Oh, puh-leeze. This book annoyed me; let me count the ways.

First, we have two middle-aged sisters, Vera and Nadia, who emigrated from Ukraine to UK as children. They don't get along. And they have much angst about this but seem powerless to change their relationship.

Second, we have their father, Nikolai, an elderly widower also living in the UK. He's lonely and a bit naive. And he's writing a history of tractors, and relates the development of the tractor to other events in history. Actually, Nikolai didn't annoy me. I felt sorry for him. Let's move on.

Third, there's Valentina, a 30-something Ukrainian blonde bombshell. She has a young son and very large breasts. Valentina convinces Nikolai to marry her in order to provide legal residency and an education for her son. As I mentioned, Nikolai is lonely and naive. And he likes her breasts. So he agrees.

Back to Vera and Nadia. Their father's marriage causes them even more angst. This, I could understand because Valentina turns out to be after Nikolai's money. And she spends it like there's no tomorrow. But Vera and Nadia? They whine, and talk, and fight with one another. Then they whine, and talk some more. Eventually they do something about the situation.

There were some interesting elements to this book, like gaining some understanding of Ukrainian political events that led to the family's relocation in the 1940s. And there was a great deal of humor in the book, especially the portrayal of Valentina who was really over the top. But almost from the beginning, I felt like I knew where the story would go. And the dynamics between the sisters bored me. When the "big reveal" came, which explained why the two were so different in a way that was supposed to be oh so emotional, it just left me flat. ( )

Charming! ( )

Opens with a fluffy pink grenade and closes with a sun salutation, this book is fun, funny, full of crazy characters, whose interactions are equally funny. Fast moving, covers, history, tractors, desperation, and family relations, enough hooks for large numbers of readers especially anyone who has ever been part of an immigrant family anywhere. ( )

It was only on the third try that I go into this book. After a slow start you slowly become entwined with the lives of some very sympathetic and interesting characters. I found the plot cliched. ( )

Very lighthearted and entertaining! its about familial obligations, gold-diggers- an absolute delight to read. ( )

Very enjoyable book. Funny and well written description of a widower Ukrainian immigrant and his two daughters living in England. He moved there after WW2 with his wife and one daughter at the time. The book is narrated by his younger daughter who was born in England.

A couple of years after his wife dies, he decides to marry a much younger Ukrainian woman in need of a husband to allow her to stay in England. He is 84 and she is 36, and obviously just using him, although he professes to be in love. Needless to say, his daughters are outraged and try to protect him, despite his wishes. ( )

The story is simple: Pappa, in his eighties and two years a widower, has fallen in love with Valentina, a Ukrainian woman fifty years his junior. Valentina has large breasts and a penchant for green satin bras. Pappa has been rejuvenated by love-cum-lust, but his two daughters, Vera and Nadezhda, recognize a con-woman’s spell at work.

The resulting conflict between the daughters, Valentina, and Pappa is both hilarious and touching. Nadezhda, our leftist narrator, is a sociology professor who wrestles with her own conflict: she is certain Valentina is on the make but also wants her father to be happy. Nadezhda is in conflict with her sister, Vera, the cynical “divorce expert,” who does everything she can to bar Valentina from what little money Pappa has. For his part, Pappa is deliriously happy, as Valentina and her son move into his modest home and feed him “boil in the bag” meals. But things quickly turn sour.

What ensues is a battle of wits: the daughters try to get rid of Valentina while Valentina tries to manipulate the situation so she can stay in England. Pappa, meanwhile, writes his history of the tractor, an agricultural opus that takes us on a fascinating trip down memory lane. ( )

I actually listened to this on tape. The reader was Sian Thomas, and she nailed the accents. This brought the book to life in a way that I could never have managed on my own. I found the character Valentina to be one of the most amusing/exasperating/wonderful characters I've come across in fiction in a long, long time. Everything else in the novel also works well--so FIVE stars from me. ( )

This is a clever little comedy, and one which would likely enjoy success as an independent film, were it to be made. The flamboyant Ukranian tart Valentina is a catalyst who arrives in this family of two squabbling sisters and an aging eccentric and love-struck father "like a fluffly pink grenade." The father is completely infatuated with Valentina to the utter consternation of the sisters; and meanwhile, we get excerpts from his magnum opus: a history of the tractor. By the story's end, conflicts are resolved, everyone undergoes a change, and all live happily ever after. Formulaic in that respect. . . but. The novel provides an amusing little window, of necessarily limited scope, into the transplanted Slavic family and its mindset - a condition full of history, tragedy and quirkiness. I have been trying to think why this work would be be considered one of the '1001 books I must read before I die,' and I conclude it may be primarily because of its unique comedic Slavic voice. An easy read. ( )

i did not finish it; it did not hold my interest ( )

A bit of mildly amusing fluff, "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" brings us the adventures of a naturalized British citizen, who gives up feuding with her older sister to work toward getting a Ukrainian woman divorced from their 84 year-old father.

