Room Service: Reports from Eastern Europe

by Richard Swartz

Room Service offers richly detailed images of the people and places of Richard Swartz's adopted slice of Europe, and thoughtful reflection on his status as a privileged outsider.

We meet Serbian poets and priests in the service of war, the bewitching wife of a Romanian bigot, a Czech factory manager turned hotel porter in the wake of 1968, Ceau escu's masseuse, the king of all the gypsies, a cantor who is the last survivor of a Jewish...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565844181
• ISBN13: 9781565844186
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: New Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A sensitive personal portrait of pre-1989 Eastern Europe.

I am the translator for this book, so naturally I may be counted as biased, but I enjoyed the essays so much that I want to urge others to explore them. Richard Swartz was the Eastern European correspondent for the Stockholm daily Svenska Dagbladet for many years. His intimate acquaintance with day-to-day life in the various cultures of Eastern Europe (including Albania) and his status as an observer from a small and (mostly) neutral country make his observations unique among those I have read. Add to these qualities his eloquent and moving prose style, and you have a wonderful book, part travelogue, part personal essay, all closely observed and sensitively portrayed. Often moving and/or funny. I recommend it warmly.