Customer Reviews

Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I picked up Marina Lewycka's "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" almost by accident. The title attracted my attention so I picked it up and began reading. After reading the first three sentences, I was sold. They are: "Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blond 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 sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside." The concern I have with books that begin so well is the difficulty the remainder has in living up to such promise. I am happy to report that Ukrainian Tractors lived up to the promise of its opening paragraph.

The opening sentences sum up the story. Nikolai, his wife and two children Vera and Nadezhda (Nadia) were Ukrainian refugees who, at the conclusion of the Second World War make their way to Peterborough, England. Vera was born before the war and has memories of the families' travails in German work camps. She is the "war baby." Vera is the basic domineering know-it-all older sister. Nadia is the peace baby, a liberal sociology lecturer with a penchant for buying her clothes used at the local Oxfam (charity outlet). Nadia and Vera have not talked since their mother's funeral. Nikolai picks up he phone one day and announces to Nadia that he is about to take a new bride. Valentina is a young, buxom bottle-blonde Ukrainian whose U.K. residency visa is about to expire. As expected, Vera and Nadia call a truce in order to prevent the marriage and protect their father from a fate they consider worse than death. Nikolai, of course, cannot help but contemplate blissful evenings in the warm embrace of his well-endowed faux-blonde soon to be illegal alien while he writes his book, a history of the tractor, the farm implement that changed the world.

Valentina makes for a worthy adversary and seems to best Vera and Nadia every step of the way. The comedy of the book turns a bit dark, however, as Nikolai's age and infirmities facilitate Valentina's increasing dominance over him. Her mental and physical abuse of Nikolai becomes apparent. At the same time, Lewycka takes us on a trip through the family's past. In the meantime, family ghosts and secrets begin to emerge. Root causes of the family's deep-rooted antagonism begin to reveal themselves as the story progresses. Events race on to a not altogether surprising conclusion.

I very much enjoyed "A Short History of tractors In Ukrainian". I was impressed by the manner in which Lewycka fleshed out the characters. Anyone who has been responsible for the care and feeding of an aging parent or grandparent will recognize Nikolai. One's pride is the last thing to go sometimes and when we see events beat the pride out of our loved ones we can almost see them shrink before our eyes. The two sisters also had a strong air of reality about them. I've seen each type in real life and I think Lewycka captures their essences well. Last but not least we have the Ukrainian bombshell, Valentina. By the end of the book I had no small amount of sympathy for Valentina. I could admire her work effort and her desire to make a better life for herself and her son despite her poor treatment of Nikolai. This is no easy task for a writer to accomplish. At the same time, her grasping nature, her dolled-up appearance, and her belief that ready-made food products were the western equivalent of high cuisine were downright hilarious at times.

There were a couple of spots where I thought the story dragged a bit or where some of the actions of the characters did not quite ring true. Some of the subsidiary characters seems a bit lifeless compared to Valentina and Nikolai. However, those relatively minor flaws were swept up in a story that was both charming and thoughtful.

This isn't a particularly long novel, yet Lewycka manages to accomplish so much! The story-line itself is simple: two estranged sisters in England try to stop their aged father's marriage to a gold-digging Ukrainian woman. But the book itself is complex. It's one of the funniest books I've read in a long time, and there is joy, and yet there is also plenty of tragedy and grief. All of the characters are wonderful; even some of the minor supporting characters are fully realized people. And none of the characters are fully good or bad. The author even had me sympathizing at times with the gold-digger and the men with whom she had affairs. I think the book's greatest asset, however, is that it shows genuine insight into real families, and the sorts of complicated stories that families make for themselves. How many books can make you laugh, make you cry, and teach you about the history of tractors and the Ukraine, all in less than 300 pages?

Rumours have it that Marina Lewycka's first novel was initially placed under "agriculture" on the book shelves. Ukrainian tractors don't sound like a good topic for a highly enjoyable reading experience. Yet it is! While a history of tractors features in the narrative as a sub-stream, the story really is about family - history and complex relationships across generations and cultures. All those elements are packaged in a vivid, yet easy-going language, filled with humour and gentle satire.

