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Various Pets Alive and Dead
Set half in Doncaster, half in London, this is a very funny riff on modern values, featuring hamsters, cockroaches, poodles, a chicken and multiplying rabbits, told by Marina Lewycka in her unique and brilliant combination of irony, farce and wit.
367 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2012
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1383 people want to read
About the author
Marina Lewycka
35 books551 followersMarina Lewycka was a British novelist of Ukrainian origin.
Lewycka was born in a refugee camp in Kiel, Germany after World War II. Her family then moved to England. She was educated at Keele University and worked as a lecturer in media studies at Sheffield Hallam University.
In addition to her fiction, Lewycka has written a number of books giving practical advice for carers of elderly people, published by the charity Age Concern.
Lewycka was born in a refugee camp in Kiel, Germany after World War II. Her family then moved to England. She was educated at Keele University and worked as a lecturer in media studies at Sheffield Hallam University.
In addition to her fiction, Lewycka has written a number of books giving practical advice for carers of elderly people, published by the charity Age Concern.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 310 reviews
October 27, 2023
After spending two decades in a free love hard-Left and pro-environment commune the family moved back to the real world after a few dramas saw the commune dream wither. Doro the mum, now retired spends a lot of her time looking after 23 year old Oolie, who has Down's Syndrome. In her late 20s, daughter Clara takes up after her commune legacy and works in a local school that services a sink housing estate (projects); and her brother Serge is using his nerd brain studying at Cambridge, well actually that's what the family think, in reality he is making lots of money working as a finance trader in London.
Taking the story in alternating chapters with one of the aforementioned three being the focus/storyteller Lewycka has brought together, especially with her good writing and superb research and them translation of how trading really works, a surprisingly good light comedy, that really tackles the capitalism vs idealism debate in such an intriguing and non hamfisted way; not ot mention a harsh (but fair?) look at the almost pointlessness of the the commune movement in its hey day. An easy Four Star 8 out of 12.
2022 read
Taking the story in alternating chapters with one of the aforementioned three being the focus/storyteller Lewycka has brought together, especially with her good writing and superb research and them translation of how trading really works, a surprisingly good light comedy, that really tackles the capitalism vs idealism debate in such an intriguing and non hamfisted way; not ot mention a harsh (but fair?) look at the almost pointlessness of the the commune movement in its hey day. An easy Four Star 8 out of 12.
2022 read
December 11, 2018
This was the first Marina Lewycka novel that I read.
The book is made up of four points of view: Doro and Marco (although his voice is heard mostly in the epilogue), hippies of sorts who lived in a commune; their son, Serge, who's pretending to finish a Math PhD, but is working as an analyst in London, making lots of money playing on the stock market; his sister Clara, three years his senior and who works as a primary school teacher in Doncaster.
I enjoyed some of the musings on the life in the commune, the youth's idealism and strong convictions. I also liked the juxtaposition of the poorer, working class, Doncaster, with the rich, fancy London. Sometimes, Lewycka was bogged down in too many pedagogic details about trading shares and the financial markets - I was bored.
There were all sort of side plots and little mysteries. At times, I lost track, of who was who and how they were connected to the story.
For an easy read, this seemed much longer than it actually was.
I liked it enough, but I didn't love it, ergo the 3 stars.
The book is made up of four points of view: Doro and Marco (although his voice is heard mostly in the epilogue), hippies of sorts who lived in a commune; their son, Serge, who's pretending to finish a Math PhD, but is working as an analyst in London, making lots of money playing on the stock market; his sister Clara, three years his senior and who works as a primary school teacher in Doncaster.
I enjoyed some of the musings on the life in the commune, the youth's idealism and strong convictions. I also liked the juxtaposition of the poorer, working class, Doncaster, with the rich, fancy London. Sometimes, Lewycka was bogged down in too many pedagogic details about trading shares and the financial markets - I was bored.
There were all sort of side plots and little mysteries. At times, I lost track, of who was who and how they were connected to the story.
For an easy read, this seemed much longer than it actually was.
I liked it enough, but I didn't love it, ergo the 3 stars.
May 18, 2012
I'm giving this 3, but I have very mixed feelings about it. I thought 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian' was really funny, 'Two Caravans' less so, but still a good read, but this one - it just didn't really work for me, and the overriding reason I think was that it tried to hard to be ironic about something that we're still too close to to be funny - the economic crisis.
