A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian

by Marina Lewycka

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was bestselling author Marina Lewycka's bestselling debut novel which has sold over one million copies worldwide. Lewycka tells the side-splittingly funny story of two feuding sisters, Vera and Nadezhda, who join forces against their father's new, gold-digging girlfriend.

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.

Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must set aside a lifetime of feuding to save their émigré engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina. With her proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she will stop at nothing in her pursuit of Western wealth.

But the sisters' campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers fifty years of Europe's darkest history and sends them back to roots they'd much rather forget . . . .

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Book Club, Humor, Ukraine, Novels, Family

Paperback

First published March 31, 2005

About the author

Marina 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.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reads like the author has earnestly followed some kind of How To Write a Comic Novel course.

1 - write about what you know. Check! She's British Ukrainian and this is all about British Ukrainian stuff.

2 - Decide on a strong central narrator and give them a winning personality. Check! Boy oh boy does our first person narrator want you to like her. When I was reading this today and the doorbell rang I thought that was her come round with some freshly baked pampushky. As the story rolls along she's forever nudging your ribs and smirking loudly and huff-huffing at the silly things her characters do.

3 - Invent a bunch of lovably eccentric types - a VERY lovably eccentric yet exasperating yet LOVABLE father is recommended, everyone likes one of those. Check! Check! Check! For instance, the narrator is a sociology lecturer but her sister keeps calling her a social worker - that's quite funny on page 37! And there it is again on page 83, 96, 114 and 289.

4 - But make sure your readers know that this isn't just a trivial make-fun-of-the-daft-immigrants farce by adding in some DARK FAMILY HISTORY which since this is all about Ukrainians might well be pretty dark indeed. Make em laugh, make em cry. Very important. Check! After the farcical golddigging-hussy-is-trying-to-marry-my-father story comes the what-my-dad-did-in-the-holocaust section.

5 - In case that bastard Paul Bryant reviews your novel on Goodreads, namecheck his home town to put him in a good mood. Check! Nottingham! Right there on page 124. I had to give this prize-winning novel a whole extra star just for that.

[Nataliya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never before have I bought a book because of title alone. Plus, it was sandwiched between Nicholas Sparks (ughhh!) and "Eat, Pray, Love" (blerghhh!). I rescued it from this ghastly company and expected a grateful dose of funny in return.

But instead of fun with tractors I got the family squabbles, elderly abuse, well-hidden family secrets that nobody wants to unearth, the pent-up years of anger and frustration, and the misery of life. In a nutshell, it is a story of a very dysfunctional family, hiding its true nature behind the veil of dark comedy.

"Our little exile family, held together by our mother's love and beetroot soup, has started to fall apart."

To quote Leo Tolstoy, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way". Narrated by a middle-aged sociology professor Nadezhda, this is a story of her small British family of Ukrainian immigrants which thrown into utter chaos by an unexpected arrival of a Ukrainian bombshell-tart Valentina, she of short denim skirts, high-heeled mules, Botticellian breasts, and an infamous green satin bra.

"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."

The Mayevskij family has never been really happy. The father, obsessed with technology and "Ukrainianism", the feuding sisters, a mutual hatred between father and daughter, and the death of the mother who kept this little dysfunctional family together. All of this does not exactly spell harmony, even without the addition of an oversexed buxom blonde who is clearly after a British visa and not as much after the charms of a man five decades her senior. All for the following reasons:

Valentina is ready for anything to obtain the coveted comforts of Western life that the Westerners take for granted. Can you blame her? Can you NOT blame her? But isn't the idea of comfort and security what we are all after at some point in life?

The "funny" that I was expecting from the back cover blurb is more of a smile-through-the-tears and throw-your-hands-up-in-the-air-in-resignation kind than simple side-splitting laughter. After all, there is nothing funny about elderly abuse or the loneliness that comes with age. And there is nothing funny about the old grudges that tear families apart. And so I think the sad humor that Lewytska chose for her book works very well in setting the perfect atmosphere, which is definitely the strength of this story.

The characterization is quite interesting as well. None of Lewytska's characters are quite likable; they are petty and vicious and often quite ridiculous - but you cannot help but sympathize with them, even the intended villain Valentina. The author accomplishes it well by always pointing out the other side of the story, the other point of view, the alternate take on the events. Caricaturish at first, Lewytska's characters develop, show new sides of their personalities and come to life in an unexpected way all while remaining surprisingly outlandish

"My mother had known ideology, and she had known hunger. When she was twenty-one, Stalin had discovered he could use famine as a political weapon against the Ukrainian kulaks. She knew - and this knowledge never left her throughout her fifty years of life in England, and then seeped from her into the hearts of her children - she knew for certain that behind the piled-high shelves and abundantly stocked counters of Tesco and the Co-op, hunger still prowls with his skeletal frame and gaping eyes, waiting to grab you the moment you are off your guard."

The chaos of the Majevskij family present-day life is interspersed with the exerpts from a titular book about tractors (in Ukrainian) written by old Nikolaj which shed some light on a sad history of Ukraine in the 20th century, as well as bits and pieces of the sad history of Nadezhda's parents and grandparents in the middle of wars, famine, and concentration camp. As expected, the dark secrets help Nadezhda grasp the origins of the peculiarities of her kin, and help her finally come to understand where the ultimate differences between herself and her seemingly obnoxious sister Vera are coming from - the War Baby vs. the Peace Baby.

"Doesn't she realise how time and memory fix everything? Doesn't she realise that once a story has been told one way, it cannot be retold another way? Doesn't she realise that some things must be covered up and buried, so the shame of them doesn't taint the next generation?"

I did have a love-hate relationship with the writing. I loved Lewytska's ear for the characteristic Ukrainianisms in the speech of the characters. I did raise my eyebrows, however, at the predominance of Russian names in the family of the supposedly Russian-hating man, a mistake that a woman raised in Ukrainian family should not make. I did also notice quite a few instances when the first-person narrator suddenly became rather omniscient, giving us the emotions and feelings of the people she comes in contact with even though she has no way of actually knowing them.
------------------------

Overall, this book gets a solid 3.5 star rating from me. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I liked the story, but could not overlook the writing flaws. However, I really like Lewytska's narrative voice, and I will definitely be on the lookout for her other works.

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Also posted on my blog.

