[size=75:2xd6exge]Sofia echo 16 April 2010

Bulgar tales

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Bulgariana, the English-language version of the book launched in 2009*, offers us a series of amusing anecdotes about life in Sofia and beyond, full of wry observations about the national character and those charming idiosyncrasies (at the honeymoon stage anyway – they can veer towards annoying later) that make Bulgaria so inimitable.

Baker’s central premise is that Bulgaria is a friendly place where daily encounters offer a chance for conversation and enduring friendship. The US, according to the author, is just the opposite.

So much so that Baker, a former lecturer at an Indiana university and now Distinguished Professor at the New Bulgarian University, feels like dissuading a Bulgarian taxi driver about to emigrate to aforementioned boring state – (and yes, I’ve been there) – "
I did not tell him that, as someone who has been there a few times, I would regard that information as a sentence rather than a prospect,"
writes Baker.

And, again, "
the Bulgarians who emigrate to the US must surely never adjust to a country where absolutely nothing is spontaneous, and the social life a hollow shadow of what goes on here."
Supporting his thesis, Baker cites a report that, in the US, "
families eat dinner together 40 per cent less often compared with 1965"
.

Baker, who has been coming to Bulgaria for 20 years, casts a discerning eye on everything around him;
he dislikes the encumbrance of too many possessions and has a particular aversion to mobile phones.

"
There is something wonderful about being unreachable. It drives everyone crazy but it’s worth it,"
he writes (see page 16 of this week’s issue of The Sofia Echo for a similar view) and seems to go everywhere by public transport which, as I can attest, offers a unique chance to observe the underbelly of city life.

A particularly hilarious story concerns inspectors pouncing on his unsuspecting and eminently civilised friend, Roger, when they board a tram. I’ll leave the details to readers but, Baker concludes, "
Roger only has to think about entering a tram and a ticket inspector will appear"
.

Uniformity, whether of building or name, offers problems. Here is an episode familiar to those inhabiting Sofia’s prefabs: "
I reached for the timer button, and it was not there! That was when I realised I was in the wrong block. They all look the same, as the British used to say about the Chinese! I was a victim of socialism."


Mastery of his Bulgarian students’ surnames raises a similar conundrum. "
We have several students with almost identical family names. By a process of Holmesian elimination I think I worked out who they all were (more or less)."
Our author, however, seems to fit in with Bulgarian life;
noting that he "
likes a bit of dirt and disorder with my shopping, and the market, at least, looks like it was created by humans, and not space aliens"
.

He remarks on the curiously in-your-face nature of Bulgarian criminality. "
One very endearing thing about Bulgaria is that the criminals make a real effort to look like criminals - neckless bovine types entirely kitted-out in black. Almost invariably they seem to be clustered around security companies, who, by employing them, may prevent many of the thefts these same men would otherwise carry out. It seems like a logical way of dealing with crime, very Bulgarian."


The pessimism of the Bulgarian character is also noted. "
So many Bulgarians delight in the prospect of imminent catastrophe."
Actually, in this humble reviewer’s opinion the Bulgarians are really cheerful Charlies...compared to the Portuguese, but that’s an aside...

Baker is in his 60s and has a much younger wife. I don’t mean to be ungallant by recording this – it’s simply that perhaps the funniest laugh-out-loud line comes when he visits his wife’s family. "
I am fairly certain when I say that there are not many men of 62 who can visit their wife’s great grandmother,"
he writes.

I have to say the author’s account of his visit to The Sofia Echo’s (former) office raised a few eyebrows but we will not hold that against him! On the whole, a very enjoyable read;
Baker comes across as an endearingly old-fashioned figure and so seems to fit in well in Bulgaria.

A minor quibble is that it would have been advisable to check the spelling of the name of a distinguished thespian like Sir John Gielgud.

*Bulgariana is published by Ciela at 15 leva