It's almost impossible to have any sympathy for brokers at the moment, or anyone who tried to make a killing out of toxic mortgages. It's not even, IMHO, possible to make a joke of the thing, and the problem with this story is that the London Stock Exchange/Serge part of the book sat too much on the fence. On the one hand, we were supposed to see Serge as an innocent abroad, on the other Serge was an intelligent man with a very socialist upbringing, and on the other, okay compared to lots of his colleagues he was just playing, but he was still breaking every ethical rule. Ultimately he didn't benefit, but he wasn't punished either. This may be representative of reality, but it doesn't work for me in fiction because the net result was 'so what'.
There were aspects of the story that were quite funny, but only quite. Like lots of the other reviewers, I liked the Doncaster parts much more. The problem is that there was too much of the same thing as in the previous two books, in terms of a scatter-gun of colourful characters all inter-linked with a lot of politics, but it just didn't have that lightness of touch, it felt forced, and it also felt, frankly, quite cliched. The whole commune, socialist, free love thing, has been done to death and was like a bit of limp, over-washed linen. The other issue was that the narrative maintained so much of a distance from the characters, and juggled so many points of view, that you never really invested your empathy in any of them, which meant, sadly, that I got to the end not really caring. Which is a pity, because I wanted to like this. I hope that her next is better, though I think I'd wait util it came out in my local library rather than buying it.
It's almost impossible to have any sympathy for brokers at the moment, or anyone who tried to make a killing out of toxic mortgages. It's not even, IMHO, possible to make a joke of the thing, and the problem with this story is that the London Stock Exchange/Serge part of the book sat too much on the fence. On the one hand, we were supposed to see Serge as an innocent abroad, on the other Serge was an intelligent man with a very socialist upbringing, and on the other, okay compared to lots of his colleagues he was just playing, but he was still breaking every ethical rule. Ultimately he didn't benefit, but he wasn't punished either. This may be representative of reality, but it doesn't work for me in fiction because the net result was 'so what'.
There were aspects of the story that were quite funny, but only quite. Like lots of the other reviewers, I liked the Doncaster parts much more. The problem is that there was too much of the same thing as in the previous two books, in terms of a scatter-gun of colourful characters all inter-linked with a lot of politics, but it just didn't have that lightness of touch, it felt forced, and it also felt, frankly, quite cliched. The whole commune, socialist, free love thing, has been done to death and was like a bit of limp, over-washed linen. The other issue was that the narrative maintained so much of a distance from the characters, and juggled so many points of view, that you never really invested your empathy in any of them, which meant, sadly, that I got to the end not really caring. Which is a pity, because I wanted to like this. I hope that her next is better, though I think I'd wait util it came out in my local library rather than buying it.
September 6, 2016
Having greatly enjoyed Lewycka’s previous literary efforts – Two Caravans, We Are All Made of Glue and the bestselling A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – I was incredibly excited to read her fourth novel, the quirkily titled Various Pets Alive & Dead.
The novel begins on the 1st of September 2008. Its opening focuses upon one of the book’s main protagonists, Serge Free, who is currently working in an office on the London Stock Exchange. He is leading his parents, overprotective Doro and quiet Marcus, to believe that he is still finishing his abandoned Maths PhD at Cambridge, rather than letting them know that he actually has rather a high paid job in the capital.
Serge, along with his sisters Clara, a primary school teacher on a Doncaster estate, and Down’s Syndrome sufferer Oolie-Anna, were brought up in a commune in the south of Yorkshire ‘with a floating population of adults, children and various pets alive and dead’. The Free siblings could not be less alike if they tried. Serge is incredibly clever if a little naïve at times, Clara is strait-laced and sensible, and Oolie-Anna strives for the independence which her disability has taken away.
The characters themselves are all incredibly likeable. They each have different quirks which immediately appeal to the reader. Lewycka focuses upon the strengths and weaknesses of each of the Frees, and describes such elements as how ‘Doro has a long list of things she disapproves of, including consumerism, racism, war, Botox, Jeremy Clarkson, and trans-fatty acids’. Even those who feature merely momentarily in the novel are well-developed. Every chapter of the novel essentially focuses on a different character. Each chapter heading is followed by a witty or amusing subtitle – for example, ‘Vandalism, Pee and the Doncaster Climate’, ‘The Carrot Rocket’ and ‘The Slowness of Plants’.
