... Among the guests were many elderly people, I remember them singing wonderfully. This memory has lingered in my mind for many years, it surfaced when I read about the book in question which would have attracted my attention anyway, though, because of the odd title - I like odd. It’s not improbable ... Read review
Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamourous blonde Ukrainian ... more
divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside.' Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must put aside a lifetime of feuding to save their emigre engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina.
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For years Nadezhda and Vera two Ukrainian sisters raised in England by their refugee ... more
parents have had as little as possible to do with each other - and they have their reasons. But now they find they'd better learn how to get along because since their mother's death their aging father has been sliding into his second childhood and an alarming new woman has just entered his life. Valentina a bosomy young synthetic blonde from the Ukraine seems to think their father is much richer than he is and she is keen that he leave this world with as little money to his name as possible. If Nadazhda and Vera don't stop her no one will. But separating their addled and annoyingly lecherous dad from his new love will prove to be no easy feat - Valentina is a ruthless pro and the two sisters swiftly realize that they are mere amateurs when it comes to ruthlessness. As Hurricane Valentina turns the family house upside down old secrets come falling out including the most deeply buried one of them all from the War the one that explains much about why Nadazhda and Vera are so different.In the meantime oblivious to it all their father carries on with the great work of his dotage a grand history of the tractor.
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Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must put aside feuding to save their engineer father from ... more
gold-digger Valentina. With her proclivity for satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she will stop at nothing in her pursuit of wealth. But the sisters' campaign to oust Valentina unearths secrets and sends them back to roots they'd much rather forget.
Advantages: entertaining read with depth Disadvantages: I couldn't find any
...though, I’ve even been to a Ukrainian-Orthodox wedding in the chapel of a college in Oxford; a friend of ours whose father is Ukrainian got married according to that rite. Among the guests were many elderly people, I remember them singing wonderfully. This memory has lingered in my mind for many years, it surfaced when I read about the book in question which would have attracted my attention anyway, though, because of the odd title - I like odd. ... ...born of Ukrainian parents in a refugee camp in Germany at the end of WWII and grew up in England, she’s married, has a daughter and teaches at university. She’s created a first-person narrator, Nadezhda, aka Nadja, who was born of Ukrainian parents in England at the end of WWII, who grew up there, is married, has a daughter and teaches at university. -- It’s often the case that debut novels are set in the author’s personal experience, but although ... more
I bet not many of you know Ukrainians living in GB, I do, though, I’ve even been to a Ukrainian-Orthodox wedding in the chapel of a college in Oxford; a friend of ours whose father is Ukrainian got married according to that rite. Among the guests were many elderly people, I remember them singing wonderfully. This memory has lingered in my mind for many years, it surfaced when I read about the book in question which would have attracted my attention anyway, though, because of the odd title - I like odd. It’s not improbable that the author’s parents were at the wedding, first generation immigrants tend to stick together.
Marina Lewycka was born of Ukrainian parents in a refugee camp in Germany at the end of WWII and grew up in England, she’s married, has a daughter and teaches at university. She’s created a first-person narrator, Nadezhda, aka Nadja, who was born of Ukrainian parents in England at the end of WWII, who grew up there, is married, has a daughter and teaches at university. -- It’s often the case that debut novels are set in the author’s personal experience, but although Ukrainian Tractors (as I’m going to call the book from here on) is Lewycka’s first published novel, she doesn’t consider it her debut as she’s been writing for over fifty years without ever getting anything on to the shelves of the bookshops. Lewycka in an interview, “I knew that this was my last chance: if this one didn’t get published, I’d given up . . . I knew that I really had just the first page to hook the publisher/agent/ reader.”
The first paragraph leads us directly into the story: “Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcée. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside.” With me Lewycka was successful, I was hooked and wanted to read on.