This is a comic effort, mostly of the word-play kind; the sisters wind up sisters again, and interact happily ever after, presumably. There is some charm here, and no harm, but also no compelling reason to pick it up. ( )

Intriguing and delightful, this stale of a gold-digging Ukrainian seeking a better life in England kept me going to the end. Bitterness separate Nikolai's two daughters till they find common ground fighting the advances of Valentina who is set to benefit from her marriage to their 80-somethings father. ( )

fun to read ( )

reviewed on my blog :: Adventures In Daily Living :: ( )

I must admit that I didn't read this book as a comedy, although as in life often there are comic moments, but that is probably because some of the events in the book mirror my own experiences with my father - although thank goodness he didn't have a 'Valentina'. I wasn't sure what to make of this book until I got to the end but it is a compassionate and human account of a family dealing with ageing and ripples from the past. ( )

Not just a comedy.

I think it is a shame that this book has been marketed as an "hilarious comedy", there is a tragic, much more interesting side to it that should have been highlighted on the book jacket.

Gullible, 84 year old, Nikolai proposes to voluptuous gold digger Ukranian, Valentina. Immediately his warring daughters call a truce to oust this cuckoo from their nest.
There are some amusing bits - especially the descriptive insults that Valentina spews forth when angered, but overall I thought it was sad.
Old Nikolai was extremely vulnerable and endangered at the hands of his much younger wife, yet only too happy to forgive when she turned on the charms.
Their family's history was particularly poingant, from their struggle through the civil war to their eventual escape at the end of WWII. In comparison, Valentina's escape from Ukraine to better herself and her son seemed very selfish.

There was scope for a much more meaningful novel, but the handling was a bit too light for the content.
Should make for some interesting discussion at my book group though. ( )

I had quite the love/hate relationship with this novel. Each time I picked it up I could not stop reading, but I had a difficult time actually picking it up again. I found almost all the characters except the dead mother repellent, but I was compelled to keep reading to find out what happened. Finally at the end I have to say that this was a fascinating family dramedy with characters that were annoying but unforgettable.

A story of a family; their current life and their history, is portrayed in "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" in a unique and interesting style. I think that the easiest way to explain the main story line of this novel is by transcribing the opening paragraph of the book:

‘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, brining to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside.'

The main narrative follows the partnership between the father (Nikolai) and the Ukrainian divorcee (Valentina) through the eyes of his daughter Nadia; however the romance is not as it seems which leads to an enticing tale of deception and mystery; and sisters united in removing this lady from their father’s life. The book is set in England, where the family moved from the Ukraine after the Second World War. Much of the comedy comes from the poor grasp of the English language; with Valentina making statements such as ' you plenty-money meanie. You want give me crap cooker.' In addition to situational comedy moments, such as the daughters anguish at hearing their fathers interest in Valentina's 'breasts like ripe peaches'. There flows enough comedy to keep you lightly tickled throughout.

I found the most compelling part of this book however to be the layers of story that had subtly been woven in. There was the present day drama of the father’s romance, which brought together his two daughters in a common cause, when they hadn't spoken for sometime previously. The development of the sisters relationship was interesting, but also allowed for a narrative on the history of the family, how they came to be in England and what happened during the War to the parents. At the same time, the father is writing his life’s work, a book by the same name of the novel (if you were wondering how that came into the story). Parts of his book on tractors are transcribed as he is reading them to anyone that will listen, and this gives another dimension to the story. The history of tractors is weaved into an overriding history of the Ukraine, technology and again, the war. All of these layers of story together, for me, made what was a book with a slow start, quite an enjoyable read once all was told. ( )

Feuding siblings have to work together when their widowed father takes up with a predatory divorcee who is marrying him for immigration purposes.

A quick read which left me cold. Everybody else seems to think it's hilarious but it only got a smile out of me once. Nothing actually wrong with it, just not interesting. ( )

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was indeed a history of tractors. However, this was also a story about the battles between parents and their children, manipulative romances and surviving the harshest of circumstances. This book with the clever name had many layers – some were good, some got old – but all fed into a delightful book.

At the surface, this book was about Nadia, her sister Vera and their aging father, who had fallen in love with a 36-year-old Ukrainian woman. Valentina clearly wanted to marry Nadia’s dad to ensure a British visa. Despite the daughters’ protests, the two married and shared a life of fighting, verbal abuse and general misery. Eventually, Dad (convinced by his daughters) wanted to divorce Valentina, but this became an enormous task. The ups and downs of their relationship hogged the story line, and after 100 pages, it became frustrating and burdensome. If it were not for the other themes in this book, I would have abandoned “Tractor History.”

Once I muddled (or ignored) the love/divorce story, I found layers that better fit my literary tastes. By spending time with her father and sister, Nadia discovered how her family immigrated to England from Ukraine after World War II. Nadia’s parents did not have an easy start to their marriage – either living in paranoia of Stalin’s purges or surviving a German work camp during the war. Through her family history, Nadia learned about the true meaning of survival, which made her father’s current drama seem so inconsequential.