One of Lewycka’s strengths lies within the narrative voices which she creates. Various Pets Alive & Dead is strong from the outset and begins with a great opening sentence: ‘The whole world is deranged, though most people haven’t noticed yet’.
The novel is told from the third person perspective, often in the present tense. This gives the reader a real sense of comradeship with the incredibly believable characters which combine to create the novel. The narrative style itself is quite relaxed but is still incredibly attentive to detail. Irony, sarcasm and amusement are included throughout.
The dialogue throughout is well crafted and incredibly amusing in places. Lewycka captures the dialects of her characters perfectly. Whilst the reader is made aware that some of the characters speak with an accent – Eastern European Maroushka Malko, a colleague of Serge’s, and the youngest Free child, Oolie-Anna – their accents are subtle and not overdone.
Lewycka’s descriptions are fresh and original. One of the best examples of this is the way in which she describes aftershave smelling of ‘aniseed and benzene lighter fuel’. Lewycka puts series of words together so cleverly that even her descriptions of the more mundane aspects of life seem fresh and exciting. The novel, particularly aspects such as the stock market which is detailed throughout, has been very well researched. It is clear, even without reading the Acknowledgements page, that Lewycka has approached experts in the more intricate details of her novel.
Various Pets Alive & Dead is filled with a barrage of surprising twists and the reader can never quite predict where the story will end up. It is an incredibly absorbing novel. Lewycka has a wonderful knack of bringing her stories, and the characters within them, to life. Unlike many contemporary authors, she brings a vibrancy to the ordinary and offers fresh perspectives. She manages to produce books which are incredibly different from one another in terms of story and setting, but which all contain her trademark humour and polished writing style. Lewycka’s stylistically bold fourth novel is contemporary literature at its very best.
The novel begins on the 1st of September 2008. Its opening focuses upon one of the book’s main protagonists, Serge Free, who is currently working in an office on the London Stock Exchange. He is leading his parents, overprotective Doro and quiet Marcus, to believe that he is still finishing his abandoned Maths PhD at Cambridge, rather than letting them know that he actually has rather a high paid job in the capital.
Serge, along with his sisters Clara, a primary school teacher on a Doncaster estate, and Down’s Syndrome sufferer Oolie-Anna, were brought up in a commune in the south of Yorkshire ‘with a floating population of adults, children and various pets alive and dead’. The Free siblings could not be less alike if they tried. Serge is incredibly clever if a little naïve at times, Clara is strait-laced and sensible, and Oolie-Anna strives for the independence which her disability has taken away.
The characters themselves are all incredibly likeable. They each have different quirks which immediately appeal to the reader. Lewycka focuses upon the strengths and weaknesses of each of the Frees, and describes such elements as how ‘Doro has a long list of things she disapproves of, including consumerism, racism, war, Botox, Jeremy Clarkson, and trans-fatty acids’. Even those who feature merely momentarily in the novel are well-developed. Every chapter of the novel essentially focuses on a different character. Each chapter heading is followed by a witty or amusing subtitle – for example, ‘Vandalism, Pee and the Doncaster Climate’, ‘The Carrot Rocket’ and ‘The Slowness of Plants’.
One of Lewycka’s strengths lies within the narrative voices which she creates. Various Pets Alive & Dead is strong from the outset and begins with a great opening sentence: ‘The whole world is deranged, though most people haven’t noticed yet’.
The novel is told from the third person perspective, often in the present tense. This gives the reader a real sense of comradeship with the incredibly believable characters which combine to create the novel. The narrative style itself is quite relaxed but is still incredibly attentive to detail. Irony, sarcasm and amusement are included throughout.
The dialogue throughout is well crafted and incredibly amusing in places. Lewycka captures the dialects of her characters perfectly. Whilst the reader is made aware that some of the characters speak with an accent – Eastern European Maroushka Malko, a colleague of Serge’s, and the youngest Free child, Oolie-Anna – their accents are subtle and not overdone.