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

VOGLIA DI TENEREZZA



Vedovo da poco – in questo caso, due anni – anziano (84 anni). Giovane donna piacente che arriva dall’Europa dell’est – in questo caso né badante né a servizio – la prole si agita e preoccupa, in difesa del genitore che dalla sua invece sta nascendo a nuova vita, e ancor più a salvaguardia del patrimonio familiare.
Ecco qua, dichiarato sin dall’incipit:
Due anni dopo la morte di mia madre, papà si innamorò di una splendida bionda ucraina divorziata. Lui aveva 84 anni, lei 36. Esplose nella nostra vita come una soffice granata rosa, smuovendo le acque scure, facendo venire a galla una morchia di ricordi incrostati, dando ai fantasmi di famiglia un bel calcio nel sedere.



Emigrato è anche il vecchio padre, Nikolaj è arrivato in Inghilterra nel 1943 (emigrata è anche l’autrice, Marina Lewycka, che è nata da genitori ucraini in un campo profughi a Kiel, in Germania, e già bambina è approdata in terra d’Albione).
E la nuova fiamma, oltre a un divorzio alle spalle, ha già prole sua, un figlio maschio. Valentina, il nome della bomba bionda minacciosa, non si muove cauta, ma con ferrea determinazione: sposa Nikolaj, e incurante dell’arrocco figliare, usa il suo conto in banca per appropriarsi di tutti i simboli di consumo della civiltà occidentale, iniziando dai vestiti.


Kiev

Ovviamente, Nikolaj – che sta effettivamente lavorando a un saggio sulla storia dei trattori - si sente un cavaliere senza macchia e senza paura: non è solo l’amore a muoverlo, ma anche senso di giustizia, la sposa va salvata dalla povertà del retaggio sovietico.
E, ovviamente, le due figlie ricorrono per vie legali. Figlie che, prima di questa minaccia, non filavano esattamente d’amore e d’accordo: ma la maggiore, Vera, è esperta di divorzi, e anche se la minore, Nadia, è piena di ideali umanitari, le sorelle fanno squadra per salvare il salvabile, denunciano l’usurpatrice, assoldano avvocati.



Valentina non è esattamente il massimo dell’accortezza, si muove come un caterpillar, come un trattore (ma non è certo peggio delle due legittime eredi, Vera e Nadia): ripulisce il conto in banca di Nikolaj, divorzia, e lo ricopre di buffi epiteti e ingiurie in un buffo mix delle due lingue, la sua d’origine e quella che sta cercando d’acquisire (con incerto risultato): “moscio floscio” e avanti di questo passo.



La storia è raccontata da Nadia, la figlia minore, e diventa l’occasione in chiave comica per riflettere su quella parte di mondo che si “svegliò” all’improvviso e diventò indipendente quando l’Unione Sovietica cessò d’esistere. L’Ucraina ha storia particolare, il racconto arriva fino ai famigerati anni Trenta, quelli del terribile Holomodor.



E occasione per riflettere sull’emigrazione, da un punto di vista a suo modo privilegiato, data la storia personale della Lewycka che qui può attingere a piene mani al suo personale archivio familiare: suo padre ha effettivamente scritto un saggio sui trattori e la loro storia, ha sposato in seconde nozze una giovane emigrata, e padre e figlia conoscono di persona cosa vuol dire emigrare.
Lewycka non nasconde l’amarezza, ma la coniuga con commozione e tenerezza, il tono è essenzialmente leggero, comico, a tratti davvero divertente.


Questa immagine, e alcune sopra, sono dell’adattamento teatrale inglese.

[Kinga · Rating 2 out of 5]

My literary tastes revolve around two extremes - the high brow stuff and utter trash usually called something like "To Marry a Duke" and I don't find much enjoyment in the safe, middle of the road, commercial fiction. Either challenge me properly or provide with the cheapest kind of thrills. Knowing that about myself, I don't know what possessed me to suggest this book as our book group read. Not only did I force myself and everybody else to read this questionable work but also now all my recommendations are treated with distrust. See, my book club is not really into your typical book group reads and 'The Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian' has 'book group read' written all over it.

And of course, the quirky title! Don't we all love quirky titles! They are so... quirky! Some reviewers mentioned how confusing this title was for them, because, you know, it says 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian' and yet it's not! If you are the sort of person who is confused by the fact that a Booker longlisted bestseller called 'Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian' is not in fact a history of tractors written in Ukrainian, then this book will probably be intellectually satisfying for you.

It's a rather unimaginative and banal satire on Ukrainian immigrants in UK, a story of a young and pretty gold-digger, an old besotted fool and his two daughters who try to prevent the catastrophe and even resort to putting on hold old grudges, while uniting against this common enemy. The secret to good satire is to make fun of your characters but to do it with affection and affection is sorely missing from Lewicka's narrative. The characters are farcical caricatures who are nothing more than the laziest of stereotypes and copies of cliches the British reader was already familiar with. However, when the narrative switches to flashbacks from Ukraine decades ago, everything is very real and the same characters are supposed to be taken seriously, which produces a rather grotesque effect. There are also characters who are not even given this most basic, two-dimensional personality, they only exist as their name and function - like the completely superfluous narrator's husband.

The execution is equally lazy - the style is tedious, it's as if Lewycka used up all her creativity on inventing the pidgin English Valentina, the gold digger, speaks in. What's interesting is that she seems unable to speak in grammatically correct sentences even if she is among other Ukrainians and the assumption is that they are speaking Ukrainian (because why would they be speaking English? This is not a Hollywood film). Of course, Valentina's dialect is quite amusing but completely unrealistic from a linguistical point of view (if you don't understand the most basic English grammar, you won't know words like 'shrivel').

As far as books on immigration go, this brings nothing new to the table. It brings back yesterday's bread that is now stale. The only potentially interesting thing about it is the mini-reflection on how our sanctimonious left-wing, liberal views can conveniently disappear if we find our very personal interests threatened. All in all, though, there is nothing to shake us in this book, nothing to challenge us. Nothing to see here. Move along.

[K.J. Charles]

The blurb says this is "side-splittingly funny". It's shelved under comedy by a ton of people. WTF. This is one of the most bleakly depressing things I have ever read in my entire life.

