A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
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Book Description
Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize and shortlisted for The Orange Prize for Fiction 2005.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
For years, Nadezhda and Vera, two Ukrainian sisters, raised in England by their refugee parents, have had as little as possible to do with each other - and they have their reasons. But now they find they'd better learn how to get along, because since their mother's death their aging father has been sliding into his second childhood, and an alarming new woman has just entered his life. Valentina, a bosomy young synthetic blonde from the Ukraine, seems to think their father is much richer than he is, and she is keen that he leave this world with as little money to his name as possible. If Nadazhda and Vera don't stop her, no one will. But separating their addled and annoyingly lecherous dad from his new love will prove to be no easy feat - Valentina is a ruthless pro and the two sisters swiftly realize that they are mere amateurs when it comes to ruthlessness. As Hurricane Valentina turns the family house upside down, old secrets come falling out, including the most deeply buried one of them all, from the War, the one that explains much about why Nadazhda and Vera are so different. In the meantime, oblivious to it all, their father carries on with the great work of his dotage, a grand history of the tractor.
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First Sentence
Two years after my mother died, my ferner fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcée. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Two years after my mother died, my ferner fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcée. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
59 of 60 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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. Vera,born before the war, has memories of the family's 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. 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.
The book is not without some minor flaws. Some of the subsidiary characters, Nadia's husband for example, seem 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.
44 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book has won an award for comic fiction; but, richly comic though the writing is, the story is for the most part essentially a tragic one. I am reminded of Horace Walpole's dictum, `This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.' Nikolai, an 84-year old Ukrainian-born widower who has lived in England since 1946 as an escapee from Stalinist Russia, marries a much more recent immigrant from the now independent Ukraine: Valentina, 36 years old, who is here on a visitor's visa and marries him only to be allowed permanent residence and to gain access to his money and his house. She exploits and bullies the poor and near senile old man mercilessly. His two daughters, Vera and Nadia, are outraged. They have fought with each other all their lives, and they still do; but they make common cause to try to rescue their father and what might be left of their inheritance. In the course of the story we are given glimpses of the history of Ukraine, the terrible sufferings of the civil war, the terror and the famine of the Stalin years, the Second World War, a labour camp; also of the development of tractors - those symbols of the collective farms, of which the old man, a former engineer, is writing a history. Towards the end, the book becomes a near farce, and then modulates into a happier ending than we had any reason to expect. We are even allowed for a moment to see the monstrous gold-digger as herself a victim, too. The descriptions of the individuals and the relationships between them is excellent, the somewhat fractured English spoken by the old man and the even more primitive but expressive mauling of it by Valentina is spot-on. A memorable book.
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The deceptively light tone has baffled some reviewers into believing this is not a good book, but if you look at what it actually tells you about the famine and war in Ukraine, you'll find the whole of human tragedy is there. If you prefer to feel like you're reading an annotated text book then perhaps this is not for you. This is how Eastern Europeans deal with the deep betrayals they have dealt with in living memory - cry about it, laugh about it, grow some vegetables and get on with it. This, I assume, is why the author has chosen to deal with the topic in this faux-comic way. It's a lovely, touching read with well-realised characters.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A short history
bought this book for my wife . She absolutely loved it and passed it on to several others in the family. Read more
Published 18 days ago by Mr. P. B. Hogan
'good news Nadezhda, I'm getting married'
Moderately entertaining novel; however it certainly isn't 'extremely funny' as the cover blurb states. Read more
Published 19 days ago by sally tarbox
for people less intelligent
Very badly written. I assume It's aimed at those who don't really read much because it is horribly average. Sorry marina, but you can't write.
Published 25 days ago by Simon
Fab
I loved this book - I would urge you to read it as soon as you can get your hands on it
Published 1 month ago by G. Langfield
Unpleasant people bicker for 300+ pages
This is the story of two estranged daughters who must band together when their elderly father suddenly decides to marry a Ukranian gold digger some fifty years his junior. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Julia Flyte
its ok but thats about it
Was so excited to read this book but its a bit dissappointed.in some places realy good in some realy boring.got nothing more to say
Published 2 months ago by miss E
A "good read"
This was a delight to read - very funny and lovely portrayal of characters.It was easy to picture the scenes and be with the people.
Published 2 months ago by Krys
Wish I could give it a 3.5
Quite a good read, but not exactly a four. I found this entertaining and at the same time nerve-racking, not due to the author's writing, nor the story, but to one manipulating... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Rocknrollmommy
One of the best reads in a long time.
This is definitely a 'Big Book' - a novel that also includes real-life, big issues. In this case these include WWII and Ukranian History. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Marlo Blaine
tractors in Ukrainian, who'd have thought?
Wonderfully entertaining but ultimately touching and poignant. Treating all the parties with some empathy. How much is autobiographical I wonder Marina? Read more
Published 3 months ago by G. Robinson
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