Lewycka’s descriptions are fresh and original. One of the best examples of this is the way in which she describes aftershave smelling of ‘aniseed and benzene lighter fuel’. Lewycka puts series of words together so cleverly that even her descriptions of the more mundane aspects of life seem fresh and exciting. The novel, particularly aspects such as the stock market which is detailed throughout, has been very well researched. It is clear, even without reading the Acknowledgements page, that Lewycka has approached experts in the more intricate details of her novel.
Various Pets Alive & Dead is filled with a barrage of surprising twists and the reader can never quite predict where the story will end up. It is an incredibly absorbing novel. Lewycka has a wonderful knack of bringing her stories, and the characters within them, to life. Unlike many contemporary authors, she brings a vibrancy to the ordinary and offers fresh perspectives. She manages to produce books which are incredibly different from one another in terms of story and setting, but which all contain her trademark humour and polished writing style. Lewycka’s stylistically bold fourth novel is contemporary literature at its very best.
April 28, 2012
I normally love the characters she creates, but this time, the combination of bankers and ageing left-wing hippies left me cold. Couldn't be bothered to find out what happened to any of them.
October 3, 2013
I just couldn't get into this at all. I did persevere and read it to the end but wasn't really a story as such and i didn't find any of it funny.
October 15, 2012
Despite the title, there are actually very few pets alive or dead in this story, but it does make for a catchy title and a very striking cover design. The one pet that is a regular fixture in this story is a hamster. Not the same hamster mind you, but a number of different hamsters. The hamster, as a pet, in its little cage, being man-handled by children, adults and others, going round and round endlessly and vigorously on its little wheel, is of course a very metaphoric way of looking at the way everyday life goes - "Putting all your heart and skill into running round inside a spinning hamster wheel is fine for a while, if your're making money, but demoralising and exhausting when you're pushing flat out and getting nowhere." How many people spend their lives in exactly this type of situation?
This is the central theme of the story. Beginning with the very idealistic, young and energetic Marcus and Doro way back in the 1960s who are looking for a new way to live a meaningful life. With a few others they create a commune in the vicinity of Doncaster, sharing everything, literally, until the commune self implodes some 20 plus years later. It is now 2008. Marcus and Doro have three children who want to have nothing at all to do with the politics or lifestyles of their childhoods. After all if you had spent much of your childhood eating lentils, doing chores and sharing you would want to escape too!
Clara is about as far removed from the carefree existence of hippies by becoming a primary school teacher, trying to bring about order and stability to her lower decile students; Serge, a brilliant mathematician supposedly doing a Ph.D at Cambridge has been sucked into the money-go-round vortex of London's financial markets - naturally his parents do not know; and younger sister Oolie-Anna, who has Down's Syndrome,is desperate to claim her own independence and live in her own place on her own terms.
Marcus and Doro have never got married. For some reason, one day they decide to get married. And this leads to each member of the family having to come to terms with certain things that happened in the past. Much of the novel focuses on Serge, as his carefully constructed facade
gradually comes crashing down, along with the entire financial services industry. Clara's issues focus on keeping her students on the straight and narrow, and taking Oolie Anna's side in her bid for independence. In the middle of all this is Doro, her left wing fighting spirit just as bright as ever as she takes on the local council who wish to build over a much loved and cared for allotment area.
This is an easy to read feel good story, a lovely commentary on money not being everything, and much like Justin Cartwright's "Other People's Money" actively ridicules and mocks the big city so-called money makers. Her characters are very, very human, as are the relationships between them. In fact I think this is her greatest strength. In the books of hers I have read, the plot is not always memorable, but the characters drawn with such fondness and care, do stick in the mind. Thoroughly enjoyable.
This is the central theme of the story. Beginning with the very idealistic, young and energetic Marcus and Doro way back in the 1960s who are looking for a new way to live a meaningful life. With a few others they create a commune in the vicinity of Doncaster, sharing everything, literally, until the commune self implodes some 20 plus years later. It is now 2008. Marcus and Doro have three children who want to have nothing at all to do with the politics or lifestyles of their childhoods. After all if you had spent much of your childhood eating lentils, doing chores and sharing you would want to escape too!
Clara is about as far removed from the carefree existence of hippies by becoming a primary school teacher, trying to bring about order and stability to her lower decile students; Serge, a brilliant mathematician supposedly doing a Ph.D at Cambridge has been sucked into the money-go-round vortex of London's financial markets - naturally his parents do not know; and younger sister Oolie-Anna, who has Down's Syndrome,is desperate to claim her own independence and live in her own place on her own terms.