I mean, it's a very powerful book, about physical and financial elder abuse, and British xenophobia, and intergenerational trauma due to the horrors of WW2 and the appalling history of Ukraine including manufactured famine, war, and genocide by the tag team of Russia and Germany, and familial dysfunction, and misogyny, and women forced to trade sex for survival, and the humiliations of failing bodies in old age. All of which is true and important, but I'm really not seeing where the laughs are, which made this a slightly bewildering experience.

[Donald · Rating 1 out of 5]

I recently picked this book up used at my local library for $1. The cover burst advertised that it was nominated for a Man Booker Prize, and the back cover copy boasted that it was an international bestseller that was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

My thoughts on that after reading the book: What the fuck?

The quick synopsis of the plot is this: Gold-digging Ukrainian immigrant hussy latches on to an elderly Ukrainian widower in England, marries him, and tries to take his money and his house. His two adult daughters (Vera and Nadezhda) try to prevent it from happening. And that's pretty much it. There is an attempt at incorporating many zany characters along the way, and we learn about Vera and Nadezhda's strained relationship, and their relationship with their kooky father. Oh, and every single character is disgusting and hate-able. I almost found myself rooting for the hussy.

Man, this book needed an editor, or at least one more (ruthless) revision. But it was nominated for the Booker, so what the hell do I know? What I do know, though, is this manuscript as is would never have made it out alive if presented to my writer's group.

For instance, the author doesn't seem to have much confidence in her own writing. Written in the first person of the Nadezhda character, the narrative is constantly interrupted by the character's explanation of things in parenthesis. Even during dialogue! And it is a constant interruption. More than a handful of times I just wanted to scream out, "Let the fucking characters talk! Stop interrupting!"

The other no-no that the author does is to somehow allow her lead first-person narrator to know what someone else is thinking. This is after the old man's young wife is treating him particularly bad:

Maybe he would beat her if he could, but he cannot. For the first time he realises how helpless he is. His heart fills with despair.

Oh really? How do you know this, Nadezhda? My writer's group would have taken me to task if I had presented them with this.

As a writer, you are influenced by many authors and countless books. Sometimes you'll read something so good (think John Irving in his prime) that it inspires you, and shows you just how transcending the written word can be. Then you have a novel like this—which also influences you as a writer. By showing you what not to do.

I need to read some Owen Meany now to cleanse myself. I feel so dirty. But what do I know? This thing was a best-selling, award-nominated novel.

[Mark Porton · Rating 3 out of 5]

An eighty-four-year-old widower and Ukrainian expat (Papa) living in the UK, falls hopelessly in love with Valentina, a thirty-six-year-old , heavily made up, elaborately coiffured, mega high heeled, skimpily dressed and let’s not deny it – massively breasted, tornado of a woman.

Papa has two middle-aged daughters – Nadia and Vera. This book would not have worked if it were two sons, I am sure, the casting of the two daughters was brilliant. The outrage expressed by Nadia and Vera, in particular, was explosive. Valentina, married to their Papa – has moved in, and Papa is spending money like a drunken sailor. Three cars, no less – including a £500 Rolls Royce, all for Valentina. The house is a mess, their mother’s garden is no more, and Valentina is suspected of ‘putting it about a bit’ – living with other men from time to time. Papa is also losing weight, and often calls Nadia – in a real state, usually when he is being berated by Valentina for being stingy, poor, or miserly.

Valentina is the star here. This vapid minx creates mayhem. A great deal of this is very funny, despite Valentina’s abusive behaviour towards Papa (and it is), she is funny, in a cringeworthy way.



Octogenarian, Papa, is also funny. Mainly because he’s hopeless. Totally in love. “In love with Valentina’s breasts” according to his daughters. He’s also a blissfully happy obsessive when it comes to subjects like “Tractor making in the Ukraine”. He won’t stop talking about irrelevant matters – when his daughters are trying to extricate him from this terrible situation.

”What happened with and the cigarettes” asked Nadia. There is a long silence. “Can’t remember” Papa says. He looks sideways out of the window and starts to cough. “Did I tell you, Nadia, about the boilers of these ship and how gigantic they were?”

For me though, the laughs ran out at the two-thirds mark and it got a bit silly. It’s a tricky thing for a writer to maintain hilarity throughout an entire book I think. Particularly if it starts off well, perhaps it’s difficult to maintain the pace. Hance my relatively low rating.

The question is, will Papa escape the clutches of the nefarious Valentina?

3 Stars

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is an episode in the comedy sitcom Mind Your Language, where Jeremy Brown's motley crew of students drawn from all over the world to learn English tell jokes to pass the time. Juan Cervantes, the Spanish bartender, tells a hilarious joke: at the end, he is in stitches, unable to stifle laughter, because the joke is so funny. The problem is, it is wholly in Spanish, so nobody else in the class can understand.

This novel left me feeling like one of those class members.

This is the story of old Nikolai Mayevskyj (pronounced "Mayevski"), eccentric immigrant engineer from Ukraine who falls in love at the age of eighty-four with a sex-bomb, Valentina, who is thirty-six. Valentina has the only goal of finding domicile for herself and her "genius" son, Stanislav, in the UK: and the recently widowed engineer is an easy target. Nikolai's daughters Vera and Nadehzda (the first-person narrator) are appalled, and set about rescuing their father from this scheming vixen, burying their running feud about their mother's legacy temporarily. In the process, a lot of dirty family laundry is unearthed, a lot of distressing events take place, but true to the tradition of comic literature, things pan out in the end.

If one believes the blurbs on the jacket, the novel is "extremely funny" (The Times), "mad and hilarious" (The Daily Telegraph) and "...a comic feast, a riotous oil painting of senility, lust and greed" (Economist). But I found it to be nothing of the sort. The deliberate comic tone of voice that the author adopted was jarring, in view of the fact that extremely serious matters like the abuse of the elderly was being described. You can't laugh such things off.

Also, there is the matter of portrayal. All the characters were seriously lacking in sympathy: there is hardly a one there the reader will care to identify with. Many of the conversations (especially where a kind of pidgin English was used to parody the Ukrainians' imperfect grasp of the language) were narrated in a tone of mockery - and when an author mocks her own creations, how can the reader take them seriously?