The story is set in the Ukrainian immigrant community in England and centres around Nicolai, a 84 year old widower who has set his eyes on a thirty-something, full-bosomed blonde Valentina, a would-like-to-be immigrant. His intention to marry her gets his two daughters onto the scene, anxious to stop such a mismatch. Despite their intense efforts and intrigues, however, their attempt to obstruct doesn't succeed. "She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade..." Written from the perspective of Nadia, the younger of the two daughters, and through her discussions with "Big Sis" Vera, the reader follows the upheavals that this new reality in their fathers' life creates. Suspicions are rife that Valentina has plans beyond looking after a new husband and that Nicolai is being exploited in more ways than one. The sisters themselves carry baggage from the past that they need to put aside or resolve in order to show a united front to their father's situation. In the process, events from the family history come to light that explain to some degree their different approaches to the problem at hand and different relationship each has had with their father and their late mother.

At one level Lewycka's novel is just a fun read, a family saga that shines with lively dialogue and witty comments on the reality of the lives of the central characters. At another level, she seamlessly integrates her reflections on aging and the needs and vulnerabilities of seniors and the challenges these present for the next generation to handle. Finally, through flashbacks into Nikolai's life, the author provides the reader with insights into the family's background that makes the characters into who they have become. Nicolai and Valentina in particular come to live in the story and one can find parallels to people we all know. All the parts are expertly joined so that these elements don't feel like overwhelming the primary storyline. A highly recommended book. [Friederike Knabe]

Marina Lewycka is a writer of rare wit and brilliance who may have single-handedly resurrected the novel as an artform in her first little fiction. Only a novel could incorporate a twentieth century history of the Ukraine under Stalin, an evocation of immigrant cultural archetypes, a documentary on aging in the industrial west and tell it in Jane Austen-like prose that resonates with the humor of a Woody Allen movie. Did I mention that in engaging slivers of commentary, you get an interesting history of tractors - in English! Avoid the reviewers who cannot help but tell you about the engaging story of this novel - you can read it for yourself in your spare time in just two days - be a "reader" and tell your friends about this extraordinary novel.

Once I started this book, I could hardly put it down. It's a very easy read (took me two days). It is so well written and the characters, though somewhat comical, are brought to life in a very real and human way -- and that is not an easy feat for many authors to acheive. It was brilliant. For some of the people who have reviewed this book below and ask "Why tractors?" -- you totally missed the point. The father's history of tractors mirrors his life and his history. Go back and read the passages again a bit more closely and consider what is going on in the stories that are being told about he and his family's life -- the passages are meant to be analogies -- they all have a very specific purpose and meaning. I think the reasoning behind this is that what he could not talk about from the past he put in the context of the history of tractors. It is his way of telling his story and resolving his past. Anyway, I highly recommend this book -- I have already purchased multiple copies and sent to family and friends....it's extremely touching and worth a read.

Ms. Lewycka's first book debuted to rave reviews in London, Paris, New York, and all points in between. Critics have described the book as funny, charming, ingenious, astonishing, and poignant. The characters are memorable, the plot unusual and unpredictable.

Nikolai Mayevskyj is 84-years old, a retired draftsman from a tractor factory who emigrated to U.K. from the Ukraine. The feisty widower occupies his agile mind by writing a book on the impact tractors had on Ukrainian society. Until her death, his

wife Ludmilla gardened, canned fruits and vegetables, saved her money, and stored food against the time her family might go hungry. Life is good in England, but the memory of suffering and starvation in Ukraina haunts them. Daughters Vera and Nadia are at odds, spending much of their time and energy arguing over dividing Ludmilla's estate, until a 36-year old Ukrainian femme fatale latches onto their fragile, elderly father.

Valentina is buxom, blonde haired, and determined to reap whatever harvests possible in the West. She wants money, marriage, vehicles, status and will do whatever it takes to achieve her goals. Valentina is seductive, manipulative, destructive, and cruel, but oddly endearing as she herds Nikolei towards the altar. Among the many men she romances, he's the only one willing to marry her. Vera and Nadia combine forces to rescue their father from Valentina's physical abuse and financial excesses.

Ms. Lewycka's novel is neither farce nor tragedy. It's a social commentary and testament to the human struggle to survive Stalinist Russia. Vera and Nadia remember a Ukrainian past better left unspoken. Nikolai shares a rich legacy through his manuscript. With keen intelligence and determination the Mayevskyjs survived Stalin and starvation, but will they survive Valentina's ruthless machinations?

