Two Caravans

Strawberry Fields, published as Two Caravans in the UK, is the rollicking, bawdy, heart-touching, and socially charged story of a group of migrant workers who meet while picking strawberries on an English farm. Chance has thrown them together in very tight quarters, and when Irina, an innocent nineteen-year-old Ukrainian girl, arrives with her sponsoring agent, a hulking “person of minimum culture”, the delicate balance existing among them is broken. With a cast of characters based loosely on those in Canterbury Tales, the story follows the travails of Irina and fellow immigrant Andriy as they try to navigate the undercurrents of illegal immigrant life.

Marina Lewycka is a quirky writer, and I can see how she may not appeal to show more everyone. I, however, laughed heartily at A Short History of Tractors in Ukraine and looked forward to reading this, her second novel. Although as humorous and unconventional as ever, Lewycka shows a darker side as she probes how agents bring illegal immigrants into a country, often confiscating their passports upon arrival, and how the bright dreams of the immigrants are dashed when reality falls far short of the easy money and social advancement they are promised. In addition, she takes a detour through a chicken processing plant guaranteed to make you think twice the next time you buy a plump breast. Nominated for the Orwell Prize, Strawberry Fields blends a fun story with social commentary and a look at the stereotypes we all have about one another.

Recommended for those looking for something a little different. show less

This was not the book I was expecting. After reading a couple of quite heavy books, I picked this up as a light read, expecting something humorous and distracting like History of Tractors. Instead, I had my vegetarianism confirmed, my socialism confirmed and my knowledge of the lives of migrant workers expanded considerably. There is humour in the book, but there is more that saddened and angered me as I read about the trafficking of people desperate for a better life, and the processes involved in battery farming and food processing. It didn't quite leave me in despair for humanity, but it did leave me thinking that, as a species, we need help.

I have found the dictum that “any book which describes itself on the dust cover as ‘hilarious’, won’t be” to be pretty reliable. This one does; and it isn’t. In fact I would be a bit worried about whoever at Penguin thought it was. Its actually a serious and thought-provoking story of abuse and misuse of migrant workers – it would be more accurately described as a misery memoir. So those who wanted a serious book won’t buy it; and those who wanted something “hilarious” will be disappointed. I didn’t like it much for other reasons (the over reliance on coincidence, the clichéd role of the brave, faithful dog etc.); as well as feeling I had been mis-sold a book. Perhaps there is a regulator – the Publishers show more Association for example - from whom I can claim compensation? show less

It took getting half way through Strawberry Fields to even like the book a little bit. The cover blurb screams, "Hilarious!" It isn't. It isn't even mildly funny. Yes, I understand it is meant as dark humor. I think Poe is funny. I think Dostoevsky is funny. I enjoy dark humor.
Still, not funny. Gogol's Dead Souls, of which this vaguely reminds me, is a very funny book. This is not. There is a kernel of a good story. Yet, the book as a whole is too marred by unfunny caricatures for any of the characters to seem real enough for me to become wholly involved in their story. There is a reviewer who suggests that those who are critical of the book don't know how to read literature. That we are failing to understand it in light of the context show more of the literary tradition from which it is derived. Bull. A book should be able to stand on its own. It's just an okay book with a chaotic plot and one and a half dimensional characters. And, the dog dialogue bit? Where was the editor. Probably won't relish chicken for a while. Nor will I relish reading another book by the author. I can't recommend this with much enthusiasm. show less

Ultimamente leggo libri bellissimi quanto tristi: questo in particolare mi ha colpito molto per la leggerezza e allo stesso tempo la profondità con cui tratta un tema difficile come quello dello sfruttamento dei lavoratori stagionali.

Irina arriva in Inghilterra dall'Ucraina, dopo un viaggio infinito in pullman: il suo sogno è quello di migliorare il suo inglese scolastico e di conoscere dal vero il Paese che ha imparato ad amare sui libri. Finisce a raccogliere fragole presso un fattore viscido e sfruttatore, insieme ad altri sventurati come lei: conoscono poco la lingua e per niente i propri diritti, finendo per essere imbrogliati da chi ne sa più di loro. Ci sono Yola, la capogruppo, Marta, sua nipote, due cinesine note come Numero show more Uno e Numero Due, Tomasz dai piedi puzzoni, Vitalij l'opportunista, Emmanuel l'ingenuo, Andreij il figlio di un minatore. Ognuno è arrivato in cerca di fortuna e di un domani migliore.
In seguito a un incidente, il gruppo si ritrova in una fuga rocambolesca per l'Inghilterra, su una scassata Land Rover cui è attaccata un'altrettanto scassata roulotte: tra un lavoro e l'altro, sempre più sfruttati e mal pagati, cercando di schivare le proposte poco pulite dei cosiddetti "agenti di collocamento", scoprono ognuno la propria strada, certamente diversa da quanto avevano sperato.

Romanzo letto con trepidazione e paura di una tragedia imminente, a suo modo ha un lieto fine con lacrimoni obbligatori.
Il mio personaggio preferito è Cane, che parla tutto in maiuscolo senza punteggiatura, innocente, simpatico e sveglio più degli uomini.

"IO CANE IO FELICE IO CORRO FACCIO PIPÌ FIUTO HO I MIEI PADRONI FANNO PIPÌ NEL BOSCO (...)ANNUSO NIENTE ODORI DI CANI LASCIO IL MIO ODORE DI CANE IO CORRO IO FACCIO PIPÌ IO CANE IO CANE FELICE" show less

The balance between joy and sadness is found within this book, as is the balance between hope and lack of much to look forward to. Within these pages a story is told of those who leave their home lives and travel to another country with nothing but their dreams, only to have those dreams caught in a net that is the captivity of being a field worker. Trapped in a system of owing the people they work for, these characters find a way beyond their bondage in a somewhat unusual way, and their adventures into their various forms of freedom are quite interesting to experience. The reader's heart travels along with the characters on their various journeys, lifting up as hope comes to them and sinking down when realization hits that yet again show more things haven't been as they seemed.

I took a moment to adjust to the various perspectives within the book, as some characters stories are told in first person while some are told in third, but the adjustment didn't take long and the way that technique was used actually adds to the book in an impressive way. Reading Strawberry Fields made me glad I that mostly I choose vegetable over meat, as the section with the chicken processing plant was a point where I almost had to put the book down and walk away. I feel as if I honestly struggled along with the characters by pushing through that section and continuing on to the end of the story, reaching a depth of experience that I don't often get when reading a work of fiction. If you are a tenderhearted person picking up this book, be ready to go through some hardships, but know that this read is very much worth it. show less

It is obvious that Lewycka decided to experiment with shifting formats, producing a unique blending of first and third person narration, including epistolary (Emmanuel’s narration takes the form of letters written to his sister) and the all caps grammar-deficient monologues of a stray dog. Part romance, part adventure, part social commentary, Lewycka attempts to tackle a number of serious social issues – illegal immigration, worker exploitation, environmental activism, factory farming, – from an almost tragicomic perspective. The migrant workers dreams of “freedom” and the ability to earn good money is quickly shown to be a thinly veiled illusion, which would have made for completely depressing reading except for the naïve show more innocence of some of the characters, with a focus on humour first, social commentary second.

Overall, as much as I enjoyed the growing romance between Irina and Andriy and the use of fractured English and the language barrier to produce comic moments, the manner in which Irina continues to encounter the sleazy Eastern European gangster/exploiter Vulk (in the most unlikely of places) is fanciful in the extreme. That and the fact that some of the story just comes across as rather ‘odd’. An okay read but IMO, not as good as Lewycka’s debut novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian. show less