The book Nikolai is writing, A Short History of Tractors in the Ukrainian, is included as a sort of metaphor for the journey (historical, mental and physical) of the East European expatriate engineer, interested only in machines, from the communist East to the capitalist West. Nikolai's reading of excerpts of the book is interspersed with the main narrative throughout the novel, which though informative, failed to meld with the main story. The unspeakable horrors suffered by the family under Stalin and the Nazis somehow fail to make the impact they should, mainly because of the author's insistence on keeping up a comic tone.

However, three stars for a worthwhile story, and a social problem well-presented. But one is forced to think Ms. Lewycka would have created more of an impact if the book was written in dead seriousness. There is nothing more distressing than a joke which falls flat.

[Paula · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book had so much going for it. First: a quirky title. Second: crazy Ukrainian immigrants. Third: a love story involving horny old people. And it managed to fail miserably on all three counts.

Quick summary: Two sisters are estranged because of a mysterious event that happened 40 years ago in the Old Country. But their mother is dead and their father has taken up with a Ukrainian hussy. Also, he is writing a book about tractors. In Ukrainian. Hussy terrorizes father, sisters must get over their past to drive her out of the country. Lessons are learned. The end. Still doesn't sound so bad?

The reason I hated this book (and, in fact, completely forgot about it until recently) is because these are some of the worst characters ever to be described. Both sisters are self-absorbed and vicious, but not in a humorous way. The father is worthless and completely incapable of helping himself out of the situations he got himself into in the first place. The hussy is over-the-top and obnoxious. So instead of sympathizing with all the characters, you feel like they all deserved what they got, and should just go on being miserable. Only, without you reading about them.

In sum: Horrible, horrible book. Hopefully I can go back to forgetting about it now.

[Cecily · Rating 1 out of 5]

Adult sisters warring over parent(s), money, step mother etc. The extracts about the history of tractors are a gimmick that ought to have more relevance to justify its inclusion; the characters and plot are unoriginal and superficial and the attempts at humour feel lame.

I can't figure out the target audience, how was it shortlisted for the Orange prize (just a pun on Ukraine's Orange Revolution?) or selected as Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime?

An adult plot, but written with limited vocab (except for "susurration"), short sentences, short paragraphs and short chapters. It would be ideal for an adult literacy or TEFL group. In contrast, some YA books (e.g. Harry Potter) require more time, language skill and thought than this. A beach read, perhaps?

Can anyone enlighten me as to why it's so popular - what aspect have I overlooked?

[Fátima Linhares · Rating 2 out of 5]

É que nem sei como classificar isto! Parece uma daquelas comédias de domingo à tarde levadas ao exagero, intercalada com o drama dos ucranianos que, devido à segunda guerra mundial, tiveram de abandonar o seu país. Os tratores foram lá enfiados a martelo, talvez só para o título.
Nem sei como este livro está na lista dos 1001 livros para ler antes de morrer.

[Ian "Marvin" Graye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tractor Attraction

I knew that this book existed for some time. However, something about the title didn't attract me.

I think I have always assumed that I would prefer a book about American tractors.

Then one week I saw it again, bought it and read it within a week. I was ready for it. Our lives had mysteriously moved into alignment.

Not So Secret Family Business

Although it is set within a Ukrainian British family and it takes hilarious advantage of this fact, it reveals a lot about families generally. Particularly, the interactions and dynamics between family members.

Relentlessly Un-Self-Pitying

Tolstoy said "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" at the beginning of Anna Karenina.

I think this book goes one step further. Although there might be happiness and unhappiness in this family, I don't think they stop to think and dwell on it that much. It isn't a cause of self-pity. They just get on with their lives in a relentless way.

Uniquely Funny

What is different about them is that they are funny.

Maybe unfunny families are all alike, but every funny family is funny in its own way.

Senses of humour vary enormously.

But humourlessness doesn't change that much.

Beyond Tractors

I hope the author can make a transition away from the Ukrainian migrant subject matter and still be insightful and funny.

That must sound terrible...what I mean is that she has enormous skills and I'd love to see her apply them to any topic of her choice. (Does that sound better?)

Originally posted: Feb 22, 2011

[Gabriela Pistol · Rating 4 out of 5]

O bucurie de carte, ce bine că a fost reeditată și că am citit-o acum, când aveam mare nevoie fix de ceva amuzant și duios.

Am râs mult cu familia asta ucraineano-engleză excentrică și cu "invadatorii" lor ucraineni, care caută o viață mai bună in Occident, dar găsesc cu totul altceva decât și-au imaginat. Nu o sa mint, am și plâns puțin, sunt multe pasaje tandre despre legătura dintre părinți și copii, despre relația dintre surorile Vera și Nadia (care încep povestea ca dușmance) și despre bătrânețe.

De sub stratul de dialoguri spumoase (de mult timp nu am mai citit un dialog așa extins care să fie relaxant și natural) scot capul fragmente de istorie dureroasă, trecutul tragic al Ucrainei sovietice și prezentul ciopârțit de capitalismul sălbatic, în căutare de fortă de muncă ieftină. E o poveste mișcătoare și bine scrisă.

[Margitte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has such a long blurb that I don't want to use it here. Suffice to say that it is a perfect summary of the book. But here it is for those who would like to read it as part of my review: "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was bestselling author Marina Lewycka's bestselling debut novel which has sold over one million copies worldwide. Lewycka tells the side-splittingly funny story of two feuding sisters, Vera and Nadezhda, who join forces against their father's new, gold-digging girlfriend.

'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.'

Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must aside a lifetime of feuding to save their émigré engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina. With her proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she will stop at nothing in her pursuit of Western wealth.

But the sisters' campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers fifty years of Europe's darkest history and sends them back to roots they'd much rather forget . . .

'It's rare to find a first novel that gets so much right...Lewycka is a seriously talented comic writer' Time Out

'Hugely enjoyable...yields a golden harvest of family truths' Daily Telegraph

'Delightful, funny, touching' Spectator

COMMENTS
This book was as much a funny, as a sad story about Ukrainian immigrants in Britain. Messy, chaotic lives with a dark, heartbreaking undertone. Refugees after WWII, they were a typical family who must start over in modern England living out the immigrant experience. Part tragedy, part comedy, the story present the typical life of people who plastered a smile on their faces during the day and relived the horror of the war in their nocturnal dreams.