Marcus and Doro have never got married. For some reason, one day they decide to get married. And this leads to each member of the family having to come to terms with certain things that happened in the past. Much of the novel focuses on Serge, as his carefully constructed facade
gradually comes crashing down, along with the entire financial services industry. Clara's issues focus on keeping her students on the straight and narrow, and taking Oolie Anna's side in her bid for independence. In the middle of all this is Doro, her left wing fighting spirit just as bright as ever as she takes on the local council who wish to build over a much loved and cared for allotment area.
This is an easy to read feel good story, a lovely commentary on money not being everything, and much like Justin Cartwright's "Other People's Money" actively ridicules and mocks the big city so-called money makers. Her characters are very, very human, as are the relationships between them. In fact I think this is her greatest strength. In the books of hers I have read, the plot is not always memorable, but the characters drawn with such fondness and care, do stick in the mind. Thoroughly enjoyable.
June 21, 2012
I must be too loose with my stars, but this was certainly a 5. Really well written with lots of very sharp and funny references that will please you even if you're not a mathematician or computer scientist who has lived in Yorkshire during the 70s/80s/90s.
Marina Lewycka catches a lovely picture that never crosses the line into sentimentality: all real people set against that crazy backdrop. Guilt/regrets/success, all screamingly and laugh out loud funny. [Spoiler] It's a happy ever after story too.
I once knew Marina when lived in Leeds and loved her first book. I think this one trumps it by some distance, though. I wonder if she's a bit pissed off that John Lanchester chose to write a novel about high-finance shenanigans at pretty much the same time ... ?
Marina Lewycka catches a lovely picture that never crosses the line into sentimentality: all real people set against that crazy backdrop. Guilt/regrets/success, all screamingly and laugh out loud funny. [Spoiler] It's a happy ever after story too.
I once knew Marina when lived in Leeds and loved her first book. I think this one trumps it by some distance, though. I wonder if she's a bit pissed off that John Lanchester chose to write a novel about high-finance shenanigans at pretty much the same time ... ?
March 11, 2017
Too little time too many books. Don't bother with this one. I finished it but only because it was easy to skim read. The characters are unappealing and uninteresting and their little concerns and catastrophes are of little consequence. I could not see the point of writing it. But an easy read if you are really out of better things to do.
May 29, 2017
funny, witty, entertaining satire of hippy idealism, common folk, and capitalistic greed.
December 17, 2024
Ohhh nooo definitely not my cup of tea!
April 25, 2013
I was a bit disappointed by this one by Lewycka. The scenes of the investment bankers are excellent, but I didn't like the descriptions of the commune so much -that has all been done before and, in my opinion, a lot better. The book seemed way too long.
July 4, 2019
My first book by this author and I was hoping for it to be funnier after all I have read about her novels. I enjoyed the parts about the commune and its characters but not the parts about Serge so much. I listened on audio which possibly made me finish it?
May 6, 2012
I only made it through about fifty pages of this book. It's so Chick Lit By Numbers, I didn't care about any of the characters and found it too much like punishment to continue.
December 12, 2019
I loved this because the characters are wild, yet still relatable. The ending is strange though and I bit too much 'happily ever after'. Don't get me wrong, I was happy everyone found a good path in life, but it didn't seem logical with the way the book was written. Still wholly recommendable if you like character driver books with characters who are just a little bit mad.
March 5, 2025
Książka, która wpadła w moje ręce przypadkiem i nie wypuściłam jej już z tych rąk do ostatniej kartki.
Cudownie lekkie pióro, poczucie humoru i mocny obraz świata skrajnych poglądów politycznych.
Bardzo polecam ZWŁASZCZA tym, którym serce bije mocno po lewej stronie.
Cudownie lekkie pióro, poczucie humoru i mocny obraz świata skrajnych poglądów politycznych.
Bardzo polecam ZWŁASZCZA tym, którym serce bije mocno po lewej stronie.
September 1, 2023
Funny at times but dialogue not really convincing and plot generally didn’t do much for me. Will have to try the tractor one at some point
April 13, 2013
I don't really know what to say about this book. I was expecting it to be 'laugh out loud' funny but didn't really find it that funny - maybe just 'charming' in places.
