It brought in money from other communist countries. Soviet block could make it hard to travel outside the block and Bulgaria was on the Black Sea and later had ski resorts. USSR feared defections and cultural contamination.
Mostly women employees who needed a university degree in correct area, good Bulgarian, and fluent in two other languages. They did well. When the USSR fell they often did well then also as they spoke western languages and worked in places bringing in hard currencies. Their husbands were often unemployed after USSR. The hotels might be sold off to connected party members and the mafia obtained some. The women used their connections to their advantage after the USSR fell (The Changes).
The last chapter was named "Feminism by Design" and my favorite. In short, western NGOs descended on the place and focused on how the women had been exploited. The NGOs would only get grants with such focus. Except the Bulgarian tourist employee women thought the western feminists were out of touch man haters. They had it good compared to most. Someone, maybe the author. said that the western NGOs wanted to pit the women against men rather than have both join in class struggle against the west.
Kristen took out a cigarette and her friend offered her a light, then the lighter. She said she had several she had 'privatized' from western tourists. Kristen asked what the difference was between privatizing and stealing. "There isn't one" was the reply.
So, she took her husband and 3 year old daughter to visit Bulgaria. She got travel documents for her two basset hounds and included one in her book. Looks like a passport.
So, she says in US bassets are adored maybe due to the hush puppie shoe ads. In Bulgaria they have never been seen and people view them as the mutant spawn of Satan. Children scream and grandmothers curse when she walked the dogs. Seriously. That was in her book Lost in Transition. A very personal book about her and other people.
It was suggested she walk them in a soccer stadium outside of town. First 3 times went well. Fourth time she let them loose only to find sheep grazing. The bassets went nuts chasing the sheep. The shepherds went nuts at the devil dogs. One connected with a thrown rock but she was able to stop the shepherd with the axe.
She finally stopped the shepherds by explaining that they were American dogs who had never seen sheep. The shepherds had never met an American much less a mutant American dog. Plus, what kind of dog has not seen a sheep? It took a half hour to explain it all.
update
Bulgaria was closely allied and one of the most loyal satellite states of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, sometimes being called the 16th Soviet Republic rather than an independent country. Bulgaria was also part of Comecon as well as a member of the Warsaw Pact.
Bulgaria remained part of the Eastern Bloc until 1989, when the BCP began to drift away from the USSR. The first multi-party elections were held in 1990 and the BCP lost power in elections the following year.
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