Two sisters have to save their octogenarian father, with an extremely stubborn streak, from getting married to a thirty-five year old gold digger after his wife's death two years before. The two sisters do not have a good relationship due to the family history that was not shared between them. One was a war baby and the other a peace baby with a world of untold horror lying between them. But as they start to work together as a team, the healing and understanding comes and the family can find love and support within their own small circle again. Despite the dark memories and family feud raging between the sisters, it was still a warmhearted story. There were moments in the book that I simply allowed the tears to silently run down my face. But by the end, I smiled and wished the book did not end.

The book dragged a bit with too much historical information thrown in as page fillers. But I thoroughly enjoyed the ambiance and the good writing. It was absolutely worth the read. I will read this author again, for sure. In fact, it is one of those book that I would love to read again, simply because I am going to miss this family a lot.

[John Hatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is the story of a Ukrainian family of four that emigrated to England after the end of the second world war. There is so much humour in this book, so much sadness, so much tragedy and so much happiness that to explain it would be to spoil it for anyone who wants to read it.
If you decide to read it, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

[Kuszma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Te jó ég, mennyire jó laptopon írni értékelést, nem pedig az okostelefont toszogatni! Belekábul az ember az örömbe, hogy nem csak azt a két vaskos hüvelykjét használhatja, hanem száguldhat mind a tíz ujj (no jó, csak uszkve négy-hat, a többi inaktív) a klaviatúra végtelen térségein... Nem cserélném el ezt az érzést három Szent Imrés könyvespolcra sem. De még arra a fiktív Szent Imre kórházra sem, amit a kedvemért könyvtárrá alakítanak át.

És most a regényről.

Úgy fest, kétféle bevándorló van. Az egyik már bevándorolt, ott ül a jó ölmeleg Angliában, viszonylagos létbiztonságban, és már csak rossz emlék neki, hogy egykor olyan ország polgára volt, ami rendszerszinten falta fel gyermekeit. A másik viszont még csak most akar bevándorolni, a perifériáról áttenné székhelyét a centrumba, hogy ott zsákmányolják ki. Igen, akarja, hogy kizsákmányolják, szar melót lőcsöljenek rá, olyasmit, amit a született angol a világ minden pénzéért sem végezne el, csak annyit kíván, hogy mindez helyileg az álmok földjén, a kapitalizmus bölcsőjében történjen. És hogy ezt elérje, semmiféle piszkos trükktől nem riad vissza.

Nagyezsda már szinte angol: angol férj, angol munkahely és többé-kevésbé angol mentalitás fémjelzi. Szüleivel és nővérével, Verával érkezett meg még a világháború utáni zűrzavarban Ukrajnából Britanniába, ahol sikerült is szépen betagozódnia. Csak hát frissen megözvegyült édesapja megbolondulni látszik: kinéz magának egy bögyös ukrán feleségjelöltet kamasz gyerekkel meg minden, és beleszeret. Ki akarja menteni a Szovjetunió szétesése után rohamosan gengszterizálódó Ukrajnából, be akarja kuckósítani maga mellé a családi lakba, ennek érdekében pedig nem is riad vissza semmitől. Megveszett az öregúr, megvezették, vagy csak magányos? Kit érdekel! A lényeg, hogy mindenféle élősködő kelet-európaiak ne piszkolják össze a családi harmóniát. Úgyhogy a két nővér összefog, és háborút hirdet a telt keblű és dúlt lelkű jövevény ellen.

Lewycka nagyon jól érez rá az efféle családi tragikomédiák hangulatára. Amit leír, az persze egyfajta olvasat szerint felettébb mulatságos, de csak felületesen nézve az: valójában szánalmas csatározás, ahol az egyik oldalon a már betagozódottak vannak, a másik oldalon pedig szegény Valentina, aki egy talpalatnyi helyet, egy cseppnyi létbiztonságot akar kikaparni magának, bármi áron. Olyan küzdelem ez, aminek egész egyszerűen nem lehetnek győztesei, Lewycka pedig kiválóan mutatja be ennek az egész mocskos adok-kapoknak a dinamikáját. És miközben kifejezetten szakszerűen interpretálja az első és második generációs bevándorlók lehetőségeit és motivációikat, még arra is jut ideje, hogy betekintést nyújtson az olvasónak a vérzivataros ukrán történelembe*. Sokrétű, érdekes könyv, nem annyira vicces, mint inkább a szekunder szégyenünkre apellál, de Lewyckának arról az oldaláról sikerül megközelítenie a migráció kérdését, ahonnan - azt hiszem - előtte nem nagyon szemlélte még senki.

* Mondjuk a második világháborús szál számomra valahogy idegen test maradt a szövegben.

[Joachim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly touching book about a (very) dysfunctional family. I don't usually like this kind of book, but I was totally hooked it kept me up at night a couple of times - it's that good.

I disagree with the reviews, however, which invariably claim that this is a hilarious book. It was funny and sad at the same time. When it was funny, it was chuckle-funny, not lough-out-loud. It's more of a real-life story about people and their problems, blown out of proportion with (slightly) oversize characters.

I like how the characters are so rich and real. I really got mad against Valentina, but then increasingly conflicted as I realized that the protagonist's father was equally to blame for the insane situation described in the book. It makes you realize how complicated we are - how we can be brilliant in some areas of our lives and then complete idiots in others, without even noticing it, much to the detriment of our loved ones.

A wonderful and thoughtful book. And totally off the wall.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book because it had rave reviews printed all over the back and inside covers about how hillarious it was. I don't know if i'm missing something but I didn't find this book funny at all. I think it dealt with alot of serious issues, and was quite educational about the history of Ukraine and the perceptions of the west. Maybe there was some black comedy element I was missing, but to me I just didn't find an old man being abused, war and people mispronouncing English words amusing.

It had an okay pace and style and a collection of interesting themes, but the themes were not developed and the characters were a little two dimensional. I found the nicknames annoying: Big Sis, Bogeynose, Mrs Divorce Expert, Mrs Flog 'em and send 'em home. Okay maybe once this might be funny but constantly using them was just annoying. Names would have been more than sufficient.

Also I think the whole tractor section was irrelevant. I have to admit I skimmed some of the latter ones because the earlier ones had been so boring

I'm not sure if I would read another book by this author. Considering this was a first attempt it was pretty good, but i'd expect a big improvement in a second novel.

[Vonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian is advertised as being an extremely comical take on family drama. The latter I can agree with. The former, maybe not so much. I had a few smiles, sure. But I never laughed out loud, which is my (maybe unnecessarily high standard) definition of a truly humorous novel. It was, however, a portrayal of the ridiculousness of the green card process (if the amount of marriages bought with the sole purpose of citizenship is any indication) and the inherent obstacles in immigrating here that took a comical rather than serious angle, making this, overall, a short, lighthearted read.

I say "overall" because there were definitely a few tragic, depressingly honest chapters regarding the Mayevskyj Family history. Nikolai and Ludmilla, parents to sisters Nadezhda (our narrator) and Vera (Big Sister), were originally from Ukraine, surviving through wars, communism, concentration camps, Stalin's totalitarian reign, etcetera. Grief and death, separation from family members, living in fear, close ones disappearing in the dark of the night; they endured it all. Later labeled "War Baby" by younger sister Nadezhda ("Peace Baby", of course), was also a victim of these sad circumstances in her earlier years.

Since the death of their mother a couple years ago, the two sisters have been feuding regarding the inheritance, barely on talking terms. (Vera convinced their mother on her death bed to alter her will to divide it between the grandaughters rather than her daughters; Vera, of course, has two on Nedezhda's one.) When her father calls to announce that he is getting married to one "Valentina", with "Bottecellian" breasts, twenty years younger, in need of green card citizenship passage via marriage certificate, Nadezhda is resigned to the fate that their father's well-being is more important the sibling rivalry.

She reaches out to Big Sister. The two of them collaborate, investigating, intervening consoling, counseling, as Nikolai can be quite the stubborn old man, set in his ways and sometimes convoluted ideals. The two sisters inevitably bond, making up and becoming far closer the more time they spend together coming to the rescue of their father.

As predicted, Valentina is extremely careless with what little finances he has; she demands very specific brand names on the things he is mandated to provide her with, including three vehicles and a specific color pressure cooker. She is obviously seeing other men, but her adultery is something her husband refuses to admit (only indirectly when she has a son that is not his). She also begins emotionally, physically, verbally abusing him. Blinded by three primary things, physical infatuation, his desire to have a son (Standinolov, her son, has come from Ukraine with Valentina), + his perceived obligation to save those from his country (Ukraine is still currently in communism rule, impoverished communities), their father continues alternating, sometimes simultaneously, proclaiming his love for her and/or expressing his fear that she will murder him. Indeed, Valentina is quite the colorful character, initiating numerous hilarious scenarios. Coupled with a slightly senile old man for a husband, two feuding sisters, and their mother, still very alive in spirit, all with colorful personalities of their own, you have a cast of characters made for a comedy show.

The title here is actually referring to the work Nikolai penned, completing by the conclusion of the novel. Always having a passion for tractors, especially in relation to his native Ukraine, he often reads from his text to visitors. One of his preferred audience members in Michael, Nadezhda's husband, as he is an engineer. As a nice addition to the novel, Lewycka includes detailed scholarly information regarding the history for Ford's first tractors, the success found by John Deere, & the significance farming technologies had in our world, especially during war times under Stalin's reign.

[Maciek · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian made the Booker longlist for 2005, which is quite a feat for a debut novel - and one of the two reasons why I chose to read it. The other one is, of course, its quirky title - I just couldn't pass a book titled like that, even though I profess absolutely no knowledge of even the most rudimentary Ukrainian. My knowledge of tractors is not much better - I'm able to identify one when I see it, but that's pretty much it.

A Short History of Tractors... is the story of two British Ukrainian sisters, Vera and Nadezhda, whose life turns upside down when their elderly, widowed father falls in love again - with Valentina, a much younger (and voluptous) Ukrainian woman, whom he intends to marry. Both sisters react with horror to the news that the marriage is only arranged for Valentina to settle permanently in the UK, but their warnings fall on deaf ears - the cheeky bugger is dead set. What follows is a whimsical sequence of events as Nadezhda and Vera try to prevent their father from marrying Valentina, combined revelations about their own family, pieces from the long and troubled history of Ukraine, and their father's life work - the grand history of the Ukrainian tractor.

All this sounds fine - and perhaps just isn't for me. The premise - two estranged sisters have to overcome their differences in order to save their senile father from the claws of an opportunistic woman - is captivating, but doesn't quite deliver. None of the characters are particularly interesting or multifaceted: the old man is pointlessly pathetic and helpless, his daughters are too self-absorbed for us to really like them and Valentina is nothing more than a stereotypical gold-digger, and the only real attempt at presenting her culture and ethnicity in the novel is to simplify her sentence structure and have her mispronounce all the English words.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian also aims to be at least partially a presentation of Ukrainian history - published in a Western country and aimed towards a Western audience, and one which doesn't know much about the country (though with current events taking place there we've seen a sudden and amazing increase in experts on all things Ukraine - most of whom probably couldn't find it on the map a few months before). I'm not a Westerner and I don't live in a Western society, and I know where Ukraine is and even a little bit about its history - and this is why I was disappointed to see such an interesting subject to be basically brushed over, and learned nothing new. The part about the tractor seems to have no real relevance to the plot or the text altogether, except for Ms. Lewycka wanting to put it in there for some reason.

To sum it up: this isn't a bad book - it's certainly readable and can be entertaining - but it's not what I'd categorize as Booker material, so I'm not surprised that it didn't make the shortlist. Still, it is a debut novel and shows some potential - I'm willing to give Ms. Lewycka another go, and read one of her later novels. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian can provide for a few hours of pleasurable reading to pass the time on the bus or the metro, but those seeking an entry window to the history of Ukraine or human drama with more depth than a puddle would be better served elsewhere.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book sat on my shelf for months before I finally sat down to read it. There was no good reason for my hesitance – the book has glowing reviews and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize – for some reason it just didn’t appeal to me. You know the phrase ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’? Well I do this, all the time, and I think that was the reason behind my mental block. My mind could not make the link between the words 'history', 'tractors', 'Ukrainian' and the comedy that the blurb on the back promised.

I know now that I was wrong. This is a well-written, very funny story about a sad situation and some serious concepts.

Told by the character of Nadezhda, this is the tale of her father’s second marriage to the much-younger Valentina. In the book’s opening words (so much better than mine): 'Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian 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.’