I really liked the structure where short chapters depict what each character is doing at the moment & this made me want to keep reading to get to continue that character's story.
I liked the characters - particularly Doro and enjoyed reading about the commune days & remembering the money grabbing heady days of the 80's - quite timely with the death of Margaret Thatcher this week.
My only problem came at the end. It just all seemed to finish in a too convenient and predictable way & I ended up feeling a bit of a mug for reading the book!
Mostly we'll written & fast-paced though and certainly not a chore to read.
I really liked the structure where short chapters depict what each character is doing at the moment & this made me want to keep reading to get to continue that character's story.
I liked the characters - particularly Doro and enjoyed reading about the commune days & remembering the money grabbing heady days of the 80's - quite timely with the death of Margaret Thatcher this week.
My only problem came at the end. It just all seemed to finish in a too convenient and predictable way & I ended up feeling a bit of a mug for reading the book!
Mostly we'll written & fast-paced though and certainly not a chore to read.
August 21, 2016
The book starts with an interesting contrast between the commune-living marxist parents who still dream of the revolution and their offspring in 2008 England. The characters are believable and the situations well described in a comic fashion but soon enough everything becomes trivial, predictable an a caricature of what it could have been. The happy ending in particularly is quite disappointing: yes, in general nothing much happens in the world but a novel should surely go beyond this cliche. Does any writer nowadays know how to reach an exciting, thought-provoking end?
February 27, 2021
The book is divided into several narrators who seem like they will eventually uncover a truth about their shared pasts as they wrestle with their post-commune lives. But no one really does and the characters aren't given enough time in their short chapters to be interesting in their own right. It was a relatively quick and diverting read but ultimately unsatisfying.
October 31, 2019
I really wish they wouldn't put quotes on books telling you how 'hilarious' they are. They are never hilarious. (It might be me of course. This is amusing I suppose? It didn't make me laugh though.)
I like Lewyka's writing a lot, she's very good at creating lots of complex characters all just slightly missing the point of what the other characters are saying. Lots of the people in this - Clara, Doro and Marcus, and Serge, in particular, are 'nice but a bit annoying' so quite like real people. Impressive research, as well, about both banking/trading and 80s alternative lifestyles.
Plus this one doesn't have the almost unbearable sadness of some bits of Two Caravans.
I like Lewyka's writing a lot, she's very good at creating lots of complex characters all just slightly missing the point of what the other characters are saying. Lots of the people in this - Clara, Doro and Marcus, and Serge, in particular, are 'nice but a bit annoying' so quite like real people. Impressive research, as well, about both banking/trading and 80s alternative lifestyles.
Plus this one doesn't have the almost unbearable sadness of some bits of Two Caravans.
April 28, 2024
I liked some aspects of this book - the different point of views from the main characters, some funny comments here and there. But the plot just didn’t do much for me and the story was just too slow-rolling.
August 25, 2018
It was entertaining, about kids now adults who grew up on a commune and now live very different lives. I identified with their mother, old hippy who keeps her values.
August 12, 2021
I liked some aspects of this novel but it was too slow and rambling. Would have been a great read if half the length
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September 9, 2022Hætti eftir 100 síður, hafði engan áhuga á áframhaldi.
July 23, 2022
Not really my cup of tea. I can see that people would like it, but it just wasn’t my thing. Not about to rush out and read her others.
May 27, 2020
Menceritakan tentang keluarga yang berasal dari perkumpulan commune sosialis, dan bagaimana idealisme mereka terbentur dengan "dunia nyata", puluhan tahun setelah perkumpulan tersebut bubar. Seru ngikutinnya, tapi terkadang bisa terperosok ke perspektif hitam-putih dan stereotipe usang. Berakhirnya di momen yang kurang tepat.
April 24, 2013
A Very Funny Descendant of Zola: Marina Lewycka's Novel about Quants, Commies and Community!
Seems I spoke too soon a bit ago when I asked, rather rhetorically, in my blog http://notsosolitaryapleasure.blogspo... where was the current novel to compare with Zola's The Kill when it comes to dealing with the causes of our economic woes?
Marina Lewycka's hilarious Various Pets Alive and Dead does just that, however, It begins in early September 2008, ends a year or so later, and in between hits many of the high points of radical politics in Britain in the last quaarter of the 20th century.