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian contains many excellent elements. The author's sense of the diction of Eastern Europeans both in and out of their own language is excellent. Her understanding of the depths of passion and desperation they have felt in their history over the past century is acute. The contrasts she provides between their lives and the lives of modern day Englishpeople are apt.

Two flaws, though, marred the book for me. First, the plot is obvious and telegraphed. Old, vulnerable man is taken advantage of by scheming, insincere, unfaithful woman with large [...]. Guess what happens? Guess how his daughters respond. Guess whether he eventually comes to his senses. Do you really need to read the book to find all this out?

The other is that the character of Vera, the older daughter, is hardly a character at all. Seen almost entirely through the eyes of the narrator, younger daughter Nadia, her reactions to nearly everything are trite and over the top.

The remarkable thing about this book is that Lewycka almost overcomes both faults. She tries mightily to put some humanity into Valentina, the golddigger, mainly through the device of bringing back her ex-husband from Ukraine. He is a marvelous character and the novel breathes whenever he is present in it. But eventually when the two return to Ukraine with their two children, driving a comical Rolls Royce with a large electric cooker (i.e., stove) on top, having stolen Nadia's mother's pressure cooker (which Nadia does nothing to stop) you can tell that there would be no redemption, she was going to do it again when she got her figure back after her pregnancy, leaving him with an infant he hadn't fathered.

Lewycka also tries to redeem Vera by hinting at a vague trauma in a Nazi work camp where she was the youngest inmate, something involving cigarettes which neither Vera nor Nikolai will describe to Nadia. But their reconciliation in the light of this after the father moves out of the family home seems just too contrived. Often we wish novels would be edited better and made shorter. Perhaps this one could have benefited by being edited to make it just a tad longer, so that Vera could have been fleshed out more.

The book is short, and even with just three stars, I recommend it for its veracity of tone and its moments of wit. I just wish it could have overcome its flaws.

I highly recommend this delightful, fast-reading novel, which should appeal to just about any reader. There are already several excellent reviews posted for this wonderful novel. So I needn't go into detail of the story. In a nutshell, it's about two sisters, Nadia and Vera, Ukrainian immigrants who have not spoken to eachother in years. They are compelled to join forces when their doddering widowed dad introduces his soon-to-be, mail-order bride from the Old Country. Valentina is clearly a gold-digger of the worst sort, a wanton wench with a fantastic (but fake) bosum and an obsession for the good (that is, Western) life. All Nikolai wants is a trophy wife for his old age, and to finish his masterpiece, a treatise about tractors and their significance to civilization. Protecting their papa and vanquishing Valentina proves quite a challenge for the sisters. And quite entertaining for the reader lucky enough to find this gem of a novel! Apart from the humorous conflict, the author gives us an authentic and very affectionate glimpse into the lives of Ukrainian immigrants. And a compassionate account of the joys of caring for an aged parent. Don't miss "A Short History of the Tractor in Ukrainian."

This book IS obliquely about the history of tractors, but it is also about the secrets, the weaknesses and the strengths of a Ukrainian family who settle in Britain, told at times in a concise, first person 'Ukrainian/Russian' style (eg no prepositions). Two sisters come together over their 84 year old father's doomed marriage to a scheming 36 year old Ukrainian with obvious assets. The story is poignant in that it deals with lost opportunities and gross injustices which makes it feel one of the most 'real' or 'come alive' books I have read for a while. I felt sad turning the last page as the characters, although drawn simply are nailed accurately and recognisably. The warmth behind the book lifts the spirits, especially on a cold, wet day (which is all this book takes to read).

I found this book quite refreshing after a couple of recent bad picks. It concerns a love-sick (or lust-sick) 84 yr old male immigrant from the Ukraine who is marrying a thirty-four yr old immigrant who merely wants money and a British passport (in no particular order). The man's two daughters, now grown up in Britain with families of their own, are obviously very against the woman and the marriage. That's the humour side of it. There is a darker side to the story shown as flashbacks to the man and one of his daughters earlier lives in the Ukraine but not too much- just enough to give depth to things. The book is an easy read, a page turner, refreshingly different and delves into subjects like relationships between siblings and dotty old parents. I would highly recommend it.