I also enjoyed the short blurbs that were, in fact, a short history of tractors in Ukrainian. Nadia’s father was an engineer and an expert in tractors. Throughout the book, he shared snippets of his “short history.” These passages showed how technology, though intended to improve our lives, should not take over how we live.

Also, The "rights” of immigration were central to this book. Two sides of the immigration question emerged: people who emigrate to escape a tyranny and those who escape to better their lives financially. Nadia’s family was from the first camp, escaping Stalin, communists and Nazis. Valentina was from the second – trying to escape the financial chaos of Ukraine. Which one had the most “right” to settle into another country? Was one reason better than the other?

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was short-listed for the Orange Prize and became a bestseller around the world. I would recommend it to those who like to read about family relationships or Orange Prize books. For me, the love drama was a bit overdone, but overall, Marina Lewycka’s book is a good one. ( )

I really wanted to love this because of the crazy title (crazy for a novel, anyway) and the potentially zany plot. The title, however, turned out to be a little too descriptive: the father is in fact writing a history of the tractors and we are "treated" to some really long portions of it. And the zany plot? Not so zany at all - mainly sad and, at times, tiresome.

It's a rather uneven story which seems to want to be all things in one. The beginning sets you up for a screwball romp and the end is a neatly wrapped package with some well-needed resolution for the characters. In between are some historic parts that are very interesting, but not developed enough, some parts about dealing with aging parents, which waver between sad and ridiculous, and some parts that just make you want to smack the characters over the head for being plain stupid. There are some quite funny jokes (Crap Car springs to mind), but it's not a "funny book" per se.

The really fascinating parts are those that talk about the history of the Ukraine (no, not the tractors!) and about the family's experiences during the war. The stories that Nadezhda manages to get the reluctant Vera to tell her are absolutely captivating. I really wish that the whole novel had been about those experiences with a more serious narrative and that the Valentina-plot had been a completely separate story.

More ( )

There is one moment in particular in this novel where elder sister Vera says to younger sister Nadia "Nadia, why do you always go scrabbling around in the past?...The past is filthy. It's like a sewer. You shouldn't play there. Leave it alone. Forget it." (168) Vera has this in common with the woman who becomes her stepmother, Valentina, who left the Ukraine to come to England and marry Nikolai. The catch is that Valentina is in her 30s and Nikolai is an octogenarian with two grown daughters (Nadia and Vera) and three granddaughters. Nadia is a professor of sociology and Vera is a snob with friends in high places. The daughters haven't spoken to each other in years due to a fallout over their mother's will, but Nikolai's marriage to Valentina brings them back together as they try to protect their father. While on one level it is a kind of farcical romp, and very funny, it is also a look at family and at the hopes vs. the realities of people leaving their native country under various circumstances. And, as I noted at the beginning of this paragraph, it is about memories of the past that are often difficult, but which help shape a person's character. In Nadia's case, as she thinks about her mother and listens to her father who is writing his book A Short History of Tractors, she learns a lot about her family's past -- about how one side of her family started out as heroes to Czar Nicholas II before the Revolution and became enemies to the state under the Bolsheviks; about the plight of the peasants in the Ukraine under Stalin, about their treatment at the hands of the Germans during the war in the camps and then immigrating to Britain -- a past that Vera was a part of as a child and which helped to shape who she became as an adult; things that she lived that Nadia never knew. There's also a look at the situation in the modern-day Ukraine, where women are often so desperate to break away that they'll immigrate and marry a perfect stranger if it means being able to forget the "peasant" Ukrainian past and have all of the niceties that are advertised back home but that no one can afford.

I have to interject a personal note here -- I have a friend who took on a bride from the Ukraine and the same sorts of things happened re money that happened in this book: the new designer clothing, the top of the line everything appliances and a general draining of the bank account. Too funny!

I would have liked to have seen much more of the history of life under Stalin and maybe that would have made this book a little more serious and bring out more of this message about the past, but in general, this book was a fun read, and I would definitely recommend it. ( )

I listened to an unabridged audio version of the book which was read exceptionally well by Sian Thomas. The early parts of the story are hilariously funny in places, but after a while the humour starts to wear a bit thin as the sisters becomes increasingly callous towards Valentina. The recalling of the family's prior experiences in Ukraine adds sombreness to the latter part of the book. I stuck with it to the end, largely to find out what became of the family. Overall, funny and very poignant in places, but probably not a book I would re-read. ( )

Brillant book, nice connection between traditional
values and the greed of modern age, contrast between
old and new eastern Europe.

The story of a Ukrainian man who is looking for love and trying to protect a Ukrainian woman seeking a better life, over the objections of his two daughters. This book started slow, but was impossible to put down once the characters had been introduced. I was intensely curious about what would happen with this family, and those close to it. An enjoyable read. ( )