The main characters include Doro and Marcus, a couple who fetched up in a hugh old house in coal mining country, just as Margaret Thatcher and economic forces were conspiring to shut down that industry. Their three children--school teacher Clara, math whiz Serge and Down's syndrome sweetie Oolie-Anna--are trying to make their own lives, free of their parents' do-gooder, pacifist ways. Other characters include Serge's comrades in the fields of finance, the other residents who passed through the old house/commune, and Clara's fellow teachers.
What they do is very funny: I laughed outloud every 25 pages or so, and I read late into the night for sheer pleasure. Mixed in with the farce, however, is a great deal of information about the financial shenanigans that lead to the collapse of the housing bubble. Nowhere else have I come across such a digestible exposition of the mathematical models that underlie the making of financial "products" and manipulation of the stock market. Bravo for Lewycka for doing what legions of business writers haven't done while telling an engaging story!
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Lewycka's first big novelistic success (she's written four in all) also mixes fact and story. But whereas it looks backward to the Ukraine of the 1930s and 1940s and immigrant lifein post-War England, Various Pets... is as contemporary as the latest computer hardware update.
Zola might not recognize Lewycka as working his tradition--can't think of a moment when he was funny--but they belong in the same company of writers who deal honestly with the world as they see it in books that people are going to want to read.
Seems I spoke too soon a bit ago when I asked, rather rhetorically, in my blog http://notsosolitaryapleasure.blogspo... where was the current novel to compare with Zola's The Kill when it comes to dealing with the causes of our economic woes?
Marina Lewycka's hilarious Various Pets Alive and Dead does just that, however, It begins in early September 2008, ends a year or so later, and in between hits many of the high points of radical politics in Britain in the last quaarter of the 20th century.
The main characters include Doro and Marcus, a couple who fetched up in a hugh old house in coal mining country, just as Margaret Thatcher and economic forces were conspiring to shut down that industry. Their three children--school teacher Clara, math whiz Serge and Down's syndrome sweetie Oolie-Anna--are trying to make their own lives, free of their parents' do-gooder, pacifist ways. Other characters include Serge's comrades in the fields of finance, the other residents who passed through the old house/commune, and Clara's fellow teachers.
What they do is very funny: I laughed outloud every 25 pages or so, and I read late into the night for sheer pleasure. Mixed in with the farce, however, is a great deal of information about the financial shenanigans that lead to the collapse of the housing bubble. Nowhere else have I come across such a digestible exposition of the mathematical models that underlie the making of financial "products" and manipulation of the stock market. Bravo for Lewycka for doing what legions of business writers haven't done while telling an engaging story!
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Lewycka's first big novelistic success (she's written four in all) also mixes fact and story. But whereas it looks backward to the Ukraine of the 1930s and 1940s and immigrant lifein post-War England, Various Pets... is as contemporary as the latest computer hardware update.
Zola might not recognize Lewycka as working his tradition--can't think of a moment when he was funny--but they belong in the same company of writers who deal honestly with the world as they see it in books that people are going to want to read.
August 28, 2013
In many ways this is a novel for our time, a novel of our time. It's about the generation gap, which has become inverted for the generation that invented (or provoked) the term "generation gap". That's my generation.
Marcus and Dora were part of a left-wing commune in the 1960s and 1970s and hoped that their children would grow up to share their ideals. Their daughter Clara is a teacher of rather prosaic subjects, but at least she is teaching working-class kids. Their mathematically-gifted son Serge, they believe, is working on a PhD in Cambridge, and seems set for a career of pure research, which will not prop up the blood-sucking capitalist system. What they do not know, and what he is too afraid to tell them, is that he has been head-hunted as a risk analyst by a firm of high-flying financiers, and is helping them to ride the rough seas of the financial crisis of 2008, and is what they would regard as immorally rich, and getting richer. His parents' values and his upbringing give him occasional twinges of conscience, but he manages to suppress them quite easily, for the most part. He is a bit more worried about getting caught.
The third child, Oolie-Anna, has Down's syndrome, and so lives at home, but her social worker keeps urging that she move out and become independent, because her aging parents will not be able to look after her for ever.
I read A short history of tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka about seven years ago. That was mainly about Ukrainian immigrants who had settled in Britain, and was both funny and sad.