Nikolai, Nadja’s father, tells her that he’s getting married but refuses to give any details, “After marriage you can meet.” Valentina, the bride, wants to make a good life for herself and her 14-year-old son in the West, this includes ‘a good job, good money, nice car . . . good education for son.’ Of course Nikolai knows that it’s all about getting a passport and a work permit, but as long as ‘I can save just one human being . . . ‘ he’s happy and he sees that there’s also something for him in the deal. ‘He’s helping her with her English, and she is cleaning the house and looking after him. She sits on his lap and allows him to fondle her breasts.’ If he’s got this young woman in his house, he can enjoy his last years in his own house (‘Tell me Nadezhda, do you think it would be possible for a man of eighty-four to father a child?’) and doesn’t have to go to an old people’s home, besides, he’ll be able to wallow in nostalgia, ‘Ukraina will come home to him’.
Valentina’s breasts are mentioned repeatedly in the story, Nikolai says about his future wife ‘Botticelli’s Venus . . . superior breasts’. Ha! Obviously the author fell in love with the sound of the Italian painter’s name, she can’t have studied his paintings well, the breasts of Botticelli’s Venus are nothing to write home about, believe me, go to the Uffizi Museum in Florence and see for yourselves! They are an inadequate comparison with Valentina’s melon sized, artificially enhanced boobs, Rubens is the painter Lewycka should have thought of, bulging naked female flesh was his speciality.
Nadja informs her elder sister Vera, both daughters are shocked, dumbstruck, flabbergasted, if they can’t stop their father from making a fool of himself by marrying Valentina they must at least arrange a speedy divorce; without setting eye on her they know that Valentina is a greedy gold-digger, out to suck their father dry financially and emotionally, not for a minute do they believe that she’s interested in caring for him during his last years. Are they right? You bet they are! When Nadja sees Valentina for the first time she can only think, ‘Tart. Bitch. Cheap slut.’
How can the story end? I think the plot is well thought of, it doesn’t matter which way it’s going to turn, someone will be happy and someone will be unhappy. I had no idea what to expect and when I reached the denouement, I was surprised, the author came up with something I hadn’t considered at all, well done!
I’ve read some reviews on the book and have noticed that the Nikolai – Valentina story is seen by most readers as ‘hilarious, extremely funny, a comic feast’ etc., this is not the overall impression it has made on me. Certainly, there are funny, farcical moments, heightened by Valentina’s pidgin English (no good meanie oral sex maniac husband), Nikolai’s English isn’t perfect, either – he’s doesn’t use articles [Slavic languages have no articles] which leads to the question if it is PC to laugh about someone’s imperfect knowledge of a language. To tell you the truth: I don’t care if it is PC or not, I laugh about the mistakes foreigners make in my mother tongue if they’re funny and I allow foreigners to laugh about the mistakes I make in their languages! If there is a joke lying around, let’s pick it up, heehee!
The problem I had was that I couldn’t laugh whole-heartedly, for me the laughter was accompanied by goose pimples. I don’t know why but I concentrated on Nikolai from the beginning more than on Valentina and when I read how he declined and how Valentina treated him I suffered, maybe because my mother died some years ago and I watched her getting frail and helpless or because I’m not too far away from that stage myself, anyway, the giggles got stuck in my throat.
Interwoven with this story is the one about the sisters Nadja and Vera, ten years are between them, Vera is the ‘war’ child born in Ukraine, Nadja is the ‘peace’ child born in England. Never having been too close they start hating each other in a way only possible in close families after their mother’s death because of the will. They have to close ranks against Valentina, though, what that means for their relationship is moving to read. Nadja learns a lot about the history of their family from Vera, the direct result of this is that the story moves forward, the indirect one is that the readers learn something about the tragic history of Ukraine and the suffering of the people in the first part of the last century, during the communist reign and duringWW2. We learn about Ukrainians leaving their home country and settling in England - isn’t this what Valentina is trying to do, too? I’ve read (had to read) innumerable texts on immigration for school, but rarely have I found the subject dealt with in such an entertaining but also thought provoking way as in Ukrainian Tractors.
