A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian: Marina Lewycka (Penguin Essentials, 71)

Product Information

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is a humorous novel by Marina Lewycka, first published in 2005 by Viking ( Penguin Books). Nadezhda and her shaken family must face the ghosts of their past, confront their heritage and rediscover relationships. And there were photographs—they must have scanned them in—of my grandparents whom I had never met, of aunts, uncles, cousins—there are dozens of them over there! After the farcical golddigging-hussy-is-trying-to-marry-my-father story comes the what-my-dad-did-in-the-holocaust section. 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.

Q. The sections of the book on tractors offer both technical information and a history that verges on poetry. What kinds of grievances do Vera and Nadia decide to let go of, and which begin to seem less important? Despite the dark memories and family feud raging between the sisters, it was still a warmhearted story. Marina Lewycka was born of Ukrainian parents in a refugee camp in Kiel, Germany, at the end of the war, and grew up in England. I say "overall" because there were definitely a few tragic, depressingly honest chapters regarding the Mayevskyj Family history.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. 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. Try to describe the state of their sisterhood at the end of the book and make some guesses about how it might continue to grow or evolve in the future. Think about some of the more serious scenes and stories in the book, those that are tragic or frightening in nature. Marina Lewycka was born in Kiel, Germany, after the Second World War, and moved to England with her family when she was about a year old.

The two sisters do not have a good relationship due to the family history that was not shared between them. Besides, my parents always told me that they were the only survivors in our family; everyone who had stayed behind in Ukraine, they believed, must have perished in the war. This book is an entertaining read attempting a number of different messages and to a large extent pulling them off.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. Although it is set within a Ukrainian British family and it takes hilarious advantage of this fact, it reveals a lot about families generally.