The author has an ear for the peculiarity of English as a second language and, in the character of Valentina, has created one of the most amusing villains ever. Into this larger-than-life character are poured all sorts of wonderful insults and bare-faced gold-digging that would put this country’s Wags to shame. Nadezhda’s father is well-developed as a character as well, having the stubbornness familiar to old men everywhere, backed with a horrific personal history. He relates his slant on some of his past with his book, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, passages of which intersperse the main story.

Sadly, some of the deeper meaning is inevitably lost, falling victim to the comedy situations and emotional development, so that the conclusion is something of an anti-climax. I also felt that the narrator’s character remained something of a mystery to me, despite her revealing her family’s secrets she didn’t really share too much of her own feelings.

But these are minor quibbles with a very high-quality book, which should be recommended to any chick-lit-lovers who think that funny must automatically mean fluffy. This is a book with a heart, soul and funny bone all firmly in place. Although I still think the cover is terrible.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so happy to finally get a copy of this book, after coming across it in little Cosmos bookshop in St. Kilda about 2 years ago, even though I couldn't get an edition with the nicer tractor cover. I just find it tacky to print the first two sentences on the front cover, even though it is a catchy beginning.

It was certainly not quite what I was expecting - because it was nominated for the Man Booker Prize last year, I guess I was expecting something a bit heavier, more depressing. But this book is hilarious. It's heavily ironic, surprisingly dialogue-based, yet so much is revealed in subtle ways.

Nadezhda (Nadia for short) and her Big Sis, Vera, lost their mother two years ago and have been fighting ever since over the will. Now they are brought together by a common goal: to prevent their 84 year old father, Nikolai, from marrying a Ukrainian gold digger with big boobs. Their words, not mine. Nadia's story is interspersed with excerpts from her father's work on tractors (he was an engineer), and the tale of her grandparents, parents, the war and how they came to be in England.

This story is so neatly balanced between the humour and farce of the present "situation" and the scary, desperate past. The past sections are not told in a morbid fashion, though. It's hard to put my finger on what it is exactly, but the narrative has that almost stale taste you acquire when telling a story not your own: Nadia was the Peace baby, Vera the War baby, and Big Sis is very tight-lipped. Nadia has to piece together the past, and Vera's account doesn't always match their father's.

Another thing I loved was the familiarity of the English world: although I have never been, I found great heart in the fact that the text had not been altered for a North American readership. Words like "capsicum" are still there, little golden nuggets to stumble across in the story. (For anyone who doesn't know, capsicum is the "real" word for "pepper", as in, bell pepper. The capsicum family, it is. It's the word we use in Australia, too.)

I loved this book, but I'm having trouble getting past my positive reaction to really understand it. I'm sure there's more to it than what's on the surface.

[Ahtims · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long listed for Man Booker, this eccentric book tells the story of how an 84 year old fell in love with a 34 year old, and got married, to the consternation of his daughters who were much older than their step mom.
Valentina, the 34 year old Ukranian illegal refugee had only one aim - to become a citizen of UK.. and she didn't mind marrying for it. Whereas the old man, bit of a megalomaniac, fell in love.. and even wanted a male progeny from the union.
This dark satire revolves around how his daughters try to save him from his young, new dangerous wife, who resorted to verbal and physical abuse to get things done.
Was an eye opener towards human aspirations, follies and fickleness.

Along with the old man's story, I gathered considerable knowledge on the history of tractors in Ukrainian, and also an inkling of its political situation.

Recommended to all those who like to read "different" stories.

[Oriana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well this gets a big meh. It felt like paint-by-numbers noveling: take a fucked up family, add some culturally sensitive and upsetting history, intersperse it with a quirky thing one of them does. So: two embittered, estranged sisters have to work together to help save their aging father from the much younger woman who has her talons in him / parents came from the Ukraine and survived war and purges and internment camps and other horrors / dad is (when not trying to fondle his new wife's big fake tits) writing the definitive history of tractors.

Meh. Neat premise, I guess, but a pretty boring execution. Flat, caricaturish characters, wooden dialogue interspersed with spoon-fed thoughts the main character has while talking, predictable plot arc, etc. Meh and meh.

[Ints · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grāmatu es neapdomīgi aizņēmos grāmatu klubā, uzrunāja traktori nosaukumā. Mani gan cilvēki centās atrunāt, teica, ka nepatiks. Izrādās, ka viņi mani pazīst labāk nekā es pats sevi.

Galvenā problēma bija saprast par ko grāmata īsti ir sarakstīta. Par divu māsu attiecībām, kara un pirmskara bērnu pasaules skatījuma un pieredzes ietekmi uz turpmāko dzīvi? Par ukraiņu tautas vēsturi iepriekšējā gadsimta laikā? Par to kā vīriešiem uz vecumu izveidojas nenoturība pret pupiem un jauniem sievišķiem? To cik grūti ir krāmēties ar saviem vecākajiem radiniekiem, kuriem laiks uz kapu, bet viņi negrib mirt?

Augstāk minētajiem jautājumiem nebūtu nekādas vainas, ja vien tas viss netiktu mēģināts pasniegt tādā nedaudz ciniskā un izsmejošā manierē. Stāstījumam ir vairāki slāņi un jau pēc pārdesmit lapaspusēm es sapratu, ka tā īsti mani nespēj uzrunāt neviens. Iespējams neesmu grāmatas auditorija. Pat izvilkumi no traktoru vēstures (tanki un traktori savulaik bija mans hobijs) mani kaitināja. Tur nebija nekādu šīs vēstures interesantu notikumi, parasts virspusējs atstāsts. visu vēl sliktāku padarīja fakts, ka tulkotāja nemaz nebija iespringusi un redaktore ne tik, ne viņas zin Ļeņina darbu nosaukumu kanoniskos tulkojumus latviešu valodā un engine (domāts tanka dzinējs) pārtulkošanu par alumīnija lokomatīvi manī nobeidza visas cerības un ilūzijas.

Darba lielākais pluss ir salīdzinošais īsums, vietām joki ir patiešām labi un pirmā puse no grāmatas, kad tu vēl ceri, ka te kaut kas būs lasās diezgan jestri. Jestri lasās arī pārējā grāmata, bet tad jau ar tādu bezcerību. 5 no 10 ballēm.