‘Ukrainian Tractors’ – what about this odd title? Nadja’s father, a retired engineer, is writing a book on the subject, he’s writing it in Ukrainian and whenever he’s finished another chapter he reads it to his son-in-law (he knows that women don’t understand technical stuff) and then his daughter translates it into English. The italicised chapters are interspersed in the novel and stand out as a book in the book. The history of tractors, yawn, is a more boring subject imaginable? Surprisingly, I don’t find it boring at all, it is one of the subjects I don’t think of normally but when I read about it I can only say, “Yes, of course, that’s right, strange that I’ve never thought about it.” We learn about the contribution of the humble tractor to modern Ukraine’s violent history and get a wider insight into this country’s destiny. Of course, its style is completely different, I think it’s a good counterpoint to the Valentina – Nikolaj story.
So what is this book? Is it a serious book with light overtones or the opposite? Marina Lewycka thinks it is the latter, well, she’s welcome to her opinion, but an author can tell us only about their intention, not about their achievement. Once a book has been published, it becomes common possession and every reader reads it their way. What we bring to a book is responsible for what we get out of it.
The novel has just the right length for me with 336 pages, some reviewers complain that not all characters are round, that doesn’t bother me, I prefer a story which is sketchy in parts any day to one that describes and explains each fart, if what is there is done well, I can fill the gaps myself.
Recommended.
Penguin Books (first published in 2005) 336 pages cover price 7.99 GBP
Advantages: Funny tale of a second marriage Disadvantages: The dark side of life
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka.
I began reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian following my enjoyment of Two Caravans, by the same author, Marina Lewycka. Two Caravans was Lewycka's second novel, so I probably should have started with the Tractors which she published in 2005 as her first novel, following a writing career whereby she normally wrote non-fiction books regarding care of the elderly. She has several ... ...WWII, she was born in a refugee camp in Germany. She then grew up in England, where she studied at Keele University, and is a lecturer herself now, in Sheffield University, teaching Media Studies
Again, as the title has suggested, the book has a strong Ukrainian thread. On the face of it, the story relates to an elderly man, his two daughters, and an interloper who he has decided to marry. Beneath the face of it, is a much darker book which centres ...
orlando 14.07.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
Advantages: A good read, great characterisation Disadvantages: May be put off by the Soviet names or book title or the cover
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian doesn't sound like a book that's worth reading, does it? But it's deceptive. It's not written in Ukrainian, it's not a translation from a book written in Ukrainian and it's not really about tractors. The title actually comes from the title of the book one of the characters is writing. Confusing, huh?
So, why did I decide to read it? There were several reasons. I remember seeing an interview with the author ... ...it that funny. I smiled a lot and occasionally let out a little titter, but never laughed out loud in an uncontrollable manner. I would say it was light comedy, certainly not 'hilarious'.
The story revolves around the Mayevskyj family. The narrator is Nadezhda (Nadia) who has an older sister called Vera. They have been estranged since their mother's death and the ensuing conflict over the division of their inheritance. But when their father - eighty-four ...
KarenUK 24.06.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
Advantages: can be funny in parts, characterisation Disadvantages: some characterisation overdrawn to the excess, can be harrowing in parts
...mad? People are actually reading a book entitled "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian". A book about farming machinery in a little known Slavonic language does not sound like a best seller to me. In fact it sounds like something that should be in a specialist university collection. In fact the title is somewhat misleading. The book is the debut novel by Marina Lewycka and is about culture clashes and the eccentricities of family life. Nikolai ... ...discover their new stepmother is a blond, big-busted Ukrainian gold digging tart Valentia, who at 36 is half his age. He wants to marry her so she can have a better life in this country and her so called genius of a son Stanislov will get an Oxbridge education. The story revolves around Vera and Nadia uniting to get the opportunistic Valentina deported. I really enjoyed this book and read all 234 pages of it in four days flat as I could not put it ...
duskmaiden 23.07.2006 (28.04.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
Advantages: Very Funny book, and very educational aswell! Disadvantages: The title may be offputting, but none!
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lewycka.