This one is also funny and sad, but the main characters are British, and there is only one Ukrainian, who is not a viewpoint character. The viewpoint moves mostly between Doro, the mother, and her two children Clara and Serge, with Marcus having his say much more rarely. There is thus no protagonist, or perhaps one could say no human protagonist, because the real protagonist is the new capitalism, and its effects on its devotees and its victims.
It is set in Britain, but the kind of values it represents are very much evident in South Africa today as well.
Marcus and Dora were part of a left-wing commune in the 1960s and 1970s and hoped that their children would grow up to share their ideals. Their daughter Clara is a teacher of rather prosaic subjects, but at least she is teaching working-class kids. Their mathematically-gifted son Serge, they believe, is working on a PhD in Cambridge, and seems set for a career of pure research, which will not prop up the blood-sucking capitalist system. What they do not know, and what he is too afraid to tell them, is that he has been head-hunted as a risk analyst by a firm of high-flying financiers, and is helping them to ride the rough seas of the financial crisis of 2008, and is what they would regard as immorally rich, and getting richer. His parents' values and his upbringing give him occasional twinges of conscience, but he manages to suppress them quite easily, for the most part. He is a bit more worried about getting caught.
The third child, Oolie-Anna, has Down's syndrome, and so lives at home, but her social worker keeps urging that she move out and become independent, because her aging parents will not be able to look after her for ever.
I read A short history of tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka about seven years ago. That was mainly about Ukrainian immigrants who had settled in Britain, and was both funny and sad.
This one is also funny and sad, but the main characters are British, and there is only one Ukrainian, who is not a viewpoint character. The viewpoint moves mostly between Doro, the mother, and her two children Clara and Serge, with Marcus having his say much more rarely. There is thus no protagonist, or perhaps one could say no human protagonist, because the real protagonist is the new capitalism, and its effects on its devotees and its victims.
It is set in Britain, but the kind of values it represents are very much evident in South Africa today as well.
February 26, 2012
Doro and Marcus are ageing hippies who lived in a left-wing commune in Doncaster throughout the 1970s and 80s and are still fighting the good fight against capitalism in the present day. Their three adult children Serge (a maths whizz now making tons of money in the City), Clara (a secondary school teacher) and Oolie-Anna (who has Down's Syndrome and wants her independence) are all trying to make sense of their unusual upbringing and rebel against it, each in their own way. But like every family, this one has secrets which are eventually bound to come to light.
Even if you didn't know who had written this book before you started reading it, it would be obvious that it was Marina Lewycka as it's so much in the same style as her previous books (of which I've read two). But that's a good thing, as this one is equally funny, perceptive and moving. I felt this one had more of an element of farce to it, and that it was trying to some extent to be a "state of the nation" novel, in particular in its portrayal of city traders.
The characters are real people with flaws, but also with great strengths and Lewycka draws them with great tenderness and understanding. Some passages reminded me of Sue Townsend's writing (in her non- Adrian Mole books) with its sense of the surreal running through everyday life.
The book is very funny, although I occasionally felt that it was trying a bit too hard - some of the section titles are twee and their funniness is forced.
I'm in two minds as to whether the Epilogue to the book is a good or a bad thing - don't want to say any more than that as it may spoil others' enjoyment of the book.
Overall though, I really liked "Various Pets Alive & Dead" and would recommend it.
Even if you didn't know who had written this book before you started reading it, it would be obvious that it was Marina Lewycka as it's so much in the same style as her previous books (of which I've read two). But that's a good thing, as this one is equally funny, perceptive and moving. I felt this one had more of an element of farce to it, and that it was trying to some extent to be a "state of the nation" novel, in particular in its portrayal of city traders.
The characters are real people with flaws, but also with great strengths and Lewycka draws them with great tenderness and understanding. Some passages reminded me of Sue Townsend's writing (in her non- Adrian Mole books) with its sense of the surreal running through everyday life.
The book is very funny, although I occasionally felt that it was trying a bit too hard - some of the section titles are twee and their funniness is forced.
I'm in two minds as to whether the Epilogue to the book is a good or a bad thing - don't want to say any more than that as it may spoil others' enjoyment of the book.
Overall though, I really liked "Various Pets Alive & Dead" and would recommend it.
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