A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian | Marina Lewycka | A Short History Of Tractors In Ukranian

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian | Marina Lewycka | both serious and light

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A Short History of...

	A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian Marina Lewycka Penguin (Non-Classics), 2006 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 86 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

?An amusing, astonishing debut . . . about how a family learns to let go of the past and live and love in the present.? ?The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

With this wise, tender, and deeply funny novel, Marina Lewycka takes her place alongside Zadie Smith and Monica Ali as a writer who can capture the unchanging verities of family. When an elderly and newly widowed Ukrainian immigrant announces his intention to remarry, his daughters must set aside their longtime feud to thwart him. For their father?s intended is a voluptuous old-country gold digger with a proclivity for green satin underwear and an appetite for the good life of the West. As the hostilities mount and family secrets spill out, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian combines sex, bitchiness, wit, and genuine warmth in its celebration of the pleasure of growing old disgracefully.

?A charming comedy of eros... A ride that, despite the bumps and curves in the road, never feels anything less than jaunty.? ?Los Angeles Times
?Lewycka is a writer with a fundamentally optimistic vision of the future and a healthy curiosity about the past.? ?Chicago Tribune
?Charming, poignantly funny.? ?The Washington Post Book World

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A Short History Of Tractors In Ukranian

This is a very funny book, and its evocation of life in the English Midlands is comically well-observed.

Underlying the humour though, is a story of tragedy and survival in a time of genocide.

The eighty-something father who is seduced by a thirty-something Ukranian woman (with "most superior breasts"!) is sympathetically drawn despite his obvious flaws, and his occasional rambling monologues on politics & philosophy are genuinely informative.

The antagonism and eventual raprochement between the two sisters is funny, touching and totally believable.

All the characters are well-drawn.

I strongly recommend this great book.

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both serious and light

Between the usual solid review from Mr. Fleisig and the catchy title, the novel called out for a spin. Ms. Lewycka has made a fine contribution to the vast collection of Russian fiction, although of course "Russian" doesn't really apply here. The insights into the old days in the home country, the transition during the war, and views into the immigrant experience in England and life in recent Ukraine were welcome and usually interesting.

The author combined a decent amount of humor (amusing at times, occasionally funny) with what in reality is a serious theme. You can see her experience with the care of elderly in the family dynamics that drive the novel. Papa struggles with old age while being mentally alert enough for technical discussions and his book-within-a-book on tractors. His daughters in turn wrestle with how to handle Papa, compounded of course by the plan to marry the mismatched Valentina and the turmoil that inevitably follows.

Dysfunction takes over and there the novel had less appeal for me. Some of the action seemed too forced, or perhaps it's that I don't really like reading about major dysfunction and bad behavior and people doing stupid things. I preferred hearing more about the family's background and watching the younger daughter (and narrator and native English) learn more about the past, including that of the older sister, and for the two of them gradually to come to some accommodation.

A book-within-a-book can be a real dud, just as with a play-within-in-play. The essay on tractors worked better than one might expect, although I can understand if a reader finds it unattractive. Similarly, a reader with little interest in the former Soviet Union or its people will not appreciate one of the novel's strengths. Therefore, I recommend this more for a specific audience and pass as an option for the general reader or a book club.

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Generational and cultural mis-cues

_A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian_ was recommended to me on the premise that an octagenarian Ukrainian immigrant marries a much younger, glamourous Ukrainian woman; hilarity ensues. Is it a love match, or is the younger woman merely a gold-digger seeking citizenship and the "good life" in the West? How the geriatric widower and his two well-meaning middle-aged daughters see the relationship tells much about their pasts: the time and circumstances in which they grew up and where they are at that particular moment in their lives.

A good deal of the story plodded along - as a previous reviewer noted, it would have made a much better short story than a book - I became increasingly frustrated as the story developed, although this may have been intentional, Lewycka wanting me to empathize with the well-meaning (if exasperated) daughters. The conclusion was rewarding, and I felt was the strongest writing of the book as well - Lewycka quite movingly shows the internal mechanisms that all families face: sibling rivalry, the struggles of caring for elderly parents, differences in political and social outlook - with the additional burden of cultural differences between those born in Ukraine and those born in Britain.

While some may apparently found it funny, I didn't think so; perhaps the relationships between characters and the events were a little too close to home for me to find any humor in them. (Or maybe I don't have as good a sense of humor as I thought I did.) A good diversionary read, but not a great book.

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