I first noticed this book when I was sat in the Underground and I made a mental note of the title to research it. I never researched it! The lady who was reading it was chuckling to herself so I saw that as a positive sign and bought it. The cover is beige, with blue and red tractor illustration on the cover. It is available in all good bookshops as I have seen it in Waterstones, WHSmiths, ... ...a Ukrainian family who are living in and near by Peterborough. Vera and Nadia are sisters and are 40 somethings, with the bulk of narrative incorporating their elderly father of 84 and his antics with finding a new wife! (To the daughters horror!!)
The Story...
From the beginning we are aware that Vera and Nadia's mother died two years before. Due to a feud the sisters haven't really spoken since their mother's funeral, however strange goings including ...
armychick 19.07.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
Advantages: Easy to read, funny, captivating Disadvantages: Too much in one story, some comedic devices stretched a bit far
...Nikolay falls prey to Valentine, a silicone-breasted, bottle-blonded gold digger back from the home country who arrives in the UK with her teenage son and a belief that an old age pension of an engineer will be able to support her taste for brown cookers and posh cars. Many farcical events ensue and some poignantly moving ones too in a swiftly moving and often funny story. But overall, 'Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian' is less wacky then the ... ...is, essentially, a simple family tale. The conflict between two sisters (very overt) and their difficult relationship with their slightly eccentric father (more implied, at least for Nadia who narrates the tale) create the main dynamic of the story. The reasons for the conflict lie in different personal history of the sisters, which was in turn shaped by the large and frightening History of Europe of last 50 or so years. The arrival of Valentina ...
magdadh 29.03.2009 (02.11.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
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I discovered the book in the English corner of a German bookshop, the bright blue cover with the silvery fish caught my eye (they glow in semi-darkness!), the bizarre title appealed to me and the blurb ?A wonderful novel? convinced me that I should buy it, not because that?s a highly original remark but because it is from MarinaLewycka, author of ?A ShortHistory of TractorsinUkrainian?, a novel I appreciate. Not living in GB I didn?t know that Salmon Fishing in the Yemen has already become a top seller there and the Hardcover edition has moved to No 117 on the sales rank of Amazon.co.uk. A virtual friend has abstained from reading it up to now, however, suspecting it to be too gimmicky for her liking. Let?s have a look whether her suspicion is justified.
A stinking rich Yemeni sheikh and dyed-in-the-wool Anglophile owns ...
I spotted the novel 'Two Caravans' being heavily advertised in our local Waterstone's bookshop, due to the fact that it was based on immigrant workers in Kent (where I live). I read the back blurb, and, realising that this would be no 'Darling Buds of May' type Kentish story, but a more realistic exploration of life in this county in the new millennium, decided to buy it. However, I bought it from Sussex Stationers (part of British Stationers) up the road as it was half price at £3.99 as opposed to Waterstone's price of £7.99.
I had heard of MarinaLewycka before, as her first novel was strangely entitled 'a ShortHistory of TractorsinUKRAINIAN' (sic). I assumed that I was about to read a translated international novel, but apparently not. Marina is descended from the Ukraine, but due to hostilities at the end of the WWII, she ...
For years, Nadezhda and Vera, two Ukrainian sisters, raised in England by their refugee parents, have had as little as possible to do with each other - and they have their reasons. But now they find they'd better learn how to get along, because since their mother's death, their aging father has been sliding into his second childhood, and an alarming new woman has just entered his life. Valentina, a bosomy young synthetic blonde from the Ukraine, seems to think their father is much richer than he is, and she is keen that he leave this world with as little money to his name as possible. If Nadazhda and Vera don't stop her, no one will. But separating their addled and annoyingly lecherous dad from his new love will prove to be no easy feat - Valentina is a ruthless pro and the two sisters swiftly realize that they are mere amateurs when it comes to ruthlessness. As Hurricane Valentina turns the family house upside down, old secrets come falling out, including the most deeply buried one of them all, from the War, the one that explains much about why Nadazhda and Vera are so different.In the meantime, oblivious to it all, their father carries on with the great work of his dotage, a grand history of the tractor. From the Inside Flap"Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukranian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside." --This text refers to the Paperback edition. See all Product Description
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