[Oleska Tys · Rating 1 out of 5]

Щоб не писали на обкладинці, як би авторка не означа своє творіння, шовінізмом тут чути з першої сторінки, а банальне прохання "це все сарказм, не сприймайте все серйозно" звучить як виправдання, досить фігове виправдання.

"Коротка історія тракторів в Україні" Марини Левицької - це спроба авторки інтегрувати Схід і Захід, це своєрідне протистояння двох різних світів, різних принципів, способів жити, прагнень та світоглядів. Це зі слів авторки, яка говорить про себе, як про "народжена в українських батьків у німецькому місті в часи Другої світової війни, яка переїхала у Великобританію, де зараз живе і пише". Саме тому вона може птсати про Україну і українців все, що хочеться. Навіть відверту дичину.

Сюжет побудовано навколо протистояння підлої та корисливої українки Валєнькі та двох дочок українських іммігрантів Надєжди і Вєри (так-так, все вірно, за версі��ю авторки це і є українські імена, саме в такому звучанні), які захищають свого батька (довбаного комуняку, який дрочить на радянський союз і хвалить Сталіна) від українського зла. Саме про це і вся книга, лиш поміж діалогами та роздумами Надєжди короткі уривки історії тракторів в Україні + хвала комунізму + вихваляння своєї більшовартості над якимось там іншими недолюдьми.

Книгу я почала читати ще у грудні, довго-довго пробираючись крізь цю дику фантазію, шовінізм, мізогонію та "Надєжд", в лютому я її залишила до кращих (читати: більш емоційноврівноважених) часів, і даремно. В травні-червні читання цієї книги мене дико бісило, хоітлось не то її викинути, не то спалити, але ж треба дочитати. Мда... краще б викинула.

Якщо коротко описувати цю книгу, то авторка, яка ніколи не була в Україні, не бачила Україну, все життя проживши в Великобританії, пише відверто антиукраїнський роман приправлений шовінізмом та комплексом "я краща", прикриваючись сатирою та жанром чорної комедії.

[Genia Lukin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think I may have actually not enjoyed this book because, and I am going to level with people here, I am prejudiced against Ukrainians.

Let me just elaborate here, in order to clarify statement. Much of my family comes from the Ukraine, in one form or another. my father's mother is Ukrainian, my grandfather is from Cossac stock... but the major part of my family are Ukrainian Jews, by way of Russia. And as Ukrainian culturally Russian Jews... Well, let's just say that the major Ukrainian national heroes are our giant traumatic monsters. I'm looking at you, Bogdan Khmelnitski.

So when I read about the plight of Ukraine, all I can think of is 'yeah, and guess whom you took it all out on'. And the father of the family is horrifically anti-Russian, including anti-Russian language, which, you know, probably isn't helping. And then the author goes and uses a metaphor along the lines of "Snow [...] settled like the pillows of innocent children on the slopes of Babi Yar."

Er. Uh. Just... Babi Yar. Really. Next time let's find a Polish book talking about the virgin forests of Auschwitz.

There are other reasons, too. This book is trying too hard to be cutesy, including over things that really don't lend themselves to cutesy treatment. Abuse, haha. It might have been meant ironically, of course, but the irony didn't come through. it felt more like a farce or a tragedy than a satire, in a lot of ways. The style itself didn't really do me much good. And the characters were one and all extremely unsympathetic.

It also bothered me, quite a bit, that the entire dialogue was in broken, choppy English. Even when, presumably, the people speaking would be doing so in Ukrainian and would have no reason whatsoever to sound like they're two days off the boat. I mean, are we really expected to think that the father and Valentina would be yelling in English at each other?

On the other hand, I can't deny that the book is readable. it's not trying to be abstruse, it flows pretty decently, it took me relatively little time, and as a read was fairly enjoyable. There were moments of good dialogue, and some things that made this child of immigrants sort of smile and roll her eyes. So there's that.

[Jamie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book, despite all of its stars and reviews and etc etc was a huge disappointment. It's rare that I don't finish a book but I became so apathetic to this one that by page 180 I just left it on the floor of my room and later returned it to the library. I have no interest to know how it ends. The characters ply you for sympathy in maudlin fashion and cliches drip off every page.

Here is a summary of the book: Hey! We're Ukrainian! We have a dark family past! But we're really sardonic too! Hey! Look at this writing, isn't it qual-i-tay? HEY! GIVE US AN ORANGE PRIZE! We're SO WACKY!

There, now you don't have to read it.

[Alta]

One of the most enjoyable novels I've ever read: extremely funny, witty, and the Ukrainian characters are unforgettable. In fact, the book was so entertaining that I (an elitist) felt guilty because I assumed that it's the kind of novel anyone would love. So, out of curiosity I took a look at the reviews on Goodreads and... surprise: many reviews were quite negative. This may be explained by the fact that behind the lightness of the book hides a very serious subtext: the author, who was born of Ukrainian parents in a German refugee camp understands history. The Ukrainian political situation and history are very well analyzed (albeit indirectly, through dialogue--btw, the author has a great gift for dialogue). Although this is a first novel (written by a mature writer, and this shows), the structure of the novel is flawless, reminding me at times of the great Russian novels of the past, in which suspense is very well calibrated and the dramatic tension culminates in scenes where all the characters are present (usually at a dinner, a party or a gathering).

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian' is Marina Lewycka's 2005 debut novel.

Lewycka weaves a great family story around the central narrative of Nikolai the 84 year old family patriarch and his love for rapacious and much younger Valentina.

It's essentially a comic novel about the challenging relationship between Nikolai and Valentina - which is somewhat of a rollercoaster ride to say the least.

But at its heart it's the story of a family, about feuding sisters, deluded aging fathers, avaricious partners, hidden histories and wartime family secrets hitherto unknown, oh and course tractors!

Short extracts are included from the engineering book that Nikolai is writing about the tractors of the books title, which are bizarrely more engaging than perhaps anticipated.

At it's heart a very human and warm story about families growing up, growing apart and maybe coming back together against a backdrop of the Ukrainian diaspora.

Marina Lewycka herself having born to Ukrainian parents in a refugee camp in Germany, grew up in England and I do wonder which elements of her own experiences are included herewith as influences or may have informed the ideas behind her debut novel?